Countries and Regions

	Table of Contents
p. 4 of 13 BACK | NEXT I. Country Performance Assessment A. Economic Performance Assessment B. Poverty Assessment C. Assessment of Socio-Environmental Performance D. Governance: Sound Development Management E. Implementation Assessment II. Country Operational Strategy III. Sector Strategies IV. Regional Cooperation V. Donor Activities and Aid Coordination VI. Cofinancing and Catalyzing External Resources VII. ADB’s Operational Program VIII. Economic and Sector Work Program

Country Assistance Plans - Nauru : I. Country Performance Assessment

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C. Assessment of Socio-Environmental Performance

1. Gender Issues

10. While women play an important role in family matters, they have no representation in the Parliament and are grossly under represented at the higher levels of Government service and in the Nauru Phosphate Corporation which is the next largest employer in Nauru. This trend is likely to continue while the social system remains led by a Council of Chiefs. However, increasing number of girls are enrolling in school and the truancy among the female students is significantly lower than that among male students. As a result, women seem to be benefiting more from the education system.

2. Human Development

11. Nauru’s Human Development Index ranking has slipped to a medium level in recent years as GDP per capita has fallen. With no minimum education requirements for employment in the Government, education has remained a neglected sector. Nauruans are not particularly encouraged to go to schools. Very few have attained college degrees or gone abroad for higher education. Years of “welfare state” governance sustained by high phosphate earnings has led to a lifestyle of luxury and leisure. There has been no need to be educated or to learn vocational skills. Nauru will require considerable and immediate assistance to rectify the situation. Otherwise, Nauruans are likely to pay a severe price in the medium term while the reform measures are being implemented. Secondary and technical education needs are areas requiring immediate attention to enable Nauruans to seek alternate employment.

3. Environment

12. The strip-mining methods employed in the extraction of phosphate for some 90 years have devastated the environment. The natural vegetation and topsoil have been removed from over 70 percent of the land area, primarily at the center of the island, thus preventing the dispersal of a rapidly-increasing population from the coastal fringe, heightening land pressures and disputes around that fringe, and possibly causing microclimate deterioration. Phosphate dust may have health implications, as it aggravates the corrosive qualities of salt-laden air.

13. Soil rehabilitation needs to be undertaken to regenerate cultivable land in Nauru. Subsistence agriculture can then be promoted. It will not only provide subsistence income, but improve health through change of dietary habits, since to date there remains a dire shortage of fresh fruits and vegetables. Environmental issues remain an important agenda of the Government especially the impact of global warming on sea levels.

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