KEYNOTE SPEECH BY H.E. MR JAMES BATLEY AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER TO FIJI AT THE UNFPA REGIONAL CONSULTATION MEETING SOUTHERN CROSS HOTEL, SUVA, FIJI
13 -17 AUGUST 2007

Distinguished guests, participants, ladies and gentlemen, I am honoured to have been invited to address this Regional Consultation Meeting.

Welcome to Suva! This meeting represents an important opportunity to bring together stakeholders from across the Pacific to inform and discuss UNFPA’s Fourth Cycle of Programme Assistance for the period 2008 – 2012.

Australia sees our partnership with UNFPA as an important part of our commitment to the people of the Pacific. Of course we work with many partners in the Pacific but I would like to highlight this partnership as a positive and effective way of working in the region, and one we seek to replicate with other partners in responding to the complex development challenges in our region.

So the outcomes of this week’s deliberations will be of interest to Australia, both as a partner of UNFPA and as a key donor to the region which is implementing its own process of strategic change both globally and in this region. Many of you will be familiar with the 2006 White Paper on Australian Aid, which provides the intellectual and policy underpinning for a doubling of our global aid budget to $4 billion by 2010, and with the cross-cutting themes that feature in the White Paper such as Partnerships, Leadership, Growth, Gender, and HIV/AIDS. I note that a number of those themes are picked up in the agenda for your discussions over the next few days, and I would like to touch on them in the course of these opening remarks this morning.

Only last week the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, delivered a major speech on Australia’s relations with the Pacific. It is no coincidence that, in doing so, his starting point was to highlight the issue of demography and the challenges it poses. Most Pacific countries have between 30 and 40 per cent of their population aged 14 or under - compared to only 19 per cent in Australia. And the Pacific's population will double in the next 50 years.

Such a rapidly growing population presents challenges. Young people need to be given the opportunity to develop their potential. But in a number of Pacific countries these opportunities are lacking.

The countries of the Pacific are varied but they face some common economic challenges. Many are small in size and population. They are often distant from potential trading partners. They are not fully integrated into the global economy and cannot reap the rewards on offer from globalisation. In many Pacific countries, economic growth is slow and income levels are falling.

Slow economic growth and young populations combine to create high youth unemployment.

And the large numbers of young people put education resources under severe strain. They put pressure on health care resources too.

In some parts of the Pacific we have seen examples of leaders failing to live up to the hopes vested in them by their electorates. Economic under-performance has been aggravated by severe problems of governance.

Of course this is not the case everywhere. There are Pacific nations that are performing well. There are leaders of vision, and there are individuals of courage and integrity who stand up for what is right.

And while Pacific countries do face a number of challenges they also have substantial assets. Many have significant resources, including fisheries and forestry; most have areas of outstanding natural beauty and the potential to increase tourism; and a young, dynamic population can in fact be an enormous plus.

In general though, the overall picture is not nearly as positive as it needs to be, or could be. It is Australia’s strongly held view that to reverse these trends countries need economic growth to reduce poverty. With growing populations, Pacific countries need to lift rates of growth over the long term to deliver prosperity. And to do this, economic reform is essential. An important principle supporting economic growth is that improved access to quality health and education services enables the poor and disadvantaged to participate in growth.

The meeting will address questions of gender. I welcome this. Gender equality is integral to growth, governance and stability. While important gains have been made, gender inequalities in areas such as health and education are still striking. For instance, two-thirds of the 800 million people in the world who lack basic literacy skills are female. Girls are twice as likely as boys to die from malnutrition and preventable diseases, and half a million women die each year from complications during pregnancy – 99 per cent of them in developing countries.

But of course gender equality extends beyond improving female health and education. In Australia’s view, gender equality includes access to economic resources, participation and leadership in decision making, the human rights of women and efforts to eliminate discrimination against women. To this end, Australia is providing US$1.8 million to UNFPA to undertake Socio-cultural Research on Gender-Based Violence and Child Abuse in Melanesia and Micronesia.

AusAID is also undertaking a major review of violence against women in Melanesia and East Timor. Australia has committed to spend several hundred million dollars in Melanesia and East Timor this year, but the effectiveness of our development assistance in each partner country is undermined by violence against women. If our commitment is to be rendered effective, we must scale up – and savvy up – our efforts to combat violence against women.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has destroyed the lives of millions and affected millions more around the world, and the Pacific is not immune. Current HIV/STI infection rates for the Pacific Islands indicate a possible exponential growth in HIV infection in the Pacific in the next 5-10 years.

In a very practical way, Australia has been supporting UNFPA to strengthen Reproductive Health Commodity Security in Pacific Islands, and even the purchase of Reproductive Health commodities for Pacific Islands for family planning and prevention of STIs and HIV.

The threat posed by HIV/AIDS has become the focus of increasingly high level attention internationally. Just three weeks ago in Sydney, the Australian Government and the Asia Pacific Business Coalition on AIDS jointly hosted the Third Ministerial Meeting on HIV/AIDS. Some of the countries represented here today were at that meeting. During the meeting Australia’s Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, announced an increase in Australia’s funding in the area of HIV/AIDS from $600 million to $1 billion by 2010.

UNFPA’s work in Population and Development has particular relevance here in Fiji. On Friday Mr Assifi and I signed an agreement to provide US$276,420 through UNFPA to support the Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics Fiji Census 2007. This will be a key step to progress Fiji along the path to democracy – one of my government’s key priorities in the region.

Lastly, Leadership is an integral part of improving the functioning of state institutions, creating an enabling environment for growth, increasing accountability and transparency of Government and giving voice to the people, particularly for marginalised groups. Australia recently announced a Leadership Program that will target current and emerging leaders in the region to develop leadership skills, across areas ranging from academic, social and scientific fields to business, political and bureaucratic arenas. There will be increased support to leadership initiatives targeting women, youth and communities. The initial investment will be a two year, $10.5 million program that will form the basis of a long term approach – we know leaders do not emerge overnight. Our work with the Pacific Islands Forum to develop leadership programs will start next month.

It is pleasing to see so many experts from the Pacific in this room who are passionate and committed about their work. I am also impressed by the calibre of presenters – I am sure sessions will engender much discussion and debate. UNFPA must be congratulated for the inclusive nature of its decision making process for its next funding cycle. These Forums have the added benefit of stimulating wider debate, allowing professionals to form networks and share lessons unique to the region while being informed by international experiences. But, ultimately what we would all like to see out of this meeting are positive, tangible outcomes for the people of the Pacific, over the next five years and beyond.

Finally, to put this meeting in an even broader context, let me say that we welcome the ongoing reform efforts of the UN "family", in particular achieving greater UN coherence. We note the measures undertaken in the Pacific to establish joint country offices and operations, and the extensive consultation process that has been undertaken with PICs and other stakeholders in the preparation of the new UN Development Assistance Framework (2008-2012). We look forward to seeing the practical results of these reform efforts, particularly with regard to improved coordination amongst UN agencies, and with other donor partners, and ultimately contribution to more effective aid delivery - an issue of major importance with regard to Australia's own aid program.

I wish you all the best for your discussions over the next few days.