Integrated Atolls and Outer Islands Development
Thematic Area:
Poverty Alleviation and Equitable Human Development
Participating Countries:
Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
PROGRAMME BRIEFx FOR ICP 5: 1992 - 1996
A. SUMMARY
Programme Title: Integrated Atolls and Outer Islands Development
Thematic Area: Poverty Alleviation and Equitable Human Development
Participating Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall
Countries: Islands, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
B. PROGRAMME OUTLINE
1.0 BACKGROUND
More than 60 % of the total Pacific populations eke out an existence from fragile ecosystems in atolls, in widely dispersed and resource-poor outer islands and in the marginal rural fringes of the region’s rapidly urbanizing main islands.
Atoll countries. Around 200, 000 people inhabit the region’s predominantly atoll countries (Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu) under conditions of marked distress brought about by the shift from subsistence to cash economy and the requirements imposed by an expanding population on the severely limited resource base.
Remote Outer Islands. More than a million people live under the same harsh conditions in 584 remote outer islands, a significant number of which are atolls and small islands, located in the relatively larger Pacific island countries (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu).
Rural Villages in Urban Centers. Close to 2 million Pacific islanders live in the outlying rural and coastal villages of each country’s main island. A large portion of them come from the outer islands, attracted by new opportunities in the main island. Neither the government nor the business sector has enough jobs to absorb the majority of them. The crowded villages have become, in many Pacific countries, a source of social problems.
During the extensive consultative process among UNDP, national governments and regional organizations, special emphasis was given to the needs of atolls and the outer islands.
Tremendous efforts have been exerted at national and regional levels over the previous two decades or so to check the foregoing trends. National governments have created agencies to administer basic services in the outer islands. NGOs, both local and international, have completed national efforts to reach each country’s remote rural areas with much-needed services.
Major regional organizations have undertaken activities aimed at improving the quality of life in the atolls, outer islands and other marginal rural communities. The South Pacific Commission (SPC) has implemented an integrated rural development project in an outer island in the Cook Islands and starting another in Kiribati. Its Community Education Training Center (CETC) continues to train Pacific rural women in various community development skills. The University of the South Pacific (USP), through its extension centers, the Institute of Rural Development in Tonga and the Atoll Research and Development Unit, has sought primarily to provide skills to rural manpower and improve technologies in atolls. Consistent with previous efforts in support of rural development, the European Commission will launch a three-year project starting 1992 with institutional support to USP/IRD and direct financial support to selected NGOs and government bodies in the Pacific ACP countries.
UNDP, through its various sectoral regional projects, has also directed assistance to the atolls, outer islands and rural communities throughout the region. UNDP assistance at the regional level has included rural training and employment, rural youth development, water supply for the outer islands, artisanal fisheries, energy, primary health care, etc.
Aside from these sectoral projects, UNDP has supported the region’s most comprehensive application of the integrated approach, the Integrated Atoll Development Project (IADP), which covers the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu. The project has identified, tested and disseminated improved technologies and implementation approaches suited to the atolls in areas such as agriculture, marine resources, water and sanitation, transport, renewable energy, ecological resource management and income generation. Promotion of these technologies has been part of an integrated programme which also applies participatory methodologies in working with national and local governments, as well as non-governmental organizations involved in rural development, and the atoll communities themselves, including its indigenous institutions.
UNDP now seeks to extend these methodologies and project benefits to other countries with atolls and outer islands.
2.0 PROBLEM TO BE ADDRESSED
The programme seeks to provide outer island and rural families with technologies, skills and institutional support to help them improve their quality of life and thus enable them to:
· grow more food, provide for their basic needs, start cash earning activities and still preserve vital island resources;
· strive for community self-reliance, determine their own vision, choose their goals for a better life, forge links with the national government and other development bodies in collective and determined efforts to contribute to their own and their country’s welfare;
· sustain these efforts with the involvement of their own local and traditional institutions, the various island-based government bodies and other development entities formed to assist them achieve their goals; and
· pursue these family and community goals guided both by the time-tested values of their own culture and the enduring values of self-worth and dignity which make creative and productive work possible towards human fulfillment.
3.0 MAJOR PROGRAMME COMPONENTS
3.1 Programme Design
The programme will enhance community, national and regional capabilities for the planning, implementation and management of participatory grassroots development as core strategy for the integrated and poverty-focused development of atolls, outer islands and marginal rural communities.
Specifically, the programme will provide technical assistance, training, financial support and the specialized services of field workers and volunteers primarily at the island community level, to enhance existing capabilities of rural families to plan, implement and manage activities for their own sustained well-being.
Similar programme inputs will be directed to relevant agencies, institutions, and NGOs at the community, national and regional levels to ensure the effective provision of their support to rural communities.
Key Inputs at Community Level
Technical assistance and intensive training for community-based development planning and implementation. The programme will assign project staff and field workers to assist island leaders and the whole community arrive at a common understanding of the local situation; determine their own collective vision for the future, taking into account the need to conserve and protect precious land and marine resources; assess problems and possible solutions based on existing resources and local potential; evolve and implement plans in accordance with their own priorities and vision of a developed human community. The community will be assisted to acquire the specific skills required to carry out these development tasks.
Funding support for small-scale projects. The community will be further encouraged to identify and carry out small scale projects which can increase income, ensure wise use of local resources and provide opportunities for as many people as possible to acquire or further improve their ability to plan and manage family and community projects. Income generating revolving funds with simplified and decentralized management will be established.
Simple and improved technologies. The programme will promote improved technologies in atoll agriculture, fisheries and other productive sectors. The rural people themselves will be mobilized to identify the need for technologies, test improvements or innovative features and acquire new skills to demonstrate the suitability and sustainability of specific technologies to their own island.
Review of tasks, structures and provision of special skills training to upgrade local development administration. Government bodies, such as the Island Council, Island Development Committee, the various central government functionaries based at the island, (Island Clerk, Chief Administration Officer and staff of sectoral agencies) and NGO workers will be assisted to link their day-to-day activities in relation to the community plan. The program will provide much-needed inputs for assessing their respective roles and tasks in relation to plan implementation. This will also help determine the specific requirements for administrative reforms or training inputs which will be provided by the programme to enable government bodies and other entities to assist the island community carry out their development plan.
Full-scale mobilization of traditional leaders and indigenous institutions. Indigenous institutions and traditional leaders will be systematically encouraged to take a more active role in carrying out development activities. They will be provided with timely and adequate information, training and other programme inputs. Their partnership roles with government bodies will be formally recognized to foster accountability for overall development goals. The programme will identify cultural values and practices which can further provide motivation for the community to work for their general well-being, increase productivity and nurture the environment.
Fielding of community organizers, development motivators and volunteers. The program will assign community organizers and development motivators/volunteers to specific organizations or institutions at the island level to help these entities carry out the community plan. They will be drawn from the UNV and DDS programmes and national volunteers organizations. They will impart motivational and organizing skills to the community. They will be intensively trained by the programme before entry into the community. In time, these volunteers and motivators will also be transformed by the programme as valuable cadres for participatory and sustainable development in the atolls, outer islands and marginal rural communities.
Key Inputs at National Level
Training support for the National Core Team of Trainers. The programme will provide training and other technical assistance for the creation of an inter-agency team of trainers at the national level. This team will eventually take over the training role for outer island development planning and implementation. Given the manpower shortage in small island countries, a strong national core team ensures inter-agency cooperation not only in training, but also in the delivery and monitoring of services in the outer islands. It will be more economical and cost-effective in the long run to field this team from island to island with a definite work plan and a specific role in relation to community plans and projects, than for each agency to send an individual agent on his own from one island to the other.
Integration of community-based planning process into existing government systems. The programme will assist national planners, programme managers and budget officers to integrate the island-based planning approach into the government’s planning, programming and funding process. In addition, the programme will encourage national agencies to created formal or ad hoc bodies, as appropriate, with mandate to improve the planning, implementation and coordination of programmes and projects designed for the outer islands and other rural communities.
Support to policy formulation on rural development. Based on the experience with the implementation of participatory planning and project implementation at the island level, the programme will assist the relevant ministries identify policy gaps, revise existing policies or recommend new policies to ensure adequate guidelines for the concerned sectors and agencies. National agencies will be encouraged to utilize the island development plan for the systematic delivery of integrated services to each outer island.
Technical assistance to national NGOs. Aware that most NGOs at national level have chapters in the outer islands, and that most of these NGOs have fairly large women membership, the programme will extend technical assistance to NGOs to refocus their activities in support of their outer island counterparts’ role in carrying out the community-based development plan. The possibility of helping form new NGOs to complement the government’s role with regards to outer island development will be explored with the relevant ministries and agencies. These NGOs can take the more innovative roles in testing rural development approaches due to their flexibility.
Key Inputs at Regional Level
Partnership with regional organizations and projects. The programme will involve existing regional organizations and projects to provide expertise and timely assistance to individual countries for the refinement of programme methodologies; policy formulation; technical support for field workers and volunteers assigned in outer islands; assessment of administrative procedures in support of community participation; framework for assessing cultural factors in development planning, implementation and management; and innovative approaches to the design of income generating projects.
3.2 Areas of Programme Focus
A. Integrated Atoll and Outer Island Development
Replication and expansion. The programme will continue to implement the activities which have been initiated to replicate and expand the IADP methodologies within six participating countries and to new countries with isolated and resource-poor outer islands. The project atoll within each country will continue to serve as training and demonstration area for the integrated approach.
Major thrusts. The key activities will revolve around these methodologies: participatory island profiling and development planning; small scale high impact projects; consolidation of an integrated institutional framework for sustainable development with focus on the roles of traditional institutions; social preparation for the adoption of improved technologies in atoll and small island agriculture, and other aspects of the mixed subsistence and cash economy with strong relevance to ecological and cash generation objectives; and the intensive training and fielding of the national core team of trainers.
Regional capability-building support. The programme will assist regional agencies and institutions develop further their capability to support area-focused and participatory development processes.
Aware of the unique problems and challenges posed by atolls and the outer islands in the region, the program will explore with regional institutions, governments and donor agencies the feasibility of establishing, within an existing institution, a Pacific Center for Integrated Rural and Island Development, modeled perhaps, after the UN-assisted Center for Integrated Rural Development (CIRDAP) based in Bangladesh.
The programme will explore with the USP Continuing Education Programme the possibility of setting up within existing extension centers an Island and Atoll Life Training Center which will serve as repository of technologies and skills needed both to improve community livelihood and to enhance ecological resources.
The programme will conduct regular assessment and experience sharing sessions, at regional and country levels, with all regional organizations and NGOs involved in atoll, outer island and rural development. It will also provide technical assistance and networking support to regional organizations and NGOS.
Toward regional institution building, the programme will carry out the following activities:
· provision of technical assistance to USP Institute of Rural Development, USP Atoll Research Development Unit, and the SPC community Education Training Center for the development of curricula for participatory development and technology promotion;
· active collaboration with SPC, Forum secretariat and European Commission to facilitate the use of programme networks for relevant projects; share project implementation experiences; and extend mutual assistance in the application and monitoring of participatory methodologies for IRD;
· provision of technical assistance, including training inputs for trainers, field workers and programme planners of development-oriented NGOs with a regional mandate or network, e.g. the Pacific YWCA.
B. Building national and local capability for mobilizing support to participatory grassroots development
The programme will train and field community organizers, volunteers and mobilizers in relevant sectors or existing organizations at national and local levels to further enhance the capabilities of community organizations to carry out projects generated through participatory processes. Such volunteers will come from national volunteer organizations and from the UNV and DDS programmes. Strong linkages will be forged with the UNV Participatory Development Programme.
Their main task will be to provide much-needed motivational and other inputs to enable specific sectors or organizations to carry out critical activities in the context of the island development profile and plan. All field workers will be intensively trained prior to their assignment.
Both as participant and observer of the evolving process, the field worker will also be the key implementor of a participatory research component which will ensure in-depth process documentation.
3.3 Linkages with Regional Institutions, Donors and Other Regional Programmes
The program will provide the atoll and outer island focus to regional development initiatives. It will direct donors’ attention to the special needs and problems of rural communities. In turn, donors will be encouraged to use the programme’s institutional and implementation networks to more effectively channel assistance to specific target groups. The programme approach adopted by UNDP for ICP5 will provide an effective framework for strengthening interaction and substantive collaboration with and among the other UNDP regional programmes and sectoral projects. This programme will assist them to formulate social preparation and mobilization strategies for project penetration and sustainability, provide them with the mechanisms to use NGOs for project implementation and management, and to identify and train motivated field workers and community organizations in the project island or area. It will also draw from the sectoral expertise of the entire Regional Programme in designing and implementing grassroots projects. The programme will also provide technical assistance and backstopping to UNDP country projects with outer island and rural focus. A regular consultative process among all the regional organizations and programmes focused on atolls and other marginal rural communities will be initiated.
More specific regional institution strengthening activities are described in Section 3.2.
3.4 Expected Impact/Target Beneficiaries
The primary beneficiaries/participants will be the people of the atolls, other outer islands and the marginal rural communities of participating countries in the Pacific. The concentration of programme inputs is expected to maximize the effectiveness of projects and programmes designed primarily to generate the sustained involvement and well-being of the rural population. The planning and administration of development at all levels will be improved and thus, better targeting of atoll and other island communities both for service delivery and participation can be undertaken by all entities pursuing rural development objectives.
3.5 Programme Sustainability
Programme sustainability will be ensured by:
· the improved technologies, skills and positive attitudes acquired by the rural families through their active involvement in programme activities designed to enhance local capabilities for self-reliant and sustainable development;
· the deep regard for preserving the life-support systems of the atolls and other small islands, nurtured by lessons learned from the programme about their fragility and sustained management;
· the strengthening of local structures for development administration (island councils, island development committees, development coordinating committees, island clerks, chief administrative officers, island executive officers, etc.) in support of family and community activities;
· the active involvement of indigenous institutions and traditional leaders (maneaba/maneapa, Unimane, toeaina, tikina, aumaga, aliki/ariki, turaga ni koro, iroij, etc.) in community mobilization and management of development;
· availability of revolving funds to finance income generating projects and improve further the community’s project management skills;
· the strengthened national core team of trainers able to assess the specific training needs of particular social groups and to design, conduct and assess training activities for each group, thereby ensuring the pertinence of inputs and the increase in the pool of useful knowledge available to the community;
· DDS and UNV filed workers and other community organizers, many to be drawn from the region itself, highly skilled in community work and committed to making the programme take root among the people;
· integrate package of support from national government entities to the interrelated nature of community-expressed needs and problems; and
· a viable regional body, backstopped by a network of training centers and other programme support institutions, able to further build on national capabilities to guide and support a truly participatory grassroots process involving the rural poor in the atolls, outer islands and other marginal communities.
Poverty Alleviation and Equitable Human Development
Participating Countries:
Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
PROGRAMME BRIEFx FOR ICP 5: 1992 - 1996
A. SUMMARY
Programme Title: Integrated Atolls and Outer Islands Development
Thematic Area: Poverty Alleviation and Equitable Human Development
Participating Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall
Countries: Islands, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
B. PROGRAMME OUTLINE
1.0 BACKGROUND
More than 60 % of the total Pacific populations eke out an existence from fragile ecosystems in atolls, in widely dispersed and resource-poor outer islands and in the marginal rural fringes of the region’s rapidly urbanizing main islands.
Atoll countries. Around 200, 000 people inhabit the region’s predominantly atoll countries (Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu) under conditions of marked distress brought about by the shift from subsistence to cash economy and the requirements imposed by an expanding population on the severely limited resource base.
Remote Outer Islands. More than a million people live under the same harsh conditions in 584 remote outer islands, a significant number of which are atolls and small islands, located in the relatively larger Pacific island countries (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu).
Rural Villages in Urban Centers. Close to 2 million Pacific islanders live in the outlying rural and coastal villages of each country’s main island. A large portion of them come from the outer islands, attracted by new opportunities in the main island. Neither the government nor the business sector has enough jobs to absorb the majority of them. The crowded villages have become, in many Pacific countries, a source of social problems.
During the extensive consultative process among UNDP, national governments and regional organizations, special emphasis was given to the needs of atolls and the outer islands.
Tremendous efforts have been exerted at national and regional levels over the previous two decades or so to check the foregoing trends. National governments have created agencies to administer basic services in the outer islands. NGOs, both local and international, have completed national efforts to reach each country’s remote rural areas with much-needed services.
Major regional organizations have undertaken activities aimed at improving the quality of life in the atolls, outer islands and other marginal rural communities. The South Pacific Commission (SPC) has implemented an integrated rural development project in an outer island in the Cook Islands and starting another in Kiribati. Its Community Education Training Center (CETC) continues to train Pacific rural women in various community development skills. The University of the South Pacific (USP), through its extension centers, the Institute of Rural Development in Tonga and the Atoll Research and Development Unit, has sought primarily to provide skills to rural manpower and improve technologies in atolls. Consistent with previous efforts in support of rural development, the European Commission will launch a three-year project starting 1992 with institutional support to USP/IRD and direct financial support to selected NGOs and government bodies in the Pacific ACP countries.
UNDP, through its various sectoral regional projects, has also directed assistance to the atolls, outer islands and rural communities throughout the region. UNDP assistance at the regional level has included rural training and employment, rural youth development, water supply for the outer islands, artisanal fisheries, energy, primary health care, etc.
Aside from these sectoral projects, UNDP has supported the region’s most comprehensive application of the integrated approach, the Integrated Atoll Development Project (IADP), which covers the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Tokelau and Tuvalu. The project has identified, tested and disseminated improved technologies and implementation approaches suited to the atolls in areas such as agriculture, marine resources, water and sanitation, transport, renewable energy, ecological resource management and income generation. Promotion of these technologies has been part of an integrated programme which also applies participatory methodologies in working with national and local governments, as well as non-governmental organizations involved in rural development, and the atoll communities themselves, including its indigenous institutions.
UNDP now seeks to extend these methodologies and project benefits to other countries with atolls and outer islands.
2.0 PROBLEM TO BE ADDRESSED
The programme seeks to provide outer island and rural families with technologies, skills and institutional support to help them improve their quality of life and thus enable them to:
· grow more food, provide for their basic needs, start cash earning activities and still preserve vital island resources;
· strive for community self-reliance, determine their own vision, choose their goals for a better life, forge links with the national government and other development bodies in collective and determined efforts to contribute to their own and their country’s welfare;
· sustain these efforts with the involvement of their own local and traditional institutions, the various island-based government bodies and other development entities formed to assist them achieve their goals; and
· pursue these family and community goals guided both by the time-tested values of their own culture and the enduring values of self-worth and dignity which make creative and productive work possible towards human fulfillment.
3.0 MAJOR PROGRAMME COMPONENTS
3.1 Programme Design
The programme will enhance community, national and regional capabilities for the planning, implementation and management of participatory grassroots development as core strategy for the integrated and poverty-focused development of atolls, outer islands and marginal rural communities.
Specifically, the programme will provide technical assistance, training, financial support and the specialized services of field workers and volunteers primarily at the island community level, to enhance existing capabilities of rural families to plan, implement and manage activities for their own sustained well-being.
Similar programme inputs will be directed to relevant agencies, institutions, and NGOs at the community, national and regional levels to ensure the effective provision of their support to rural communities.
Key Inputs at Community Level
Technical assistance and intensive training for community-based development planning and implementation. The programme will assign project staff and field workers to assist island leaders and the whole community arrive at a common understanding of the local situation; determine their own collective vision for the future, taking into account the need to conserve and protect precious land and marine resources; assess problems and possible solutions based on existing resources and local potential; evolve and implement plans in accordance with their own priorities and vision of a developed human community. The community will be assisted to acquire the specific skills required to carry out these development tasks.
Funding support for small-scale projects. The community will be further encouraged to identify and carry out small scale projects which can increase income, ensure wise use of local resources and provide opportunities for as many people as possible to acquire or further improve their ability to plan and manage family and community projects. Income generating revolving funds with simplified and decentralized management will be established.
Simple and improved technologies. The programme will promote improved technologies in atoll agriculture, fisheries and other productive sectors. The rural people themselves will be mobilized to identify the need for technologies, test improvements or innovative features and acquire new skills to demonstrate the suitability and sustainability of specific technologies to their own island.
Review of tasks, structures and provision of special skills training to upgrade local development administration. Government bodies, such as the Island Council, Island Development Committee, the various central government functionaries based at the island, (Island Clerk, Chief Administration Officer and staff of sectoral agencies) and NGO workers will be assisted to link their day-to-day activities in relation to the community plan. The program will provide much-needed inputs for assessing their respective roles and tasks in relation to plan implementation. This will also help determine the specific requirements for administrative reforms or training inputs which will be provided by the programme to enable government bodies and other entities to assist the island community carry out their development plan.
Full-scale mobilization of traditional leaders and indigenous institutions. Indigenous institutions and traditional leaders will be systematically encouraged to take a more active role in carrying out development activities. They will be provided with timely and adequate information, training and other programme inputs. Their partnership roles with government bodies will be formally recognized to foster accountability for overall development goals. The programme will identify cultural values and practices which can further provide motivation for the community to work for their general well-being, increase productivity and nurture the environment.
Fielding of community organizers, development motivators and volunteers. The program will assign community organizers and development motivators/volunteers to specific organizations or institutions at the island level to help these entities carry out the community plan. They will be drawn from the UNV and DDS programmes and national volunteers organizations. They will impart motivational and organizing skills to the community. They will be intensively trained by the programme before entry into the community. In time, these volunteers and motivators will also be transformed by the programme as valuable cadres for participatory and sustainable development in the atolls, outer islands and marginal rural communities.
Key Inputs at National Level
Training support for the National Core Team of Trainers. The programme will provide training and other technical assistance for the creation of an inter-agency team of trainers at the national level. This team will eventually take over the training role for outer island development planning and implementation. Given the manpower shortage in small island countries, a strong national core team ensures inter-agency cooperation not only in training, but also in the delivery and monitoring of services in the outer islands. It will be more economical and cost-effective in the long run to field this team from island to island with a definite work plan and a specific role in relation to community plans and projects, than for each agency to send an individual agent on his own from one island to the other.
Integration of community-based planning process into existing government systems. The programme will assist national planners, programme managers and budget officers to integrate the island-based planning approach into the government’s planning, programming and funding process. In addition, the programme will encourage national agencies to created formal or ad hoc bodies, as appropriate, with mandate to improve the planning, implementation and coordination of programmes and projects designed for the outer islands and other rural communities.
Support to policy formulation on rural development. Based on the experience with the implementation of participatory planning and project implementation at the island level, the programme will assist the relevant ministries identify policy gaps, revise existing policies or recommend new policies to ensure adequate guidelines for the concerned sectors and agencies. National agencies will be encouraged to utilize the island development plan for the systematic delivery of integrated services to each outer island.
Technical assistance to national NGOs. Aware that most NGOs at national level have chapters in the outer islands, and that most of these NGOs have fairly large women membership, the programme will extend technical assistance to NGOs to refocus their activities in support of their outer island counterparts’ role in carrying out the community-based development plan. The possibility of helping form new NGOs to complement the government’s role with regards to outer island development will be explored with the relevant ministries and agencies. These NGOs can take the more innovative roles in testing rural development approaches due to their flexibility.
Key Inputs at Regional Level
Partnership with regional organizations and projects. The programme will involve existing regional organizations and projects to provide expertise and timely assistance to individual countries for the refinement of programme methodologies; policy formulation; technical support for field workers and volunteers assigned in outer islands; assessment of administrative procedures in support of community participation; framework for assessing cultural factors in development planning, implementation and management; and innovative approaches to the design of income generating projects.
3.2 Areas of Programme Focus
A. Integrated Atoll and Outer Island Development
Replication and expansion. The programme will continue to implement the activities which have been initiated to replicate and expand the IADP methodologies within six participating countries and to new countries with isolated and resource-poor outer islands. The project atoll within each country will continue to serve as training and demonstration area for the integrated approach.
Major thrusts. The key activities will revolve around these methodologies: participatory island profiling and development planning; small scale high impact projects; consolidation of an integrated institutional framework for sustainable development with focus on the roles of traditional institutions; social preparation for the adoption of improved technologies in atoll and small island agriculture, and other aspects of the mixed subsistence and cash economy with strong relevance to ecological and cash generation objectives; and the intensive training and fielding of the national core team of trainers.
Regional capability-building support. The programme will assist regional agencies and institutions develop further their capability to support area-focused and participatory development processes.
Aware of the unique problems and challenges posed by atolls and the outer islands in the region, the program will explore with regional institutions, governments and donor agencies the feasibility of establishing, within an existing institution, a Pacific Center for Integrated Rural and Island Development, modeled perhaps, after the UN-assisted Center for Integrated Rural Development (CIRDAP) based in Bangladesh.
The programme will explore with the USP Continuing Education Programme the possibility of setting up within existing extension centers an Island and Atoll Life Training Center which will serve as repository of technologies and skills needed both to improve community livelihood and to enhance ecological resources.
The programme will conduct regular assessment and experience sharing sessions, at regional and country levels, with all regional organizations and NGOs involved in atoll, outer island and rural development. It will also provide technical assistance and networking support to regional organizations and NGOS.
Toward regional institution building, the programme will carry out the following activities:
· provision of technical assistance to USP Institute of Rural Development, USP Atoll Research Development Unit, and the SPC community Education Training Center for the development of curricula for participatory development and technology promotion;
· active collaboration with SPC, Forum secretariat and European Commission to facilitate the use of programme networks for relevant projects; share project implementation experiences; and extend mutual assistance in the application and monitoring of participatory methodologies for IRD;
· provision of technical assistance, including training inputs for trainers, field workers and programme planners of development-oriented NGOs with a regional mandate or network, e.g. the Pacific YWCA.
B. Building national and local capability for mobilizing support to participatory grassroots development
The programme will train and field community organizers, volunteers and mobilizers in relevant sectors or existing organizations at national and local levels to further enhance the capabilities of community organizations to carry out projects generated through participatory processes. Such volunteers will come from national volunteer organizations and from the UNV and DDS programmes. Strong linkages will be forged with the UNV Participatory Development Programme.
Their main task will be to provide much-needed motivational and other inputs to enable specific sectors or organizations to carry out critical activities in the context of the island development profile and plan. All field workers will be intensively trained prior to their assignment.
Both as participant and observer of the evolving process, the field worker will also be the key implementor of a participatory research component which will ensure in-depth process documentation.
3.3 Linkages with Regional Institutions, Donors and Other Regional Programmes
The program will provide the atoll and outer island focus to regional development initiatives. It will direct donors’ attention to the special needs and problems of rural communities. In turn, donors will be encouraged to use the programme’s institutional and implementation networks to more effectively channel assistance to specific target groups. The programme approach adopted by UNDP for ICP5 will provide an effective framework for strengthening interaction and substantive collaboration with and among the other UNDP regional programmes and sectoral projects. This programme will assist them to formulate social preparation and mobilization strategies for project penetration and sustainability, provide them with the mechanisms to use NGOs for project implementation and management, and to identify and train motivated field workers and community organizations in the project island or area. It will also draw from the sectoral expertise of the entire Regional Programme in designing and implementing grassroots projects. The programme will also provide technical assistance and backstopping to UNDP country projects with outer island and rural focus. A regular consultative process among all the regional organizations and programmes focused on atolls and other marginal rural communities will be initiated.
More specific regional institution strengthening activities are described in Section 3.2.
3.4 Expected Impact/Target Beneficiaries
The primary beneficiaries/participants will be the people of the atolls, other outer islands and the marginal rural communities of participating countries in the Pacific. The concentration of programme inputs is expected to maximize the effectiveness of projects and programmes designed primarily to generate the sustained involvement and well-being of the rural population. The planning and administration of development at all levels will be improved and thus, better targeting of atoll and other island communities both for service delivery and participation can be undertaken by all entities pursuing rural development objectives.
3.5 Programme Sustainability
Programme sustainability will be ensured by:
· the improved technologies, skills and positive attitudes acquired by the rural families through their active involvement in programme activities designed to enhance local capabilities for self-reliant and sustainable development;
· the deep regard for preserving the life-support systems of the atolls and other small islands, nurtured by lessons learned from the programme about their fragility and sustained management;
· the strengthening of local structures for development administration (island councils, island development committees, development coordinating committees, island clerks, chief administrative officers, island executive officers, etc.) in support of family and community activities;
· the active involvement of indigenous institutions and traditional leaders (maneaba/maneapa, Unimane, toeaina, tikina, aumaga, aliki/ariki, turaga ni koro, iroij, etc.) in community mobilization and management of development;
· availability of revolving funds to finance income generating projects and improve further the community’s project management skills;
· the strengthened national core team of trainers able to assess the specific training needs of particular social groups and to design, conduct and assess training activities for each group, thereby ensuring the pertinence of inputs and the increase in the pool of useful knowledge available to the community;
· DDS and UNV filed workers and other community organizers, many to be drawn from the region itself, highly skilled in community work and committed to making the programme take root among the people;
· integrate package of support from national government entities to the interrelated nature of community-expressed needs and problems; and
· a viable regional body, backstopped by a network of training centers and other programme support institutions, able to further build on national capabilities to guide and support a truly participatory grassroots process involving the rural poor in the atolls, outer islands and other marginal communities.