THE reform work that is undertaken by the Ministry of Rural Development on the Constituency Development Fund is attracting interest from international development partners.
Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) Dr Samson Viulu said donor interest was expressed during a number of consultations held in the last quarter of last year and early this year.
PS Viulu said his ministry continuous to receive donors and agencies attention and support interest to this Constituency Development Fund (CDF) reform and the CDF programme itself with UNDP already indicated funding support of USD$80,000 (Est. SBD$658715.12) to MRD to support the CDF reform work that will lead to tangible and sustainable development in the rural constituencies.
The Solomon Islands Government (SIG) is supporting this CDF programme since 2007 after the establishment of MRD. The programme is implemented by the 50 constituencies in the country through MRD purposely to improve the social and economic livelihoods of all Solomon Islanders.
Apart from SIG, only the Government of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has supported the CDF Program since 2019 until last year.
In the past year until now, the Ministry of Rural Development has held discussions on possible areas of collaborations with various bilateral partners and donor agencies including the Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China, Embassy of Japan, the British High Commission Office in Solomon Islands, UNDP, SPC, IMF, World Bank and others.
MRD is one of the 24ministries within the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) machinery established on the 28th September, 2007 and its core mandates as contained under Legal Notice 164 in accordance with the Constitution of Solomon Islands is to oversee the effective planning and implementation of Government’s Rural Development Policy.
