Isiye Ndombi is the UNICEF Representative in the Pacific. Recently he visited the UNICEF NZ office and we asked him to tell us about his experiences working for UNICEF.

What do you do in a typical day?

When at my home station in Suva, Fiji, I wake up at 5.30, exercise for an hour, take a bath at 6.30, have breakfast at 7.00 and drive to the Office, arriving there at 7.30.

I spend 30 minutes scanning my mail for urgent messages and prepare a "to do list" for the day. From 8.00 I commence on a schedule ably prepared by my executive assistant. The typical day will include 3 hours of internal meetings, 4 hours of meetings with partners and 2 hours of reading and responding to letters and e-mails. I am also frequently in touch with our three field offices in Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Because we cover 14 island countries with vast distances between them, work in the Pacific entails more than average travel. When traveling, I spend time at airports and guest rooms catching up and responding to e-mail messages, and I am in frequent telephone contact with the office in Suva. I try to keep up my exercise routine during travel.

What are your most memorable moments?

My most memorable moments relate to my work in newly independent Eritrea, where we did ground breaking work but always faced the threat - during our frequent field visits - of driving over land mines or being attacked by bandits who often crossed the border from Sudan. Happily, no UNICEF staff were affected although some of our partners were not always lucky. We were not deterred by these threats, however. We visited and worked with all provinces to establish services for children.

What motivates you?

Fulfilling the rights of children is always inspiring and fulfilling. It is a call to the future. Nothing can be more satisfying. Getting my team and partners focused on results for children and providing ideas that help them develop a winning plan creates great moments.

Why did you decide to work for UNICEF?

I started my professional life as a pediatrician and child health specialist who also trained doctors in Kenya. I soon found that the majority of children I was attending to were suffering from conditions that could be prevented with accessible low-cost technologies. Frustrated by this scenario, I decided to move upstream and focus on prevention rather than remaining reactive and often losing the battle. I engaged in successful preventive health work and started publishing the results of low cost interventions we were implementing.

UNICEF and other partners soon noticed the work we were engaged in and started inviting me to contribute my ideas and experience to their partnership with governments in Eastern and Southern Africa. It is then that I started to fully understand UNICEF's comprehensive vision and mandate for children. I did not hesitate to join the agency when an opportunity arose to do so. I knew it could give me a good chance to contribute to the fulfillment of the rights of children and to development in general.

What are the hardest parts of your job?

When one sees children's rights being violated and partners are unable or unwilling to take the right actions it can be painful. The good thing is that no obstacle is completely insurmountable. We have developed experience and resilience to negotiate seemingly high hurdles. If one looks, thinks and explores hard enough, there is always a solution, even to the seemingly impossible obstacles. I believe that the first solid step towards successful programming for children is good data.

What do you consider your greatest achievements?

Among the key events in my career with UNICEF was the achievement of universal child immunisation (UCI) in Botswana in 1989, one year ahead of the target time. I had been hired by UNICEF as the EPI advisor to the Government of Botswana and was part of the team that planned and supported an elaborate social mobilisation programme aiming to realize UCI by 1990. We were able to objectively verify its achievement in 1989. That was a great moment for me.

I was transferred from Botswana to newly independent Eritrea as the Deputy Representative in 1994. In Eritrea, we supported the establishment of health, education and protection services from scratch. By the time I left in 1997, Eritrea had policies and systems established and had made major gains in that brief period. I remember, in particular, a war orphan reunification initiative that UNICEF supported where we were able to utilize 87 percent of resources directly invested into the project, with only 13 percent overheads, as verified by a comprehensive evaluation in which the Government of Eritrea, the donor (Italy), UNICEF Headquarters and UNICEF ESARO were involved.

I moved to Tanzania in 1997. In Tanzania, our advocacy led to the adoption of universal primary education in 2002. We also demonstrated the impact of comprehensive maternal care in the refugee camps with the prevalence of low birth weight dropping from 25 percent to seven percent. We also supported the Government of Tanzania to establish a programme for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

I moved from Tanzania to Papua New Guinea in 2003. In Papua New Guinea, I soon realized how the lack of data on children impeded decision-making. We published the Development Atlas on PNG's Children in October 2003. We supported the primary school net enrolment study which motivated the Government and partners to start discussions towards free and compulsory primary education. We supported the government to implement the 2006 nutrition survey (the first after the 1982 survey). We supported the Government to implement the first EPI survey in 2005. And we joined partners in supporting the 2006 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). These databases facilitated a better view of the condition of children.

A brief overview of the situation of children in the Pacific

While some gains have been made towards the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, not all Pacific countries are on course to achieve them. Goals related to poverty and nutrition, gender, maternal health, water, environment and sanitation and HIV/AIDS targets are in greatest jeopardy. Even though most countries have made good quantitative gains in providing access for children to basic education, the quality of learning is generally poor.

The situation also reflects growing urban migration which is often accompanied by cash poverty, poverty of opportunity, cultural deterioration, family fragmentation and growing urban-rural (or outer island) disparity. Distances between and within countries make moving around for development and trade costly. Frequent disasters often erode hard-earned gains. Political instability, prevalent in some countries, stifles human development. Investment in social and protection sectors is still low and weak economic bases mean that these countries rely heavily on foreign aid for their development.

As over 50 percent of the population is under 20 years of age, Pacific countries will require heavy investment in health, education and other social services as well as generation of employment in order just to keep where they are at present. And yet threats such as HIV/AIDS and disasters are likely to draw them back substantially. To enable these countries to be strategic and proactive will require very good development monitoring through good data, informed investment choices, efficient targeting of resources and attention to reducing disparities.

On the positive side, the strategic gains made include: ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by all Pacific island countries; National Action Plans for Children have been formulated by most countries; National Strategic Plans increasingly aligned with MDGs and the CRC; the Pacific Plan offers a direction for future growth and development; and, the Pacific Aid Effectiveness principles can ensure greater country-led development.

The programmatic gains include: progressive reductions in child mortality; eradication of polio; interruption of measles; a greater number of girls in school; greater adoption of juvenile justice systems by Pacific island countries; and increasing success of breastfeeding promotion and protection.

A strong coordinated approach between countries and development organizations will be required not only to reduce transaction costs for the countries but to ensure that investment is more efficient, country-led and sustainable.