- - -

News item

Capacity Building Project in the Pacific

Through the various training activities and professional development courses attended by the MA staff, increased confidence and improved skills needed in delivering quality SRH services have been acqu...

Through the various training activities and professional development courses attended by the MA staff, increased confidence and improved skills needed in delivering quality SRH services have been acquired. 

 

In 2008, IPPF ESEAOR started implementing a five-year project called the Pacific Regional Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Capacity Building Facility. The project was intended to increase the capacity of IPPF’s Member Associations (MAs) in the Pacific to deliver and advocate for quality SRH services. The project was made possible through the generous support of the governments of Australia and New Zealand.

Since its implementation, much progress has been made: better SRH services are now being provided in all MAs because the capacity of service providers has improved and because of enhanced facilities; youth-friendly services have been installed where full confidentiality is assured; and the child protection policy is fully enforced, to name just a couple.

The number of SRH services and clients in general has trebled in all the nine MAs since the project was implemented. It is worth mentioning that IPPF’s clients in the Pacific are those that are hardly-reached by the usual government services due to their geographical isolation.

The project benefitted most of the staff members of the MAs. Through the various training activities and professional development courses attended by the MA staff, increased confidence and improved skills needed in delivering quality SRH services have been acquired. Even the staff of IPPF ESEAOR's Sub-Regional Office in the Pacific (SROP) benefitted: the level of their technical assistance and monitoring work has improved due to the professional development course that they were able to attend.

During the evaluation in November 2013, MAs reported that the programme / project had impacted positively on their development as a collective voice in the region. The over-all performance of all MAs can be seen with the total number of SRH services provided reaching  654,621 in 2013.

The increased capacity of the MAs in the Pacific led to more advocacy activities and those had a greater impact. Some of the activities undertaken include:

  • Participation at the Pacific Parliamentarian Conference in Suva in August 2013, which focused on the post ICPD documentation, resulted in the launching of the Moana Declaration;
  • Participation in the Youth Conference and Youth Ministers’ Meeting in Noumea, New Caledonia in December 2013. This established the SROP’s role as a major player to articulate and contribute towards the implementation of the new Youth Framework endorsed by the Pacific Youth Ministers;
  • Pacific Kaci was developed in collaboration with regional stakeholders calling for increased access to SRH services stemming from the Millennium Development Goals;
  • Signing of an MOU with the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) to collaborate on engaging the Pacific Parliamentarians with the Vision 2020 Agenda and Sexual Rights Charter of IPPF.

IPPF ESEAOR’s work in the Pacific will continue to ensure that sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services and policies are installed and implemented in the future. We will continue building better partnerships to ensure that the Pacific speaks in one voice. It will also ensure that the Pacific people receive quality SRH services from service providers who have been properly and professionally trained.

when