One Stop Shop For MDGS Data Launched

Source: Voxy News

Friday, 27 August, 2010 - 14:45

If you are looking for the number of children in school in Vanuatu, or if you are comparing the number of employed people in different Pacific Island countries, or if you would like to know the number of women parliamentarians in the region, PacificInfo is the one stop shop for such data.

PacificInfo (www.pacificinfo.org), a customized database that provides Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) data on 15 Pacific Island Countries - Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Tokelau and Vanuatu - was launched in Suva yesterday by Garry Wiseman, the Manager of the United Nations Development Programme's Pacific Centre.

The MDGs are a unique approach to the worldly problems of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental devastation and discrimination against women. The eight goals include: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; develop a global partnership for development.

"PacificInfo measures the eight goals of the MDGs for all the 15 countries through a wide range of indicators. It also provides a Monitoring and Evaluation framework, using MDGs indicators and Pacific Plan indicators, for United Nations Development Assistance Framework, a framework setting out what the United Nations agencies, collectively and individually, will support in the 14 Pacific Island countries (PNG is covered separately) using MDGs indicators and Pacific Plan indicators," said Mr. Wiseman.

The launch took place during a weeklong training for Pacific journalists on reporting on the MDGs.

Mr. Wiseman urged journalists to increase reporting on the MDGs so that through increased information and advocacy the progress towards the achievement of the MDGs can be accelerated.

The training has been organized by the United Nations in partnership with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community with support from the Forum Secretariat, PINA, SOPAC and the Pacific Disability Forum. Journalists, journalism students and government information officers from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu attended the training. The training included presentations on the eight MDGs from speakers from UN and regional organizations. Participants also produced a story each based on the MDGs which were presented at the last day of the training.