The United Nations Fund for Population Activities has expanded an agreement with Fiji's School of Medicine to provide a certified health course for midwives and nurses in the Pacific region.
Director Pacific Sub regional office and UNFPA Representative Najib Assifi says the medical school has now chosen to incorporate the course into their curriculum.
Until now, the UNFPA has largely funded the particpants from over 10 Pacific countries to travel and do the11-week course, funded administration costs and also provided technical support.
Mr Assifi says due to the popularity of the course, the UNFPA is still willing to be involved, as the course has made a substantial contribution to training healthworkers in the Pacific region.
"The course has been extremely useful because it has produced over 140 graduates. And these nurses and midwives who are trained through this certificate course are currently functioning in remote and rural areas of many Pacific countries. In fact they are the network who implement the reproductive health programme in the Pacific."