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 Page 7 of 17 |
Programme Priorities |
| Population and development strategies | |
Reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health Adolescent reproductive health Reducing maternal mortality Emergency assistance in refugee situations HIV/AIDS Population and development strategies Advocacy Women's empowerment and gender issues Strengthening programme effectiveness Decentralization National capacity-building Monitoring and evaluation Training Contraceptive requirements and logistics management needs Partnership with NGOs and civil society ICPD+5
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In focusing on population and development strategies, UNFPA seeks to ensure a balance between socio-economic development and population dynamics by providing appropriate information and analysis; influencing policy, planning and programmes; and building national capacity in population programming. The revised guidelines for UNFPA support for population and development strategies, issued in 1997, address UNFPA's commitments in this area and reflect the population and development goals of the ICPD, by following a people-centred approach to sustained economic growth and sustainable development. Reliable, regular and timely data on population and development are essential for effective policy formulation and programme implementation. The Fund's work in this area seeks to help develop and strengthen national capacity for generating and analysing relevant information necessary to develop policies and programmes. Towards this end, UNFPA is providing extensive support to countries for the year 2000 round of censuses. The Fund has also begun a programme of collaboration with the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) to collect and analyse data on the flows of financial resources for population programmes, both international and domestic. This collaboration has resulted in the creation of a resource-flow database that is becoming a valuable tool for monitoring this important aspect of the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. Country-level implementation. During 1997, UNFPA continued to operationalize population and development strategies at the country level through the implementation of a number of ongoing and newly-approved country programmes. This process focused on: stimulating a better understanding among policy makers of the importance of the linkages between population and development; integrating population dimensions into development strategies that reflect the individual needs of men, women and adolescents; strengthening national data systems and analytical capabilities for policy formulation and programme development and monitoring; undertaking relevant policy analyses and research; and promoting the empowerment of women. In Botswana, UNFPA, in active partnership with the Government, facilitated the formulation of a comprehensive draft national population policy, deepened awareness of the role of population in national development and helped to focus attention on population issues in the national debate on development issues. UNFPA's third country programme (1998-2002) will continue to support the development of a multisectoral and comprehensive Population Plan of Action and to facilitate the development of district-specific action plans, operational manuals, guidelines and procedures to enhance coordinated implementation of the population policy and programmes. UNFPA support, which will be given to the National Council on Population and Development to enhance its capacity to coordinate the initial phases of the implementation of the population programme, will focus on strengthening technical assistance, developing national human resources and enhancing the institutional capacities of relevant coordinating units at both national and district levels. In Cameroon, UNFPA provided technical and financial support to the Government in the preparation of the draft National Population Programme. The proposed five-year UNFPA country programme (1998-2002) seeks to revise and update the Declaration of the National Population Policy of 1992 to reflect the recommendations of both the ICPD and Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW), to prepare sectoral and regional action plans and to implement them at the national and regional level. The proposed strategy focuses on training and increasing population awareness and includes seminars and workshops for government and community leaders, educators, NGOs, women's associations and youth groups as well as sensitization and information campaigns for the general population. The programme will analyse legal texts on women's rights and study the prevalence of violence against women with a view to incorporating women's issues in the National Population Policy and integrating women's rights into the Family Code. Support will also be provided for activities relating to the 1999 Third General Census on Population and Housing, various demo-graphic and sociocultural studies, and the creation of a socio-demographic database disaggregated by sex. In Lesotho, the proposed country programme seeks to review and revise the National Population Policy in order to make it more comprehensive by taking into account the concerns of the ICPD Programme of Action and the FWCW Platform for Action as well as the country's main demographic concerns, including maternal mortality, morbidity, gender, youth issues, migration and the environment. This will include the preparation of a plan of action to identify and strengthen the institutional mechanisms to coordinate and implement the revised National Population Policy. The proposed country programme in Bangladesh seeks to increase national technical capacity to implement population policies and programmes. Technical workshops and on-the-job and other training will be conducted to enhance the capacity of national development planners to integrate population variables, including gender concerns, into the process of overall and sectoral planning. In Bhutan, UNFPA support will also focus on training staff in population, environment and development issues to ensure that population concerns are adequately integrated into development plans. Gender training will be given to planning officers of sectoral ministries to ensure that gender concerns are addressed in policy formulation and implementation of development activities. Possible areas of research will be explored in an effort to provide a better understanding of the intricate relationship between population, environment and poverty. Training will also be provided to strengthen the technical and logistical capability of the Central Statistical Organization and data collection systems at the regional and local level. In Jordan, the proposed country programme seeks to enhance the implementation of the national population policy formulated with the assistance of UNFPA under the previous programme by developing an appropriate mechanism for coordinating, monitoring and evaluating implementation efforts. Local training programmes will be conducted on specific population and development, as well as gender, concepts to upgrade the technical skills and knowledge of staff involved in the implementation of the National Population Strategy. UNFPA will help establish a population information system that will consolidate demographic indicators obtained from such diverse sources as censuses, surveys and vital registration systems. The UNFPA country programme in Ecuador places special emphasis on disadvantaged women, including indigenous women, as well as on adolescents in rural areas. The programme's population and development strategy is to provide technical assistance in the review of the National Population Action Plan in order to make it more responsive to the ongoing process of decentralization of governmental functions, and to train local staff in implementing the information systems needed for programming population and development activities for vulnerable groups. The programme also seeks to promote the effective coordination of activities among local government agencies and NGOs that address women's issues in order to incorporate gender as a cross-cutting and permanent consideration in the planning of basic social services. Global support. At the global level, UNFPA continues to operationalize population and development strategies through active involvement in United Nations and other international conferences, meetings and symposia. UNFPA convened an Expert Group Meeting of the Global Programme of Training in Population and Sustainable Development to establish a framework that would facilitate the translation of ICPD priorities and recommendations into the global training initiative. The meeting underscored the importance of focusing on the interlinkages between population, sustained economic growth and sustainable development, with emphasis on poverty eradication, gender equality, the situation of vulnerable and underserved groups, reproductive health concerns of adolescents, population mobility, and environmental degradation. In connection with the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on UNCED+5, UNFPA submitted an annual report to the Fifth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development on progress in the implementation of chapter 5 of Agenda 21 since the 1992 Earth Summit that presented a critical account of both achievements and shortcomings and discussed emerging priorities. UNFPA participated in the XXIIIrd General Population Conference of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), preparing, inter alia, the sessions on "The UNFPA Experience in Training in Gender, Population and Development" and "Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, Three Years After Cairo". UNFPA continues to fund two important projects in the area of population information technology: the United Nations Population Information Network (POPIN) and the Computer Software and Support for Population Activities (POPMAP). POPIN, which has become the most used international population information site on the Internet, continued to strengthen and coordinate population information activities at the international, regional and national levels during 1997. It provided technical assistance to the United Nations Regional Commissions which, in turn, transferred skills to national institutions. Local consultants were identified to establish Internet sites in national population institutions in order to build up technical capacities and expand access to local information sources. By mid-1997, although POPIN continued to host the POPIN World Wide Web site, material was being contributed by institutions in a number of developing countries, as well as by the UNFPA country offices and CSTs in Asia and Africa. The POPMAP project released upgraded versions of the software with new and enhanced features; conducted training workshops; and provided technical backstopping support for developing POPMAP applications in a number of countries. It also compiled a repository of country geographic data sets for distribution to POPMAP users to facilitate the application of POPMAP in the development process. Two other projects were approved in this area in 1997: Demographics Software for Population Education package, DemoTables and DemoGraphics, which will be an important advocacy and educational tool for population and development awareness creation, and the Development of On-line Information Services on Population and Environment Linkages.
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| Foreword | Introduction | UNFPA in 1997 | Programme Priorities | |