United Nations, February 11: A senior United Nations official on Wednesday called for increase social protection in the Pacific island region, particularly women and children.
The ongoing economic and financial crises are an opportunity to implement social protection programmes in Pacific island countries that address the needs of the vulnerable, particularly of women and children, the United Nations development chief said at the start of a conference about the impact of the global downturn on the region.
More than 220 delegates from the Pacific region are attending the three-day conference to discuss specific policies and joint actions that countries in the region can take to mitigate the effects of the economic crisis.
“The crisis presents an opportunity either to initiate or to broaden existing social protection programmes. Measures which could be considered include school feeding programmes cash and in-kind transfers to the most vulnerable and cash-for-work programmes,” said UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark.
Clark added that there is much to be gained by exchanging experiences and cooperating in the design of social protection programmes within the Pacific and beyond, emphasizing the UN’s support of such efforts.
The cumulative effects of the food, fuel and economic crises have adversely affected progress on the Millennium Development Goals, the anti-poverty targets world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.
Seventeen-year-old Danielle Willis from Palau, who spoke on behalf of Pacific youth at that conference, told officials that the global economic crisis and the unemployment that followed has had severe impacts on the lives of Pacific islanders.
“Please listen carefully to what the voices of the vulnerable are telling you. Your decisions made this week can change their lives,”
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