Latin America and the
Caribbean
Reproductive health
Population and development strategies
Advocacy
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Africa
Arab States
Central and Eastern Europe
Asia and the Pacific
Interregional Programmes
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Population and Development StrategiesTraining
of personnel at all levels in governmental and non-governmental institutions in the use of
data and in management systems is a cornerstone of successful capacity-building under
decentralization processes that are taking place throughout the region. To this end, both
national and regional projects include such training. For example, in the Caribbean
region, a subregional approach to training in population and development strategies was
designed involving the principal institutions of higher learning -- the University of
Guyana, the University of Suriname and the University of the West Indies.
An important area in building national capacity is to help countries develop their ability
to collect and use population and reproductive health data. Such capacity-building
included support for planning, in conjunction with the Population Division of the Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the United Nations Statistical
Division, of a series of workshops to review the experience of the round of censuses that
took place in 1990 and to prepare for the year 2000 censuses. Work on data collection and
analysis during the year also included such activities as cooperation in Peru with the
Ministry of Women’s Advancement and Human Development (PROMUDEH) and the National
Statistics Office to produce a publication and a CD-ROM with data from the 1993 census, to
update national population estimates and projections and to produce thematic maps designed
to support preventive interventions in light of the "El Nino" weather
phenomenon. The work was highly praised by the Government and emergency agencies. Efforts
supported by UNFPA and donors have enabled the Latin American Demographic Centre (CELADE)
to develop a software called REDATAM which allows the utilization of several data-bases
for local planning in education and health. A related subregional project in Central
America (Plan 2000) also aims at developing systems for decentralized planning. In the
Caribbean subregion, a project is being implemented with ECLAC on completion of the
REDATAM data sets using data from the 1990-1991 censuses as well as training nationals in
the use of the REDATAM computer programme for data analysis and policy development. One
such activity took place in the Bahamas at the invitation of the Government, and a second
one is planned for Jamaica in the first half of 1998.
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