Project Review Meeting

The Adviser on RH/FP-SH visited the Cook Islands from 4-9 August 1997. Part of his mission was to advise the Government in preparing the documentation for the tripartite project review meeting (TPRM) of the RH/FP-SH project; CKI/92/P01. He also assisted in revising the 1997 work plan and budget; and helped in finalizing the TPRM report and recommendations. The adviser also provided technical assistance to the Cook Islands Child Welfare Association in reviewing the Family Health Promotio n project.

Project success

The TPRM heard that the 1996 activities were successfully implemented. Project activities have benefitted a large number of people. The meeting noted a reduction in total number of births to teenage mothers from 105 (1992) to 59 (1996). Some recommend ations proposed included the evaluation of the RH/FP-SH project by an independent consultant and that adolescent/youth RH/FP-SH issues should be given priority attention as well as the prevention of all forms of violence against women. The Adviser also br iefed Dr. Tamarua Henry, the new project coordinator, on project management procedures.

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Programme Development

Finalizing the family health education curriculum and printing of the materials by early 1998 was one of the major activities focused on by the CST Adviser on RH/FP-SH as he met with the President of the College of Micronesia. Discussi ons also focused on activities like establishing a ‘peer counseling programme’ in the College and later in a number of selected high schools after the College’s programme is fully established; and undertaking a number of simple operational research projec ts on RH/FP-SH related issues every year.

The Adviser was in FSM from 20-27 September to collaborate with the Ministry of Health and other national counterparts in designing the RH/FP-SH programme proposal to be submitted to UNFPA for funding in the next cycle (1998-2001).

Discussions were held with the National Women Advisory Council’s (NWAC) Interest Officer. The NWAC will be represented in the national and state sub-programme committees. It will also co-opt some other NGOs representatives under its um brella to be committee members. The Council and its affiliated NGO members will hopefully be involved in the promotion and implementation of all IEC outreach activities especially seminars, workshops and World Population Day/Women International Day celeb rations at all levels.

Advocacy and IEC Retreat

The SPC was identified by the UNFPA Field Office as a major executing agency of the regional sub-programme on Advocacy and IEC. In collaboration, UNFPA and SPC organised a "Strategy Formulation Retreat for Population Advocacy and Reproductive Health Information, Education and Communication" at the Tanoa International Hotel, Nadi, 15-17 July 1997.

Thirteen participants from seven priority countries (Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu) in the South Pacific were represented in the meeting. Various issues raised b y the participants during the two-day retreat included : more evaluation and assessment of IEC programmes need to be undertaken in order to learn from past successes and failures; the need to bring local communities into the population policy formulation process and, having designed a formal policy, the need to disseminate the policy within the communities by ensuring that the policy has been translated into local languages. The need for more advocacy and IEC awareness workshops to change the attitudes of parents who seem to be opposed to ‘sex education’ in schools. In some schools, some teachers are reluctant to teach sex education, particularly among male teachers in outer islands of the region. The need to have workshops for parents and the community to raise awareness and break the cultural barrier. The CST Advisers on PDS and RH/FP-SH participated in the workshop as resource persons.

Media advocacy

Mr. Najib M. Assifi, Adviser on Population Advocacy from the CST Kathmandu Team was on a mission in Fiji from the 7-18 December 1997. He acted as a resource person for the Media Seminar for journalists in Nadi and al so assisted in the drafting of the Population Advocacy and IEC Sub-Programme. The new sub-programme to be funded by UNFPA will cover seven priority countries for four years from 1998-2001 and will be executed by SPC. Technical inputs in the implementatio n of various activities will be provided through CST.

Through capacity building at the regional and national level, the sub-programme will advocate and promote comprehensive reproductive health including family planning, gender equity and equality, empowerment of women and reproductive hea lth of adolescents and youth in the region. The sub-programme will include three major components for achieving its goals and purposes. The first component will include capacity building at the regional as well as country level in advocacy and IEC. The second component will include targeted advocacy efforts aimed at parliamentarians, religious leaders, community leaders and the mass media. The third component will be mainly country level IEC activities aimed at improving the reproductive health of ado lescents and women and promotion of male involvement.

Developing new RH/FP-SH

The Adviser on RH/FP-SH visited the Marshall Islands on 27 September-3 October 1997. The mission was to collaborate with the national counterparts in the designing of the RH/FP-SH sub-programme proposal to UNFPA for funding. The advis er also briefed Mr. Daniel Hone, Population Coordinator, based in the Office of Planning and Statistics, Marshall Islands, on the current status and future directions of the UNFPA Programme in the Marshall Islands. A particular task was to establi sh closer linkage between the Youth to Youth in Health (YTYH) activities and future RH/FP-SH programmes.

Launch of "Youth in Danger";

The Government of Papua New Guinea has acknowledged that PNG was currently sitting on a TIME-BOMB, as far as HIV/AIDS is concerned. In response, the government has also directed funding of the National AIDS Council beginning in 199 8, so that the National Strategy can be effectively overseen and implemented. The comprehensive multi-sectoral program approach is PNG’s response to its growing concern against AIDS. The launching of the UNFPA sponsored publication ‘Youth in danger - AIDS & STDs among young people of Papua New Guinea’, written by Ms. Carol Jenkins, on the 7 October at the Parliament House highlighted the position of the government and the efforts that were urgently needed to contain the serious epidemic.

Over 100 guests attended the launching including parliamentarians, heads of government departments, senior health and education officials, the Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), representatives of chu rches and NGOs working with youth, staff of the Institute of Medical Research involved in the research and members of the UPNG peer educators group and Foundation for the South Pacific drama group.

Capacity-building

In preparation for the second UNFPA PNG Country Programme, the Country Representative called upon the CST Suva to undertake a 2-week mission from 21 September to 4 October to conduct a logframe training workshop for key national pro ject personnel and to assist them in drafting sub-programme and component project documents for the sub-programmes of Population and Development Strategies and Reproductive Health, Family Planning and Sexual Health, as approved in the UNFPA’s PNG Country Programme.

The mission comprising the CST Director, Advisers on PDS, and PS, made a major contribution to national capacity building through the technical logframing skills transmitted to the multi-sectoral participants at the workshop.

The second week of the mission allowed the CST to play a facilitating role, particularly in assisting national counterparts in drafting sub-programme documents. Assistance to the NSO in designing the Census 2000 component project logframe matrix and drafting the proposal outline for attracting financial support from AusAID was strategic and timely.

With funding support from UNFPA, a National Population Policy Seminar was held in Port Vila, on 5-7 November, 1997. The purpose of the seminar was to raise national awareness and concern over the current and prospective population and development situation in Vanuatu and prepare the basic framework, structure and process for formulating and implementing a national Population Policy.

The CST Adviser on PDS provided overall guidance and technical backstopping to the deliberations for the seminar, drafting an outline of the Policy document and holding technical discussions over the contents of each chapter of the Policy draft in the post-seminar period. ‘