I n - H o u s e N e w s

Ms. Etta Tadasse: UNFPA Representative

Ms. Etta Tadesse arrived in Fiji on 6 July to assume duty as UNFPA Representative. She comes to the South Pacific with over fifteen years of programming experience.

Persuant to the General Assembly decision in December 1995 which endorsed the agreement between the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Population Fund to designate the Fund's resident Country Directors as UNFPA Representatives, Ms. Tadesse thus becomes the first person to be appointed as UNFPA Representative to Fiji, with responsibility for managing the Fund's South Pacific sub-regional programme of assistance covering fourteen Pacific island countries.

Ms. Tadasse has served the United Nations system in various countries. She commenced her career with UNDP in the early 80s as a Programme Officer in Mozambique and Burundi. During 1985-96 she served UNFPA under the Africa, Asia and Pacific Divisions.

Ms. Tadesse, who was born in Ethiopia, studied in Hunter College of the City University of New York, where she received a B.A. Cum Laude in Mass Communications/ Journalism; and in New York University where she obtained an M.A. in International Politics and she completed the course requirements for the Ph.D programme in the same University. In addition, she has a Certificate in Political Economy and a Diploma in French proficiency from an Institute in France where she resided for a year and a half.

She visited her Fiji station in February this year to lay the ground work for preparatory activities for programming the next UNFPA cycle of assistance in population for the South Pacific.

STAFF MOVEMENTS

Ms. Sun-Hee Lee completed her nine-month short-term appointment in the CST as Reproductive Health/Family Planning Training and Research Adviser on 17 January.

After service with the CST Suva for two years and five months, Ms. Sultana Alam was reassigned as Gender, Population and Development Adviser to the CST in Bangkok with effect from 1 July.

Mr. K. Paramanathan (Param) retired from the CST Suva on 30 June 1996, after three and a half years as Adviser on Labour and Population IEC. Prior to joining the Country Support Team, Param was the ILO Regional Adviser for Labour and Population from February 1988.

We thank these advisers for their contributions to UNFPA and the Country Support Team and wish them well.

Chief, Population Programme Service, FAO, Rome,
visits Fiji

Mr. Jacques du Guerny, Chief of the Population Programme Service, FAO, Rome, visited Fiji on 11-17 August at the invitation of the CST Director to serve as a resource person at the Pacific Parliamentarians' Meeting on "Food Security, Population and Development" and to hold discussions with UNFPA staff and CST advisers.

Mr. du Guerny contributed two thematic presentations at the Pacific Regional Meeting of Parliamentarians held at the Warwick Hotel, Coral Coast, Fiji, on 13-14 August. The first paper was entitled "Food Requirements and Population Growth"; the second was on "The World Food Summit: A Framework for National Policies and Actions".

During his visit, Mr. du Guerny had numerous informal consultations with CST advisers and UNFPA Field Office staff on ways to involve FAO specialists more in technical assistance to the UNFPA programme in the sub-region. He gave an inhouse seminar on the work of the Technical Support Service Specialists within the Population Programme Service and how that work is integrated into the activities of the other departments in FAO, Rome.