Project Description FY2000


1. Exchange Projects That Respect the Values and Cultural Identity of Each Island Society

Exchange Media Personnel among the Pacific Island Region and Japan

Pacific Islands News Association(PINA)(Fiji)

For FY2000 ¥5,761,840

Ties between Pacific island nations and Japan are growing deeper year by year as Japan's private sector continues to invest in these countries and more development assistance is extended to them. From fiscal 1991 through fiscal 1999 the Sasakawa Pacific Island Nations Fund (SPINF) implemented the project Inviting Media Personnel from the Pacific Island Region to Japan. More than 60 media personnel from Pacific island nations visited Japan through that project, which aimed to promote understanding of Japan within the region. This year, as the second phase of its efforts, SPINF launched this new project.
In conjunction with the second Japan-South Pacific Forum Summit Meeting (PALM 2000), which was organized by the Japanese government and held on April 22, SPINF invited eight journalists from the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga to Japan. These journalists later wrote feature articles that were carried in local newspapers and magazines, broadcast on radio, and posted on the Internet. SPINF also sent three newspaper and television reporters from Miyakojima and the Yaeyama Islands in Okinawa Prefecture to Palau in March 2001. These journalists interviewed the nation's new president and gathered material on a wide range of subjects, including environmental problems, the activities of Okinawans living in Palau, the island nation's traditional culture, and the current state of education. Upon returning to Japan, they produced features on Palau.

(1st year of a 5-year project)


Coconut College

The Sasakawa Peace Foundation

For FY2000 ¥4,463,973

Over a three-year period beginning in fiscal 1994, SPF hosted eight Shima o Kataru Kai (Island Forum in Japan) conferences for people involved in island affairs in Japan to discuss exchange and cooperation with Pacific island nations. These sessions led to SPF's establishment in fiscal 1997 of Coconuts College of the Pacific, a three-year project that disseminated information on Pacific island nations through such avenues as Open Seminars and a virtual classroom on the Internet. This year marked the start of Coconuts College's second phase, which is to cover five years.
This year, SPF hosted an open seminar in the Yaeyama Islands, Okinawa Prefecture, June 16-17. The guest speakers were Dr. Yosihiko Sinoto, senior archaeologist at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu; Masao Salvador, ambassador of the Republic of Palau; Christina Higa of the University of Hawaii; and Takeshi Miki, managing director of the Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper company. It also cosponsored a public symposium with the Japan External Trade Organization on March 7, 2001, on the subject "Enhancing the Economic Relationship Between Japan and the Pacific Islands Countries Through Doing Business."
The virtual classroom promptly posted newly arrived materials and updates on Fiji's coup d'état. Inquiries from NGOs, the media, businesses, and other parties were numerous, indicating the growing value of this classroom as a site disseminating information on Pacific Island nations.

(1st year of a 5-year project)


Regional History Project of the Council of Presidents of the Pacific History and Social Studies Teachers Association

National University of Samoa (Samoa)

For FY2000 ¥2,634,034

The history and social studies textbooks currently in use in Pacific island nations have for the most part been authored by experts from the region's former suzerain powers and are not written by the islanders themselves. In fiscal 1995 SPF launched Teaching the Pacific Forum, a five-year project that supported the development of teaching materials by history teachers in the region and the establishment of an association of teachers in each country. The Council of Presidents of the Pacific History and Social Science Teachers Association, a regional organization headquartered at the National University of Samoa, was formed in 1999.
This new project aims to further strengthen the network that has been established among educators and heighten awareness of the importance of teaching history. Political upheaval in Fiji and the Solomon Islands prevented the project from proceeding as originally planned this year. Nevertheless, a workshop was held in Samoa Oct. 4-6 in order to develop teaching materials and guides, promote information exchange, and boost educator quality. Ten people from American Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati, and Tonga participated in the workshop. Other activities included the production of one issue of the association's newsletter and the compilation of Guide for First Year History Teachers.

(1st year of a 3-year project)



2. Micronesia-Focused Projects Aimed at Promoting Regional Harmony

Educational Support for Better Understanding of Japan in the Micronesian Region

Association for Japanese Language Teaching (Japan)

For FY2000 ¥5,000,000

Despite the need for Japanese-language teaching and education to introduce Japanese culture to Pacific island nations, there is still no adequate regionwide support system for this. The response to the strong demand for this kind of education is especially underdeveloped in such U.S. territories as Guam and Saipan, which are not eligible for official development assistance from Japan.
This year, Sachiko Adachi, an instructor sent from Japan in August 1999 to teach Japanese at Saipan's Marianas High School, provided guidance to local Japanese-language instructors at the high school and junior college levels, supervised the development of supplementary teaching materials, and conducted a survey of Japanese-language teaching on Tinian, an island just south of Saipan. Furthermore, in addition to planning and coordinating student visits to Japan and carrying out activities to promote understanding of Japanese culture within the local community in her capacity as the faculty advisor of the Japan Club at Marianas High School, she prepared a proposal for the provision of education for intercultural understanding and foreign-language instruction over the Internet and presented it to the State Board of Education Public School System of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. She also traveled to Guam, Hawaii, Palau, and Yap to investigate the status of Japanese-language education there.

(2nd year of a 3-year project)


Archaeological Training Programs in Emerging Micronesian Island Nations

University of Guam (Guam)

For FY2000 ¥824,197

From fiscal 1996 to fiscal 1998 SPF provided a grant to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and achieved successful results through the Pilot Archaeological Training Program in the Pacific Islands initiative, a pilot project for training local archaeologists throughout the Pacific island region. Building on that experience, this new project is organizing lectures and conducting on-site training in connection with the excavation and maintenance of ruins in Micronesian.
On-site training was scheduled to take place in Pohnpei and Palau this year, but Pohnpei experienced an outbreak of cholera that lasted more than half a year, and the training there was canceled. Meanwhile, Palau faced a brief dengue outbreak, delaying training preparations there and resulting in fewer participants than initially planned. Nevertheless, five officials of the Division of Cultural Affairs of the government of Palau underwent a month-long training in which they studied basic excavation techniques and methods of archaeological investigation.
In Palau, where development is in progress, many investigations of ruins are carried out with the cooperation of experts from other countries. This project has paved the way for local experts to become more active participants in archaeological investigations.

(1st year of a 3-year project)


PATS Staff Trainee Program

Ponape Agriculture & Trade School (Micronesia)

For FY2000 ¥1,238,386

The Pongee Agriculture and Trade School (PATS), established 35 years ago, is the only vocational school in the Micronesian region. It has graduated close to 1,000 students, shaping them into human resources who contribute to the region's economic development. This project aims to increase the school's indigenous faculty by carrying out a two-year postgraduate training course for PATS alumni so that they can join the teaching staff.
Ten PATS graduates enrolled in the course this year, but four were later dismissed for poor attitude. Learning from that episode, PATS made an effort to strengthen the program by endeavoring to increase the self-reliance and self-respect of trainees and requiring them to meet periodically with faculty members to receive guidance. In a further step to improve trainee discipline, PATS revised the training guidelines. As the training moved toward the end of the term in May 2001, the six trainees remaining in the program were making smooth progress. To equip its trainees to be better qualified as teachers, PATS has enlisted the cooperation of the College of Micronesia so that trainees can earn credits by taking college classes in the mornings in such subjects as psychology, algebra, teaching methods, and advanced English.

(1st year of a 3-year project)



3. Projects That Support Education and Training through the Medium of Distance Education

Transcending Borders with Education Online
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Micronesia Seminar (Micronesia)

For FY2000 ¥2,875,214

The rapid pace of modernization in Micronesia has created a situation in which people there are not always fully aware of developmental and social problems. Meanwhile, the more than 20,000 Micronesians who have gone overseas to work or study have had difficulty readjusting upon their return home. This project is an experiment in online education.
Project activities this year included the conversion into digital form of a catalog of 15,000 items belonging to the archives of the Micronesian Seminar, which has been carrying out research into social problems in the region for more than two decades. In addition, the project upgraded the website created during the first year and also made such improvements as identifying topics of special interest and distributing information using a mailing list. Online seminars on four topics_"Why Don't Our Government Offices Work?" "The Victimization Disease," "What Should Our Schools Be Doing?" and "Education: What's the Problem?"_sparked brisk discussion. Consultations were also held with relevant parties about the possibility of launching a new online forum in fiscal 2001 for educators and students affiliated with colleges in Micronesia.

(2nd year of a 3-year project)


Training Program for Distance Education and Learning Technologies and Applications in the Pacific Islands

University of Hawaii (U.S.A)

For FY2000 ¥4,837,641
Total Expenditure ¥17,425,785

The creation of a system of distance education to encompass all the islands scattered across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean is a core issue in terms of the region's development of human resources. Amid the whirl of changes in policy and technologies unfolding today in the telecommunications field in the Asia-Pacific region, educators, telecommunications workers, government officials, and others on the islands are unable to obtain sufficient information and training about what is happening and where it is leading.
For this project, Pan-Pacific Education and Cultural Experiments by Satellite (PEACESAT), which is headquartered at the University of Hawaii, spearheaded the establishment of a telecommunications policy group focusing primarily on Micronesia. It also coordinated the organization of workshops and a policy conference. An appeal was made for relevant personnel from supporting organizations, including the Japanese and U.S. governments, to take part in these events, and the project endeavored to give them an understanding of the current status of telecommunications in Micronesia. More than 300 educators and telecommunications workers took part in the workshops over the project's three years.
In fiscal 1999 the project set out to help the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, and Saipan receive funding from the Universal Services Fund, a U.S. fund for telecommunications infrastructure and network building in schools and other institutions in the United States. To accomplish this, the project carried out activities to raise awareness, chiefly in local educational circles, of this funding mechanism and assisted with the preparation of applications. So far, each of the three territories has secured annual funds of US$3 million-US$5 million from the U.S. government and has equipped all its schools and libraries with infrastructure for the utilization of Internet services at very low cost.
This year the project gathered together relevant government officials from independent countries in Micronesia, which do not qualify for the funding program (the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau). Within a framework of promoting regional cooperation, the project worked with these officials to formulate a proposal for a regional distance education and telemedicine network. When Federated States of Micronesia President Leo A. Falcam visited Japan in March 2001 he presented the proposal to Yoshiro Mori, Japan's prime minister at the time. Officials within the Japanese government are now considering whether budget funds should be allocated for the proposed project within the context of the comprehensive package to address the "digital divide" that Japan unveiled at the Group of Eight Kyushu-Okinawa Summit in July 2000.
The project also tracked the latest developments in telecommunications and published its findings in a handbook, which it distributed to educators, telecommunications workers, and government officials in Pacific island nations. In addition to sharing this information with a wider audience by posting it on the PEACESAT website, the project gained exposure to a broad readership when a special feature on its accomplishments appeared in Pacific News.NET, a publication issued by the University of Hawaii.

(Final year of a 3-year project)


Charting the Future Course of Distance Education in the Western Pacific

University of Guam (Guam)

For FY2000 ¥5,522,000

Over the years the countries of Micronesia have made a variety of attempts to develop distance education. The University of Guam, which is the only university in Micronesia and has for many years played a leadership role in higher education in the region, has been at the center of these efforts. Recently, as countries in the region have ceased being trust territories and achieved full independence, they have started to establish their own institutions of higher learning. Regional cooperation is essential, though, if educational opportunities are to be provided with limited resources to people living on remote and widely scattered islands.
This project organized seminars and other events in order to shape policies for regional cooperation in connection with an intra-regional distance education system utilizing appropriate telecommunications technology and to boost skills in this area. Approximately 20 people, including members of the Pacific Post-Secondary Education Council and people connected with Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, took part in the project's Regional Policy Forum, which was held Aug. 1-3 at the University of Guam. The participants clarified the current status of distance education and confirmed the needs in this area. They also agreed to move toward a regional mechanism for cooperation among relevant parties and established a platform for a system of cooperation with support organizations. In this way, the forum kept open the possibility of continued efforts to develop distance education and telemedicine in the region.

(A one-year project)




4. Projects to promote networking among NGOs and NPOs operating in the region and to form linkages among Pacific island nations and Asian countries

The 2nd General Assembly of the Pacific Youth Council

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (New Caledonia)

For FY 2000 ¥5,209,844

Seeking to promote the sound development of youth amid the worldwide social upheaval that followed the end of World War II, youth organizations in democratic nations joined together to form the World Assembly of Youth in 1949. The Asia Youth Council (AYC) was subsequently established in 1972 in Malaysia as the Asian arm of this global organization. The Pacific Youth Council (PYC) was founded with the cooperation of AYC in 1996 as a hub linking NGOs for young people in Pacific island nations. Beginning in fiscal 1994, SPF extended support over four years in connection with the establishment of PYC.
PYC convened the Second General Assembly of the Pacific Youth Council in Nadi, Fiji, in December 2000. With 26 participants from 22 countries, the assembly worked through an agenda that included the creation of a five-year plan for PYC activities, revision of the organization's charter, and the election of officers. Thanks to the observer-status participation of representatives from UNICEF and other groups, the gathering also gave PYC an opportunity to reinforce its cooperative ties with relevant organizations.

(A one-year project)



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