Fiji has achieved many aspects as far as the Declaration on Population and Development in Asia and the Pacific are con­cerned.

The was highlighted by the Per­manent Secretary for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Josefa Koroivueta, during the Con­ference on the Mid-Term Review of the Asian and Pacific Declaration on Population and Development in Bangkok, Thailand, from Novem­ber 26 to 28, 2018.

Mr Koroivueta led a five-member Fijian Government delegation at the forum, which serves to review the implementation of commit­ments towards the Ministerial Declaration on Population Devel­opment in the Sixth Asia Pacific Population Conference of 2013. Es­sentially, it recognises that people are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development.

The mid-term review aims to identify success indicators, lessons learnt, priority actions and emerg­ing trends of population develop­ment across the Asia Pacific region.

Fiji’s country statement summa­rised the achievements across age cohorts with specific attention to socio- economic empowerment, with a close attention to ageing, child protection, disability, youth and gender empowerment, and cli­mate change adaptation and miti­gation.

Mr Koroivueta also highlighted the challenges for population devel­opment agendas, pointing to data and information management sys­tems as well as having a monitoring framework that will assist local, re­gional and international reporting on population development to re­alise the sustainable development goals.

The forum was jointly organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UN ESCAP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

A total of 179 countries in the Asia Pacific Region were represented at the Regional Conference.

Source: Ministry for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation