Draft – ESHDP Brief
I.
BASIC PROJECT INFORMATION
II.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Although
poverty in the reflection n the region is not as extreme as in other areas of
the world, economically and socially disadvantaged groups have emerged n distinct
and varying proportions in all Pacific Island Countries. This phenomenon indicates the need for a
cohesive regional response to rectify the inequitable allocation of development
resources and opportunities affecting these groups WITHIN EACH COUNTRY. Previous initiatives undertaken by Pacific
governments, NGOs and donor agencies have been largely too fragmented to create
viable impact in improving the situation o f these disadvantaged groups. Thus PICs endorsed Poverty Alleviation and
Equitable Human Development as one of the four development themes for the fifth
Pacific Regional Programme at the Mini-Meeting of Aid Coordinators of the
Pacific in June 1991 and sought greater coordination of funding agencies in
addressing poverty-associated problems in the region.
Subsequent consultations with PICs were conducted in 1991 which noted that despite gains achieved by island economies over the last two decades, “indicators point to pressing human needs amongst various groups as well as the growth of a class of groups, i.e. women, children, youth, the aged, rural people, isolated communities, agricultural laborers and the inhabitants of rapidly growing slums. Statistical and other data are lacking, however, to fully characterize each group, the extent of its being disadvantaged, the exact number for each group, the specific policy or programme interventions required to facilitate service delivery or basic empowerment to draw each group from the periphery to the mainstream of decision-making and community involvement.
The mission further noted that modernization trends, as reflected in the shift from subsistence to market economies, would further marginalize the growing ranks of the economically and socially disadvantaged in the region.
While there is a need to influence the situation of disadvantaged groups in general, a focus on the needs of
a) atoll and outer island communities;
b) urban unemployed youth; and
c) women;
is considered critical in achieving equitable human development within the unique Pacific context.
Atoll and Outer Island Communities
Atoll and outer island communities are disadvantaged in terms of their isolation and poor resource base. The ecosystems are fragile and very vulnerable to increasing population density and climate change. The soils and availability of land genially only provide for subsistence production, while the distance from markets and poor inter-island transport tend to limit options for viable income generating activities.
The need for income has increased rapidly in recent years with the progressive integration of Pacific Island nations into the global market economy. Moreover, atoll and outer island dwellers have increasing requirements for cash due to new aspirations.
Young people experience this need more acutely. They are exposed to lifestyles different from those of their parents. Money is scarce on the island to fulfill their desire for more education, often perceived as the only viable means to make them escape the drudgery of rural living.
The lack of income generating opportunities in outer islands is a key problem. It requires innovativeness and imagination to overcome standard constraints, possibly through the provision of micro-credit funds; development of local markets, particularly those promoting inter-village trading; upgrading the commercial quality of hand-crafted products, which are in high demand in affluent countries; vigorous promotion of traditional skills, despite acquisition of new skills, to increase individual and family productivity in a mixed subsistence and cash economy; development of new products despite limited production options, etc.
Services such as education and health care are generally inadequate. Management of local development for atolls and outer islands has not adequately tapped the richness and collective wisdom of indigenous structures, organizations and social processes which have made remote human communities in the Pacific survive for centuries both the vagaries of nature and the often abrupt and massive intrusions of foreign cultures.
Faced with current deprivations, many people in atolls and outer islands migrate to the urban center. These rural migrants become actually the social base for another disadvantaged group, the urban poor, usually young, unemployed and living in squatter settlements. Cut off from traditional ties to the family and the community, the urban unemployed youth have become the source of social ills which plague the urban centers of practically all PICs. Innovative approaches and technologies to overcome perceived disadvantaged groups in the urbanized capitals of PICs.
Urban Unemployed
Youth
Migration from the outer islands to the main island, where the national capital is located, accounts largely for the high level of unemployment among urban young men and women. The lack of employment opportunities among urban young men and women. The lack of employment opportunities among urban youth is made worst by other deprivations, i.e. lack of access to basic services; inability to engage in subsistence activities; overall breakdown in community support and social accountability; inadequate or inappropriate education; lack of access to credit, etc.
The migration to urban areas has resulted in the lack of manpower in the outer islands for subsistence production and for overall development work.
National and local governments in the region have shown inability to cope effectively with the problems affecting the urban unemployed youths. Existing programmes oriented to the needs of the urban unemployed have been mainly carried out by CBOs/NGOs, most of which are supported by churches. Existing donor activity in this area is quite limited.
Women
Women generally assume marginal status in decision-making in the Pacific societies. Moreover they are relatively more burdened by the worsening physical and economic conditions in both rural and urban areas. Rural women have assumed added tasks due to the exodus of able-bodied young men and women from the outer islands. In the urban areas, women are often kept out of employment on account of gender bias and their basic concerns are inadequately reflected in government policies and plans.
The 1991 UNICEF report states that “…development has brought a deterioration in the quality of life for many rural women in the Pacific – increased workload, diminishing sources of wood fuel, depletion and pollution of their water supplies, and decreasing access to and control over traditionally inherited land …”
The amelioration of the burdens imposed on women by both modernization trends and traditional culture has become a necessity in the region’s request for equitable human development. These constraints deprive Pacific societies with substantive contributions to development implementation and management of more than half of the adult population who are directly involved in family welfare and in varied tasks related to both subsistence production and cash-generating activities.
Project field experiences have stressed the fact that in the Pacific, programmes for assisting women ease their social and cultural burdens are best done not as independent and isolated undertakings, which tend to limit, if not totally discourage, the involvement of other sector, but as part of a total development approach which builds on the collective understanding of common goals and vision for community welfare.
Needs
for Participatory, Multi-level and Area-focused Interventions
Programme concentration on these target groups will capture a significant proportion of disadvantaged groups in the region. Previous efforts of Pacific governments, NGOs and donor agencies in programmes and projects directed to these specific groups have yielded valuable lessons to serve as basis for formulating a region-wide programme on equitable and sustainable human development. These efforts have shown that to be effective, interventions to assist disadvantaged groups should include:
a) measures aimed at strengthening capacities to enable them to initiate and manage their own development; and
b) activities to assess, formulate and implement cost-effective, sustainable and optimal government policies and strategies to support such development.
Moreover, these interventions will have to take into account not only economic factors, but also the deep-seated cultural and social values of Pacific societies and the requirements of a fragile environment so as to place development efforts on culturally and ecologically sustainable basis.
Assessment of programme potential will be undertaken for each participating country, recognizing the scope of national and local initiatives so far undertaken, as well as the extent of prevailing consciousness among planners and implementors of existing programmes and projects on the need to expand the service outreach to the disadvantaged and seek their involvement in development efforts; the quality and quantity of available responses and commodities vis-à-vis the perceived needs of disadvantaged groups; the opportunities for institutionalizing the participation of such groups towards the formulation of relevant policies and programmes; the magnitude of possible constraints in packaging target-specific programme interventions as against the conventional sector-driven service delivery system; and the viable entry point for initialing ESHDP implementation for each specific country.
Programme formulation will benefit from the varied experiences of several regional programmes implemented during the UNDP Fourth Cycle, primarily within the thematic area of Disadvantaged Groups and Equitable Human Development, namely: the UNDP/OPS Integrated Atoll Development Project (RAS/88/014); the UNDP/UNIFEM/AIDAB Pacific Mainstreaming of Women in Development Planning Project (PMI/89/W01); the UNDP/UNV Youth Participation in Development Project (RAS/86/057). Suitable lessons from these projects are summarized in Annex 3.
Simultaneously with efforts to formulate the programme, UNDP has through TSS1 been funding work on the Pacific Human Development Initiative (PHDI). Its outputs are expected to directly impact on advocacy and other key activities of the programme. UNDP has also been supporting the establishment of a sustainable Development Network (SDN) in order to identify and support the adoption of appropriate land management and income generating activities at community level. The activities so far undertaken have been in pursuit of the mandate by governments at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro for UNDP to support disadvantaged groups as they are most severely affected by environmental degradation.
The overall objective is to promote equitable and sustainable human development in the Pacific. The programme will seek to enhance the level of quality and socio-economic status of specific disadvantaged groups in ways that will enable them to engage more effectively in sustainable production activities, in critical efforts to meet their basic needs, and thus ultimately broaden their options for a better life for themselves, their families and communities.
Specifically, the program will:
1) demonstrate what can be achieved through well-defined targeting of disadvantaged groups in integrated development programmes carried out in specific localities (atolls and remote outer islands, selected squatter settlements with urban blight, etc.) of participating countries;
2) assist governments to formulate policies, strategies and programmes in support of sustainable development, with the programme serving as implementation base for the Pacific Human Development Initiative;
3) ensure the sustainability of development activities from environmental, social and cultural standpoint in clear recognition of the fragile and vulnerable natural and social environment of the Pacific;
4) build appropriate capacity and development modalities so that this development process is sustained at community, national and regional levels.
It is envisaged that programme activities will emphasize:
· intensive work within countries to assist in generating prompt policy and programme response to the specific needs of disadvantaged groups;
· participatory approaches at all levels to ensure the pertinence of programme interventions and the willing and substantive contribution and involvement of disadvantaged groups towards their own development;
· coordination and close collaborative efforts between other UNDP regional programmes and individual country programmes and with other UN agencies;
· systematic work towards information sharing and greater cooperation with donors;
· special focus on strengthening management systems, including indigenous structures and processes, and capabilities at local, national and regional levels for addressing the needs of disadvantaged groups;
· broad-based mobilization of community-based/ grassroots support organizations, NGOs and indigenous and traditional structures and organizations, as well as the disadvantaged groups themselves for tasks and activities in line with the region’s aspirations for equitable and sustainable human development.
The basic approach will be the provision of direct interventions in favor of disadvantaged groups together with efforts to create a favorable policy environment and a more just allocation of resources. Delivery of much-needed services in each country will, in effect, serve also as an opportunity to evolve or upgrade an appropriate management system designed to provide effective policy and programme support, including technical assistance and pertinent administrative and funding support, to programmes and projects designed to promote sustainable development among disadvantaged groups.
In order to formulate details of the regional programme in line with the foregoing objectives and basic approach, it is recommended that a six-month Preparatory assistance Phase be undertaken.
The objectives of the PA phase will be as follows:
1) Conduct needs assessment and programme formulation missions in the participating countries, collect baseline data utilizing human development indicators, and identify and fully develop country-specific implementation strategies as well as programme support facilities targeting atoll and outer island communities, urban unemployed youth and women;
2) Develop the parameters, operational framework and action plan with the appropriate regional institutions for the establishment of a region-wide institutional mechanism in support of disadvantaged groups which will be initiated within the UNDP Fifth Cycle;
3) Design the regional programme coordination mechanism for UNDP’s sectoral regional programmes and reach agreement among concerned UN agencies and development partners on vital measures to be undertaken for a coordinated approach in support of disadvantaged groups;
4) Expand the overall approach of the programme to include sustainable development, especially the implementation of Agenda 21, and the integration of SDN into the programme framework;
5) Document in greater detail the approaches so far developed by the IADP and other projects and determine their respective appropriateness and application for replicability in the expanded programme for disadvantaged groups;
6) Promote the human development concept and approach in existing regional and subregional programmes and projects as part of the advocacy for equitable and sustainable development in the Pacific.
Target Groups for PA activities will include: a) public sector staff engaged in the Ministries and Departments of Outer Island/Rural and Urban Affairs, Women’s and Youth Divisions of various Departments, local governments (both rural and urban), and relevant sectoral agencies; b) NGOs and donor agencies with programmes and projects with current and potential relevance to disadvantaged groups; c) regional institutions and organizations; d) representatives of the targeted disadvantaged groups, namely, atoll and outer communities, urban unemployed youth and women.
Annex
1: Budget – PA Phase
Annex
2: Work Programme – PA Phase
Annex
3: Summary of Lessons Learnt from
Previous Projects Addressing Needs
of Specific Disadvantaged Groups
Annex 4:
Human Development
Annex
5: Sectoral Distribution