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| UNFPA
at work in Eritrea Programme Highlights: Building from Scratch Providing Reproductive Health and Family Planning Services to Youth Population Education and Family welfare: Nothing Succeeds like Success Box: Profiles in Change: Two Women Who Make a Difference |
Programme Highlights:
Building from Scratch UNFPA has its own "fighter" in the form of Representative Pamela de Largy. No stranger to hard work and hardship, she has spent a decade in East Africa, mainly in Ethiopia and the Sudan. Described by a colleague as "a dynamo of energy and ideas", she is more than ready for the challenges. She says it is exciting to be able to build a country programme from the ground up, just as the country itself is rebuilding. "The downside is that the government is still finding its own course, so the route isn’t necessarily direct and priorities sometimes change. One week we are working with a local NGO and the next week we can be told that we should focus on a ministry instead. But this is understandable in a new nation and we must be responsive. We are all learning together, and UNFPA can help to find solutions." Despite a difficult workload and long hours, Pam de Largy is determined that UNFPA will have a first-rate country programme. "We have managed to launch a number of exciting projects. They will address some of Eritrea’s most pressing problems, such as tackling the spread of STDs and AIDS, bringing down maternal mortality and providing badly needed reproductive health and family planning services, especially to young people." In 1998, the government will hold the first national population census. Most of the funds will come from UNFPA and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). This project is the biggest activity in UNFPA’s first country programme. Pam has also emphasized other UNFPA initiatives, particularly the excellent work begun with youth groups and the strengthening of reproductive health services offered by health clinics and hospitals. Eritrea is unique among developing nations. The country’s rulers are all former fighters. Interim President Isaias Afwerki has declared that Eritrea must stand on its own feet. External assistance agencies are invited to support government programmes on the government’s terms, or not at all. All assistance is geared towards local capacity-building so that aid can be terminated as quickly as possible. |
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