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Pacific youth mapping excercise

5 October 2007

"The success of the exercise will require a spirit of cooperation between the various Partners...

Each has much to offer to the exercise and a lot to learn from the knowledge, perspectives, and experiences that may be generated by the exercise."

The CYP South Pacific Centre in partnership with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) has embarked upon a major exercise to put youth projects and programmes in the Pacific region on the map. Youth programmes across the Pacific are being mapped out, for the first time, to create a complete picture of exactly what work is being done in the region with young people.

Preliminary results of the mapping exercises was presented and discussed at a Stakeholder Roundtable Consultation held in Cook Islands on 17 September 2007, prior to the CYP South Pacific Centres' Regional Advisory Board meeting and the Regional Youth Caucus meeting.

The aim of this exercise is to [i] map the magnitude of the youth challenge in the pacific, [ii] document the partners and stakeholders involved in financing and/or delivering youth related work, and [iii] document the resource distribution and resource gaps and identify possible areas for re-alignment and further collaboration.

Addressing the Stakeholders meeting on the presentation of the Preliminary results, CYP Regional director Ms Afu Billy said that the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) South Pacific (SP) Centre is pleased to be a partner in this Pacific Youth Mapping Exercise which we strongly believe will greatly assist those of us who are working with and for young people in the Pacific region. She said that one of the challenges the new CYP professional team faced when they took up office at the beginning of this year was that that there wasn’t much information around to provide guidance to our strategic planning process. There was little knowledge available on what was happening in the area of youth development in the region and who was doing what and whether or not we were planning for programmes that other regional stakeholders were already mandated to do. We really did not know which regional stakeholders like us were working in the area of youth development and in what programme areas their focus were.

She pointed out that for a youth developmental agency such as the CYP, mandated to work in the 14 Commonwealth countries in the Pacific region these are crucial information gaps that needed to be filled if we are going to offer quality youth development programmes that encompasses our values and principles and enables us to have a more realistic commitment to the young people of the Pacific region.

In addition, said Ms Billy, the CYP South Pacific Centre like any developmental organization does not have all the much needed resources to ensure that its programmes are implemented effectively. "We need to forge sound relations with other youth stakeholders in the region as well as at national levels to share our resources because as Dr Fatiha Serour, the CYP Director and Head of the Youth Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London said, the dwindling resource base of the CYP presents a serious challenge to our ability to respond to greater and more complex calls for development support."

She added that the CYP SP needed to build up alliances and strategic partnerships with governments, regional and international agencies, civil society and young people and their networks, so that young men and women are strategically engaged for the economic, social and cultural advancement of their families and countries, and for their own fulfilment.

For the CYP South Pacific Centre, the Pacific Youth Mapping Exercise could not have happened at a better time said Ms Billy. "We are now at the stage of putting our Strategic Plan together hence we need to be aware of what other regional stakeholders are doing and what resources they have for potential cooperation and partnerships."

She further said that the CYP SP Centre is viewing this whole youth mapping exercise as a positive measure and a step in the right direction as its findings will be addressing the gaps that the CYP South Pacific Centre has come across such as the identification of stakeholders supporting youth activities and the roles they play in the region, the resources they have and the priorities to which these resources are allocated as well as it will promote opportunities for partnerships among stakeholders in order for improved coordination of everyone’s work, increased regular communication with each other, a decrease in unnecessary duplication of programmes.

She urged all stakeholder to cooperate since an intended single multi stakeholder integrated ‘three ones principle’ of one plan, one resource pool and one monitoring framework to address the youth challenges in the region in a more comprehensive and coordinated manner and linking all stakeholders working in the youth sector in the region will only be successful if everyone cooperates.

Speaking on behalf of the SPC, Mr Tangata Vainerere, said that there are several benefits of such an exercise. Government, civil society and agency priorities are highlighted; it becomes easier to see where resources are going; and most importantly, it becomes clear where programmes are – or are not – linking up with overarching strategic plans, policies, frameworks.

“The Secretary General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Dr Jimmy Rodgers thanked the Cook Islands Government for hosting this event and reminded the stakeholders that "Young people are national assets, not liabilities. They must be provided an opportunity and a conducive environment." He added that many agencies in the region are involved in youth development, and the aim of this mapping exercise is to link the various efforts and activities to achieve the same outcomes. He emphasised that this meeting is a concrete sign of the attempt to work together, to break walls, and to stop flying flags.