Sub Progamme Review Meetings and
Annual Regional Review
Integrating Population Factors into
Development Planning
Improving
Quality of Care in Reproductive Health: A Pacific Perspective
Using Energising Games for
Participatory Advocacy
Niue: Halting Population Decline
| Vol. 7 No. 2 | Southpac NewsUNFPA Country Support Team for the South Pacific |
Dec 1999 |
Integrating Population Factors into Development Planning The Government of Papua New Guinea has embarked on a decentralization policy whereby greater responsibility for development planning has been devolved to Provincial and District level governments. While project PNG/94/P01 is housed in the Office of National Planning (ONP) and is primarily concerned with awareness-raising and with training national level officials in techniques of integrating population issues into the development planning process, it is attempting to respond to some of the unmet needs of local-level planners. While each province and district is charged with producing its own individual development plan, national and local-level capacity for undertaking such tasks remains severely constrained. In order to support the decentralization drive, and the need to integrate population factors into the development planning process, project PNG/94/P01 had earlier undertaken awareness-raising workshops in some provincial capitals. Most recently, project personnel have drawn up plans to assist a sample of provinces to undertake population projections and to demonstrate how to utilize the results and to integrate them into sectoral planning at the local level. The Adviser for Population Policy and Development Strategies was in Papua New Guinea from 25 November to 6 December to conduct a training seminar in Alotau, the capital of Milne Bay Province. The seminar was conducted successfully over three days with 26 participants. The Adviser gave three major presentations at the seminar which included: the Role of Population Projections in Development Planning – Overview; An Introduction to Labour Force Projections; and Labour Force Projections and Results for Milne Bay Province using WORKERS software.
In his first presentation the adviser attempted to conceptualize the role of demographic dynamics in the overall functioning of the economic system, using simple flow diagrams. The second PowerPoint presentation defined various labour market and labour force concepts, justifying the need to undertake planning for employment expansion in a rapidly growing population such as Milne Bay. His third presentation demonstrated the use of the WORKERS computer software and he illustrated the results of labour force projections for Milne Bay Province. He had undertaken population and labour force projections for Milne Bay Province back in the CST office in Suva, based on the fertility, mortality and migration assumptions, and labour force participation rates, agreed with Dr. Hayes, project CTA. Once the Task Force charged with writing the Provincial Development Plan have completed a first draft, it is expected that it will be sent to project personnel at the ONP in Port Moresby and to the CST Adviser in Suva for comments. The review would attempt to ensure that the Province's demographic dynamics are adequately accounted for in the Plan. |
