UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
|
DISPATCHES -- NEWS FROM UNFPA, THE UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND
NUMBER 3, NOVEMBER 1995
DISPATCHES is a monthly bulletin dedicated to the activities of
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). It is published in
English, French, and Spanish by the Information and External
Relations Division and is available free of charge from UNFPA
offices worldwide.
The designations employed and presentation of material in
DISPATCHES do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever
on the part of UNFPA concerning the legal status or authority of
any country, territory, city, or area or the determination of its
frontiers or boundaries. Views expressed are the authors' and
sources' own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or
policy of the Fund. All material is checked for accuracy as
received from source; all enquiries should be addressed to the
source/further information address provided at the end of each
item. Material may be freely reproduced; credit and copies of
reproduced material would be appreciated.
We invite colleagues from UNFPA and cooperating organizations to
submit articles about UNFPA-assisted programmes and projects,
accounts of lessons learned from past and ongoing work, and
anecdotes from their country or area of work. These should be
sent to:
DISPATCHES, c/o IERD, UNFPA, 220 East 42nd Street, 23rd floor,
New York, NY 10017, USA. Telephone: (212) 297-5022. Fax: (212)
557-6416. Internet: <aslam@unfpa.org>, <ohaire@unfpa.org>,
<travers@unfpa.org>.
==========
In this issue:
Special feature: Women run Mbog
Healing Bosnia's invisible scars
Tracking the Philippine Congress
Education for All initiatives
Field publications
==========
Executive Board: Vote of confidence
New York - UNFPA's Executive Board has approved the Fund's
intercountry programme, arrangements for technical support
services, and an expansion in its field presence.
The Board held its third regular session for 1995 on 11-15
September. It approved the US$ 175 million UNFPA intercountry
programme for 1996-99 and authorized the Executive Director to
commit US$107 million over the same four-year period to implement
the Fund's technical support services (TSS) arrangements. It
welcomed proposals to strengthen the TSS system by bolstering the
interdisciplinary Country Support Teams and replacing the
Coordinators at collaborating agencies' headquarters with
Specialists whose role would be more substantive.
The Board approved the creation of 82 posts, six of them for
Country Directors -- in Albania, Benin, El Salvador, Romania,
South Africa, and Uzbekistan -- and two for International
Programme Officers in Bolivia and Madagascar. New country offices
are to be opened in Albania, Romania, and Uzbekistan.
The remaining 74 posts are for local staff, among them 17
National Programme Officers (9 in Africa, 3 in the Arab States
and Europe, 4 in Asia and the Pacific, and one in Latin America
and the Caribbean) and 57 General Service posts (34 in Africa, 8
in the Arab States and Europe, 9 in Asia and the Pacific, and 6
in Latin America and the Caribbean).
At a 21 September staff meeting, UNFPA Executive Director
Nafis Sadik described the Board session as "very friendly" and a
reflection of members' confidence in the Fund. She paid
particular tribute to field offices as "our window on the world"
and for "impressing donor missions with their hard work and
diligence."
Contraceptive commodity programme
The Board agreed in principle to the establishment of a
global contraceptive commodity programme to be managed by UNFPA.
The proposed programme grew out of the Fund's Contraceptive
Requirements and Logistics Management Needs in Developing
Countries initiative. It would aim to anticipate demand and
facilitate prompt action to avert disruptions to contraceptive
supplies; achieve economies of scale and lower costs to recipient
countries; ensure the quality of contraceptives provided by the
Fund; and build national capacity in contraceptive procurement
and logistics, with a view to self-reliance. The Board will
review a comprehensive report on the envisaged programme at its
first regular session for 1996.
UNFPA supplied some US$83 million worth of contraceptives to
more than 100 countries in 1994.
-Source: "Decisions Adopted by the Executive Board of UNDP/UNFPA
at its Third Regular Session 1995, New York, 11-15 September
1995," Final Unedited Version, 20 September 1995. Further
information from: Executive Board, United Nations Liaison, and
External Relations Branch, Information & External Relations
Division, UNFPA, 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, USA.
Fax: (212) 557-6416.
==========
Bosnia: Healing "the scars that people can't see"
New York - "As a refugee, it's difficult to ask, 'Give me bread.'
Can you imagine how difficult it is to ask, 'Give me a condom.'?"
Ljiljana Kordic should know. Herself a refugee from
Sarajevo, the virologist is director of a network of women's
centres and support groups to which, every month, more than
83,000 refugee and displaced women turn for support in coping
with their traumas. Chief among these are bereavement, family
separation, and rape.
The centres are located in Bosnia-Herzegovina and
neighbouring Croatia. They were set up by the UK-based Marie
Stopes International (MSI) and are being taken over by Stope Nade
-- "Steps of Hope," a local NGO created and nurtured under MSI's
programme in the former Yugoslavia. The programme began in 1993
at the request of the European Union. This year, as the centres
faced the prospect of closing their doors for want of money, they
began receiving funding and technical support from UNFPA.
At the centres, staff and the women themselves seek to heal
"the scars that people can't see," according to Franca Tranza of
MSI's London office. These include the psychological wounds of
sexual and physical abuse, bereavement, and separation. Healing
help is dispensed in tea cups and conversation, individual and
group counselling, and social and vocational activities. The mix
and complexion of services varies between centres, depending on
local women's needs.
Women also come for information and counselling on
contraception and the menstrual and other reproductive health
problems caused or exacerbated by a hand-to-mouth life spent in
the cross-hairs of conflict. Condoms are available at the
centres, from where women are referred to the Croatian public
health system for other contraceptives and for all reproductive
health services, including pap smears and treatment for sexually
transmitted diseases.
Dr. Kordic described the Croatian health care system as
"sophisticated but overstretched," confronted with the needs of
an estimated half-million refugees and its own displaced
population. The country's population is estimated at 4.5 million,
according to this year's State of World Population Report.
Although the centres are in fixed locations, support groups
are held -- whenever and wherever possible -- in private homes,
local halls, or abandoned buildings. As of September, there were
1,872 such community-based groups providing basic psychological
and social support and fostering self help. The groups are
indigenous and voluntary.
Women who cannot reach a centre or support group can at
least tune in to Stope Nade's radio broadcasts, which offer
information and advice on issues such as depression, alcoholism,
and health care.
The programme was launched by a dozen expatriates but is now
run by local workers, managers, and volunteers. "The key to this
project's immediate success was to capitalize on the capabilities
of local women within the displaced communities themselves,"
according to an MSI programme report. There were 63 centres as of
September, each staffed by a team of service providers from
various professional backgrounds. As Stope Nade takes over all
aspects of the operation, MSI's role will be to provide
technical, administrative, and fund-raising support.
Kordic and Tranza were in the United States last month to
raise money to keep the programme running past February 1996,
when a number of funding sources are expected to run dry. Donors
"can't fund emergency programmes ad infinitum," Tranza said,
adding that their goal is to raise US$1.2 million to keep the
centres' doors open for another year.
In June, UNFPA approved an allocation of US$318,183 to
support the centres. The money is being spent on basic
reproductive health and family planning equipment and
contraceptives; reproductive health information, education, and
communication, with special emphasis on issues confronting
adolescent women; reproductive health and family planning
training for counsellors and staff; and a survey, in cooperation
with WHO, on the specific reproductive health problems, including
dysmenorrhoea, of displaced and refugee women.
The immediate objective of UNFPA's support is to improve
"the availability and quality of reproductive health/family
planning services and information for refugee/displaced women in
Croatia," according to project documents. In the long term, the
Fund hopes to "contribute to an alleviation of the physical and
psychological hardship and distress of the refugee/displaced
women and girls of the former Yugoslavia (including traumatized
and sexually abused women and girls)."
The need for psychological and social support services may
escape donors preoccupied with the traditional concerns of
ceasefire, food, shelter, and camp hygiene. But for refugee women
in particular, Kordic said, they are key. "Refugees are
threatened, anxious, powerless, and confused, and they blame
themselves for their woes," she said. Many have been in this
state for more than three years and, often, their best chance for
healing lies within.
- Sources: Sietske Steneker, Division for Arab States & Europe,
programme documents, and interview by Abid Aslam, Information &
External Relations Division. Further information from: Division
for Arab States & Europe, UNFPA, 220 East 42nd Street, New York,
NY 10017, USA. Fax: (212) 297-4905, or Marie Stopes
International, 153-157 Cleveland Street, London, W1P 5PG, UK.
==========
EFA: Gearing up for mid-decade review
New York - With a mid-decade review of the Education for All
(EFA) initiative due next year, UNFPA is reviewing and
strengthening the ways in which gender issues are addressed in
the population and family life education projects it supports.
The review follows UNFPA policy guideline revisions which
emphasize advocacy in education, with special attention to girls
and women.
The Fund also is encouraging its field offices to examine
the adult education projects they fund, to take advantage of
every possible opportunity to encourage parents to send their
daughters to school and to support them in their quest for
education.
These developments were reported to education ministers from
the E-9, the group of nine high-population countries committed to
EFA, which was launched in 1990.
The UNFPA policy guideline revisions stem in part from the
Fund's experience in this area, including its participation in
the conference at which EFA was born and the 1993 E-9 summit in
New Delhi, and from the ICPD. The Cairo Programme of Action
endorsed EFA and underlined the particular importance of
educating girls. In effect, this took education concerns beyond
the education community and placed it on the agenda of another,
large development group.
In related activities, UNFPA and UNESCO are working together
to design a project which has as one of its principal aims the
fostering of a closer, more effective collaboration between
ministries of education and universities. The focus of this
collaboration is population education, but if the initiative
succeeds, it could be applied more widely. The idea sprung from
the current trend of turning to the private and NGO sectors for
help in improving the efficiency of government operations,
thereby saving revenue that can be used more effectively to meet
development goals.
Education ministers at September's Ministerial Review
Meeting in Indonesia reported that, among other things:
> they have increased budget allocations for basic education,
making the achievement of EFA goals feasible;
> they are beginning to make a dent in female illiteracy while
promoting universal primary education; and
> community participation is proving an effective vehicle for
reaching EFA goals.
But for progress to be sustained, they said, they must
ensure that, among other things:
> education remains relevant, providing specific skills linked
to the job market and future job needs in areas such as
environmental protection;
> the quality of rural life is improved to offset massive
migrations to cities unable to absorb newcomers; and
> regional tensions are reduced to prevent the diversion of
much-needed education funds to defence efforts.
The E-9 countries are: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt,
India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan. They are home to
half the world's population and seven in ten adult illiterates.
- Source/further information from: O.J. Sikes, Chief, Education,
Communication & Youth Branch, Technical & Evaluation Division,
UNFPA, 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, USA. Fax: (212)
297-4915. Internet: sikes@unfpa.org
==========
Philippines: Aiding accountability
Manila - Citizens wanting to know how their political
representatives perform on human development issues can turn to
the [Congressional Rating Chart on Human Development] and a
legislative database set up with UNFPA's assistance.
The chartbook was published by the Philippine Legislators'
Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc. (PLCPD),
an NGO of key Philippine legislators. Its membership has grown to
50, from an initial eight Senators and 11 Representatives five
years ago.
PLCPD targets legislators, policy makers, and government
planners in its campaigns advocating programmes that seek to
improve health and nutrition, increase access to family planning,
protect and enhance children's rights and welfare, empower women,
promote gender equity and equality, and protect the environment.
By following legislative debates and legislators' voting
records on relevant issues, the chartbook is seen as an
educational tool that will help the electorate hold their
representatives accountable; a ready resource for activists; and
a way to encourage legislators and others to become supporters of
population and development programmes.
The US-based NGO Population Action International provided
funding assistance for the PLCPD study. UNFPA assisted in
developing a database for legislative monitoring. The data
presented in the chartbook were generated using this database.
-Source/further information from: Satish Mehra, UNFPA Country
Director, P.O. Box 7285, Domestic Airport, Post Office Lock Box,
1300 Domestic Rd., Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Fax:
(63-2) 817-8616.
==========
Haiti: Fertility, IMR down
Port-au-Prince - Despite the chronic problems Haiti has undergone
and still faces, the country's fertility rate declined by 24 per
cent -- from 6.3 children per woman to 4.8 -- between 1987 and
1994. This according to the preliminary report of the [Survey on
Mortality, Morbidity and Utilization of Services, EMMUS II]
published by the Haitian Children's Institute and Demographic and
Health Surveys (DHS) with support from UNFPA.
Likewise, the infant mortality rate fell by 25 per cent in
the same seven years, despite a three-year suspension of
international development assistance and a prolonged United
Nations embargo.
The fall in fertility is attributed to an increase in the
use of contraceptives and women's strong desire to avoid
pregnancy. The contraceptive prevalence rate rose from 7 per cent
to 18 per cent. Some 49 per cent of women living in unions say
they do not want any more children; 23 per cent say they want to
space their children by more than two years.
UNFPA and the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) are the only donors providing contraceptives
to Haiti's public, NGO, and social marketing sectors. There
remains a large unmet demand for family planning, however, and
UNFPA and USAID seem likely to shoulder most of the
responsibility of helping to ensure that Haiti's government and
civil society can meet this demand in the years to come and
thereby sustain the current demographic transition.
- Source/further information from: Heidi Swindells, UNFPA Country
Director, 34, Avenue Charles Sumner, Boite Postale 557, Port-au-
Prince, Haiti. Fax: (509) 458-670/239-340
==========
Ghana: Learning to wed
Accra - The third in a series of one-week marriage counselling
training courses organized by UNFPA and the Christian Council of
Ghana ended in September amid calls for greater attention to
adolescent sexuality.
Forty-seven participants completed the course, held under a
UNFPA-sponsored programme of family life education (FLE) in
collaboration with religious institutions. Participants came from
the Ministry of Education and Health, the Department of Social
Welfare, the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana, and the
Christian and Muslim communities. Some of the topics covered
during the course were FLE, human sexuality, population and
environmental issues, aging, AIDS, problems facing adolescents,
and alcohol and drug abuse.
Closing the course, A. F. Aryee, Associate Director of the
University of Ghana's Population Impact Project, expressed
concern about the prevalence of teenage pregnancy and called on
the Christian Council to include training in adolescent sexuality
education and counselling in future courses, according to a
report in the [Ghanaian Times].
-Source/further information from: Teferi Seyoum, UNFPA Country
Director, 7 Ring Road East, P.O. Box 1423, Accra, Ghana. Fax:
(233-21) 773899.
==========
Asia/Pacific: Charting the poverty connection
Bangkok - Experts in Asia and the Pacific gathered recently to
explore the relationship between poverty and population dynamics
and ways to make population programmes more responsive to the
needs of the region's poorest citizens.
The Expert Group Meeting on the Linkages Between Population
and Poverty, organized by ESCAP's Population Division,
recommended conducting new studies highlighting gender disparity
in social and economic status; income distribution; urbanization
and its attendant problems; migration induced by poverty; and
population and poverty policies. The experts asked ESCAP to
collaborate with UNFPA, UNDP, other donor agencies, and NGOs in
sponsoring country studies and profiles of poverty and its
relationship with major demographic variables.
Noting that population issues have been integrated with the
broader issues of social and economic development over the past
two decades, speakers said this integration has in no way
diminished the importance or effectiveness of population
programmes in national development strategies.
- Source/further information from: Bal Gopal K.C., UNFPA Country
Director, P.O. Box 618, Bangkok 10200, Thailand. Fax: (66-2) 280-
1871, 280-0556.
==========
Sudan: Census on schedule
Khartoum - Analysis of the results of Sudan's 1993 census -- the
first to be completed on time -- is proceeding on schedule, with
the release this summer of final tabulations consisting of 115
tables for the country's Northern States and 82 tables for the
Southern States. This follows the release of provisional results
a mere two months after enumeration was completed on 1 May 1993.
To stay on schedule, census officials have had to surmount
numerous difficulties including war in parts of the south.
Current analysis, due to be completed by the end of 1996,
centres on:
> evaluating and adjusting the 1993 census age distribution;
> estimating fertility, mortality, and migration at national
and state levels;
> preparing projections for total, rural, and urban
populations, taking into account current and likely future trends
in fertility, mortality, and migration;
> preparing sectoral projections of employment, school
enrolment, urban population, and housing requirements; and
> analyzing the demographic, economic, and social dimensions
of fertility, mortality, and migration.
The Department of Statistics, which received material,
technical, and training support from UNFPA, next year plans to
publish and to hold two seminars on the findings of these
studies.
The census results are expected to inform policy making by
the National Population Council, Ministry of Finance and Economic
Planning, and other government bodies. But they have already been
used more widely, perhaps, than the results of previous censuses.
Census figures were used in preparing Sudan's reports to the
Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September.
UNDP has used the data in preparing its development strategy for
Sudan, and UNICEF has used them in its situation analysis on the
status of children and women in the country and to monitor mid-
decade goals for health, education, water, and sanitation service
delivery.
-Source: K. E. Vaidyanathan, Chief Technical Adviser, SUD/95/P08.
Further information from: UNFPA, P.O. Box 913, Khartoum, Sudan.
Fax: 873-161-0441.
==========
ICPD Follow-up: Commission to receive reports
New York - When the UN Commission on Population and Development
holds its 29th session next February, it will review reports on
ICPD follow-up prepared by UNFPA.
Work has begun on preparing:
> the report of the Secretary-General on the monitoring of
population programmes, which will focus on country-level
implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action;
> the report of the Secretary-General dealing with the
activities of the Inter-Agency Task Force which has been convened
under UNFPA's leadership to ensure system-wide collaboration; and
> the report of the Secretary-General on the flow of financial
resources for assisting in the implementation of the Programme of
Action.
The Commission's 29th session is scheduled for 26 February-1
March 1996 and will consider the theme "Reproductive Rights and
Reproductive Health."
-Source/further information from: Catherine S. Pierce, Executive
Coordinator, Task Force on ICPD Implementation, UNFPA, 220 East
42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, USA. Fax: (212) 297-5250.
==========
Special Feature:
Mbog's women: Holding up more than half the government
-----
by Eileen Travers,
Information & External Relations Division
-----
In terms of gender equality in politics, the African Republic of
Mbog is the first of its kind, surpassing even Sweden, where 50
per cent of the government consists of women.
At a cabinet meeting held last September in Beijing, at the
United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, the President
said that she hopes to make Mbog an example of how a country run
primarily by women can put the quality of life high on its
agenda.
"We are challenged to help the entire nation understand that
good reproductive health services and practices and the economic
and political empowerment of women are in the best interest of
every individual as well as the country as a whole," President
Ruth Bamela Engo-Tjega told her cabinet, which comprises a dozen
women and two men.
Her timing is right. Despite early gains, life expectancy is
51 years, the sub-Saharan average, and government health services
-- mainly dispensed by clinics -- reach only 45 per cent of the
population. Only half of these clinics offer reproductive health
care. The average number of children a woman has in Mbog is
seven, one of the highest fertility rates in sub-Saharan Africa.
Maternal mortality is high, too, with only 10 per cent of
births attended by trained persons. While 63 per cent of married
women know of at least one contraceptive method, only 22 per cent
of the population has access to reproductive health services and
the contraceptive prevalence rate hovers at around 11 per cent.
Changes in Mbogian society are seen clearly through the eyes
of the oldest woman from a village in the plains outside Masoda,
the capital. When Aisha was growing up in the 1930s, antelopes
raced across the low lands at dawn, lions snoozed lazily at noon,
and wild birds visited the nearby lake to quench their thirst
late in the day. Aisha and her mother would pass this scene as
they collected water for cooking, cleaning, and their crops.
It was when Aisha's eighth child was born that men and women
throughout Mbog struggled to finally gain their independence,
which they won in 1960. The future of this new nation seemed
bright. The world price of cocoa, coffee, and cotton, Mbog's
major commodity exports, soared and the new government invested
the profits in the people. Free university education and a
guarantee of employment after graduation produced a generation of
specialists that reinvested its education in the community. A
development bank and money board managed investments in
agriculture, education, and social and economic programmes.
That was then. In the early 1990s, drought and other
environmental degradation severely damaged the land. The
university virtually closed its doors after students struck to
denounce massive government cuts in education spending. Economic
restructuring slashed government and private sector jobs, drove
up inflation, and reduced spending on health and social
programmes while the income of the average Mbogian plummeted.
During a recent presidential visit to Aisha's village, Aisha
told cabinet ministers that life has changed dramatically. More
teens are becoming mothers, many people are dying because of the
spread of AIDS, and young people -- especially men -- are
flocking to Masoda in search of jobs and modern amenities,
leaving behind the very young and elderly to fend for themselves.
Facing these sobering facts in this small but typical
Mbogian community, President Engo-Tjega asked her ministers how
they intended to implement the Cairo Programme of Action and the
newly-adopted Beijing Platform for Action, both of which address
topics related to sustainable human development, including gender
equality in education, politics, and health care.
The cabinet's top priorities were education and health. They
agreed that education was the key to development, and invoked the
Beijing Platform for Action, which asserts that education is a
basic right and an essential tool for achieving the goals of
equality, development, and peace. Furthermore, it notes that non-
discriminatory education benefits both girls and boys, and thus
ultimately contributes to more equal relationships between women
and men.
On health care, first on the ministers' list was ensuring
universal access. Clinics are being set up with trained
personnel. Family life education, including reproductive health
information, is being taught in schools to boys and girls from
grade three and up. A national awareness-raising campaign
includes folk drama at local theatres and on the radio, as well
as television and print news reports.
Pursuing these priorities will bring the government closer
to meeting its sustainable human development goals. But it will
involve moving public spending to social and health areas from
more costly prestige projects.
Pretend polity
That is, if Mbog were real. In fact, it is a hypothetical
country and its "president," Engo-Tjega, is Cameroonian and is
the Senior Expert on African Issues in the UN Office of the
Special Coordinator for Africa and Less Developed Countries. The
"cabinet meeting" was, in fact, an innovative exercise conducted
at a UNFPA-sponsored seminar.
Playing to a packed, lively audience of about 200 at the
Beijing conference site, Engo-Tjega and the panelists acted out
the problems and suggested creative solutions for the fictitious
Mbog. But the problems in make-believe Mbog are similar to the
situation in a number of African and other countries.
The seminar was the idea of Marie-Angelique Savane, Director
of UNFPA's Africa Division. It was organized by Diane Lee
Langston, a Programme Officer in the Division, and Engo-Tjega,
with the technical assistance of Dr. Jothan Musinguzi and
Robbinah Ssebbowa-Ssempebwa of Uganda's Population Secretariat,
and Belkis Giorgis of the Centre for Population and Development
Activities, on the basis of a model developed by the Sucherman
Consulting Group, Inc. of New York.
Using Socratic style with a highly interactive approach, the
imaginary cabinet session was part of a series of workshops that
used role-playing to discover ways to ensure the implementation
of the Cairo and Beijing agreements.
Langston said the benefits of creating a pretend polity are
many. Role-playing helps young women envision themselves in
positions of political power and provides a forum for debate on
new and innovative ideas.
Participants were invited to examine the problems of their
societies and identify solutions, Langston said. One saw two
sides of the picture from the community and government points of
view. But a third side also became apparent, she continued, "in
that population issues have to be integrated in many aspects of
policy issues, such as health, education, defense, youth, labour,
and finance."
Savane and Langston encouraged the panelists to be
provocative, creative, and imaginative. "We gave them the license
to say whatever they wanted to say in this pretend world,"
Langston said. For example, Mbog's Minister of Finance and
Planning -- role-played by Nathan Odi, Permanent Secretary in
Uganda's Ministry of Information -- said that to generate
sufficient finances to raise the number of health clinics from
100 to 400 nationwide, imports of cosmetics and wigs would have
to be banned and the number of children in each family limited to
three. This met with a loud response from the audience, who were
the "villagers." One woman questioned how family size could be
limited when couples had no access to reproductive health care,
not to mention the human rights implications. The villagers told
the President to "sack that man."
Other panelists included Berthe Fila, General Director of
Social Affairs in the Congo; Cecilia Johnson, Deputy Minister of
Local Government in Ghana; Francoise Kaudjhis-Offoumou of the
International Movement of Women Democrats in Cote d'Ivoire;
Mirrium Maluwa, Principal State Advocate in Malawi's Ministry of
Justice; Netumbo Nandi Ndaitwah, Deputy Minister, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in Namibia; Malika Nkuebe, Minister of Health and
Social Welfare in Lesotho; Ondina Neto Peligana, economist and
Director of the Study and Planification Cabinet, Ministry of
Labour and Social Security in Angola; Dr. Khama Rogo, Director of
the Centre for Adolescent Studies in Kenya; and Dr. Calista
Simbakalia, Director of the Reproductive Health and Family
Planning Programme in Tanzania's Ministry of Health.
The seminar gave the audience a chance to interact with
their albeit fictitious government, Langston said. And it
emphasized that there has to be a partnership between the
government and communities. "It's not a top-down approach any
more," she said, adding that she hopes the exercise can be used
by NGOs to stimulate discussion at the country level.
The Africa Division expects a video-taped version of the
seminar to be available to UNFPA Country Directors by the end of
the year.
-Further information from: Marie-Angelique Savane, Director,
Africa Division, UNFPA, 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017.
==========
Publications received
> From UNFPA Country Support Team for East Africa, P.O. Box
8714, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Fax: (251) 151-7133
1. [The Place of Sexuality Education in Promoting Adolescent
Reproductive Health], paper by Dr. Miriam K. Were, Director
> From UNFPA Country Support Team for Southern Africa,
Construction House, 110 Leopold Takawira Street, P.O. Box 4775,
Harare, Zimbabwe. Fax: (263-4) 738792
1. [Rapid audience analysis for baseline and impact surveys, or
simply "The Card System"], Working Paper by Elinor K. Lafontant,
Adviser on Population IEC
> From UNFPA Country Support Team for West and Central Africa,
Immeuble Fahd, Bd Djily Mbaye x Macodou Ndiaye, BP 21090 Dakar-
Ponty, Senegal. Fax (221) 22-83-82
1. [Post-Cairo Population Education for Sub-Saharan Africa],
paper by Claude Georges, Regional Adviser on Population Education
> From UNFPA Country Support Team for Arab States and Europe,
P.O. Box 830824, Amman 11183, Jordan. Fax: (692-6) 816580
1. [Regional and Sub-regional Population Strategies for the
Arab Countries (1995-2004): A Proposed Framework], Working Paper
by Mahmoud S. Issa, CST/ILO Regional Adviser
2. [Strategy on Integration of Population Education into the
Formal and the Non-formal Education Systems in the Arab Region],
Working Paper by Edward El Wardini, Regional Adviser on
Population Education
> From UNFPA Country Support Team for East and Southeast Asia,
P.O. Box 618, Bangkok 10501, Thailand. Fax: (662) 280-2715
1. [Issues and Approaches to Women, Population and Development
in East and Southeast Asia], Occasional Paper
2. [Management Information System for Reproductive
Health/Family Planning: Myths and Realities], Occasional Paper
3. [The Implications of the ICPD Programme of Action],
Technical Workshop Report
4. [Report of the Consultative Meeting of UNFPA Country
Directors, National Programme Officers, and Country Support Team
for East and Southeast Asia], May 1995
> From UNFPA Country Support Team for South and West Asia,
P.O. Box 5940, Kathmandu, Nepal. Fax: (977-1) 527257
1. [Interpersonal Communication Skills: Training Manual]
> From UNFPA Country Support Team for the South Pacific,
G.P.O. Box 441, Suva, Fiji. Fax: (679) 304877
1. [Gender Issues for Investigation in Labour Markets in the
Pacific: Some Data and Research Prerequisites for Policy
Formulation], Discussion Paper by William J. House, Adviser on
Population and Development Planning and Policy
2. [Population Growth and Sustainable Development: The Case of
the Solomon Islands], Discussion Paper by William J. House
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