Youth Explore Partnershps For Devlpmt
Youth explore partnerships
32-06
PRESS STATEMENT
20 Jul 2006 00:07:48
YOUTH EXPLORE PARTNERSHIPS FOR DEVELOPMENT
Participants at the first Pacific Youth Festival, held in Papeete, Tahiti, were briefed this week on the complementary relationship between the Pacific Plan and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Speaking at a seminar titled The Pacific Plan and MDGs: A Pacific-relevant approach , Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Deputy Secretary General, Mr Iosefa Maiava, said the partnership was an important step in tailoring international development indicators to the region's unique circumstances.
The Pacific Plan, with its specific regional initiatives under four key themes of economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security, is underpinning the achievement of MDGs, said Mr Maiava.
When Pacific Islands Forum member countries signed the United Nations (UN) Millennium Declaration in September 2000, they committed to global action to help achieve the MDGs, with their associated targets and quantifiable indicators.
We are now operationalising this commitment through the Pacific Plan, which Forum leaders endorsed at their annual meeting in Papua New Guinea in October last year.
Mr Maiava described the Plan's success indicators as Pacific-relevant MDGs, which will provide an excellent basis for monitoring and evaluating, not only the pooled regional efforts under the Plan, but also country performances against their own development goals.
Factors such as smallness, isolation and geographic dispersal are not reflected in the measures captured in global indicators. As a result, the realisation of some targets is extremely challenging.
Mr Maiava stressed that poverty alleviation, education and health are areas where MDGs need to be made more relevant to the Pacific.
This can be done by defining and pursuing more applicable targets, particularly on quality of education and health. For instance, the increase in cases of non-communicable diseases in the region, such as diabetes, needs to be seriously addressed.
Pacific island countries' different stages of implementation of the MDGs were highlighted by the 2004 report prepared by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the CROP MDG Working Group.
This report found that progress has been made against certain indicators, and the region will meet some MDG targets, but slow progress in some areas shows substantially stronger efforts are needed.
The MDG 2005 Report reflected similar sentiments on the region, highlighting health, education enrolment and youth employment as priority areas of concern.
While recognising that there is variation within the region, and that the availability of data is an issue, Oceania's overall performance between the 1990s and 2000s compared with other countries and regions of the world is not that good.
The Pacific Plan brings MDG aspirations closer to home to a regional and country level. It not only tries to promote and help achieve MDG targets through regionalism, it also contextualises them by establishing Pacific development indicators and a regional implementation system, which includes long-term monitoring, feedback and evaluation.
Some 1500 youth from the region, between the ages of 16 and 30, are in Papeete this week to participate in the Pacific Youth Festival.
The six-day event concludes on Saturday 22nd July, when youth leaders will release a charter developed throughout the course of the event, on what they perceive to be key issues facing Oceania. Further avenues for youth participation in regional development will be identified.
Forum Secretariat, Papeete
20 July 2006
32-06
PRESS STATEMENT
20 Jul 2006 00:07:48
YOUTH EXPLORE PARTNERSHIPS FOR DEVELOPMENT
Participants at the first Pacific Youth Festival, held in Papeete, Tahiti, were briefed this week on the complementary relationship between the Pacific Plan and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Speaking at a seminar titled The Pacific Plan and MDGs: A Pacific-relevant approach , Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Deputy Secretary General, Mr Iosefa Maiava, said the partnership was an important step in tailoring international development indicators to the region's unique circumstances.
The Pacific Plan, with its specific regional initiatives under four key themes of economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security, is underpinning the achievement of MDGs, said Mr Maiava.
When Pacific Islands Forum member countries signed the United Nations (UN) Millennium Declaration in September 2000, they committed to global action to help achieve the MDGs, with their associated targets and quantifiable indicators.
We are now operationalising this commitment through the Pacific Plan, which Forum leaders endorsed at their annual meeting in Papua New Guinea in October last year.
Mr Maiava described the Plan's success indicators as Pacific-relevant MDGs, which will provide an excellent basis for monitoring and evaluating, not only the pooled regional efforts under the Plan, but also country performances against their own development goals.
Factors such as smallness, isolation and geographic dispersal are not reflected in the measures captured in global indicators. As a result, the realisation of some targets is extremely challenging.
Mr Maiava stressed that poverty alleviation, education and health are areas where MDGs need to be made more relevant to the Pacific.
This can be done by defining and pursuing more applicable targets, particularly on quality of education and health. For instance, the increase in cases of non-communicable diseases in the region, such as diabetes, needs to be seriously addressed.
Pacific island countries' different stages of implementation of the MDGs were highlighted by the 2004 report prepared by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the CROP MDG Working Group.
This report found that progress has been made against certain indicators, and the region will meet some MDG targets, but slow progress in some areas shows substantially stronger efforts are needed.
The MDG 2005 Report reflected similar sentiments on the region, highlighting health, education enrolment and youth employment as priority areas of concern.
While recognising that there is variation within the region, and that the availability of data is an issue, Oceania's overall performance between the 1990s and 2000s compared with other countries and regions of the world is not that good.
The Pacific Plan brings MDG aspirations closer to home to a regional and country level. It not only tries to promote and help achieve MDG targets through regionalism, it also contextualises them by establishing Pacific development indicators and a regional implementation system, which includes long-term monitoring, feedback and evaluation.
Some 1500 youth from the region, between the ages of 16 and 30, are in Papeete this week to participate in the Pacific Youth Festival.
The six-day event concludes on Saturday 22nd July, when youth leaders will release a charter developed throughout the course of the event, on what they perceive to be key issues facing Oceania. Further avenues for youth participation in regional development will be identified.
Forum Secretariat, Papeete
20 July 2006
