EAST Are’are constituency continues to deliver meaningful projects as it collaborates with communities to implement its Constituency Development Fund programmes.
A team from the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) is currently in the constituency to monitor and verify 2020-2022 Constituency Development Fund (CDF)-funded projects and is impressed on how the constituency implement its CDF priorities in partnership with communities and individuals.
“Partnership in development is a way forward. And that is the approach EAC is taking to make sure constituents are responsible for their development programs.
“W encouraged community participation in all our development activities to guarantee communities take ownership and responsibility for their development programs, share in decision making and continue to implement government supported developments to improve their livelihoods. “So, implementation of CDF development programmes/projects in our constituency is a shared responsibility by government through our constituency office and our communities,” Constituency Development Officer (CPO) Aliki Ha’apio said.
He added that EAC want to encourage constituents to work hard in order to get away with the dependency mentality/syndrome.
“So, most of EAC projects were implemented through community partnership or participation where constituency assist with all required hardware materials and communities implement the projects with support of timbers, sand, gravel and labour,” he explained.
He further said that EAC put more emphasis or support to communal projects to promote unity and community participation in our communities.
Mr Ha’apio said that it is the commitment of the constituency office under the leadership of their Member of Parliament (MP) Hon. Peter Kenilorea Jr to support and fund establishment of community projects that can benefit everyone.
“Education is one of the priority sector’s that we put more support into like support to school facilities, classrooms, staff houses and school fee subsidy to make sure our children continue to access better and quality education.
“In addition to that the constituency is also pleased to continue its support to churches regardless of whatever denomination because churches play an important role in the spiritual and social development of our communities and our country.
“Projects were identified by respective communities or community committees. The constituency office only verifies submitted proposals and facilitate delivery of whatever is requested of them. This is how we implement and utilize our CDF allocation,” CPO Aliki explained.
Meanwhile, Hautahe Women Association thanked the support rendered by the government through their MP Hon. Kenilorea which enabled them to generate income through the establishment of a deep freezer system set under the economic sector – income generating programme.
“Empowering us rural women in such economic undertakings is a way forward to boost rural economy. And seeing the constituency office stepped with such support and continue to investing in this sector is encouraging and we acknowledged EAC under the leadership of our Member of Parliament (MP) Hon. Kenilorea Jr for his vision and honest leadership towards development in our constituency.”
They encourage the government through MRD to continue with the CDF programme adding that CDF is the only fund that continue to touches and transform rural lives.
Chairman of Hautahe community John Tarei also shared the same sentiments.
Mr Tarei on behalf of his Hautahe community thanked MP Kenilorea Jr and his constituency officers for the continuous support toward development in the constituency.
“We indeed appreciate CDF and acknowledge government through our MP for its continuous support towards development of community projects in our constituency to make sure it benefits everyone,” he said.
Principal of Hautahe Community High School, Andrew Tahuni also expressed his appreciation to their MP and his continues support toward the development needs of the school.
He said the school has benefited a lot from the CDF program.
“We are recipient of two projects which include an internet dish set for e-learning and a standard netball court.
“The super-fast internet connection benefit both students and teachers to access important information for their assessment and also help in their e-learning.
“The netball court is where the school use to host its sporting activities and also used by the community to host community programs. So, we are grateful to our MP for facilitating those projects,” he said.
Principal Tahuni also thanked government through the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) for the CDF programme and encourages government to continue with the programme to improve social and economic livelihoods of rural people.
The constituency also supported and sent some of its constituents in 2020 to work in Australia under the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS) and three others to work in Canada under the partnership between Canadian International Training & Education Corp (CITREC) and the EAC supported under Government of Canada’s Labour Mobility program.
Development partnership is evident in EAC. The constituency office work in partnership with communities, individuals and even international institutions to help advance rural development that transforms constituents’ livelihoods.
Hautahe community was the first community visited by the MRD monitoring team last Friday. The team will continue visiting other communities from today until Thursday this week.
CDF is a programme of the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) and is implemented by the 50 constituencies in the country through the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) purposely to improve the social and economic livelihoods of all Solomon Islanders.
Peoples Republic of China (PRC) is the only donor partner providing CDF support to the Solomon Islands Government since 2019 – 2022.
MRD Communications and Public Relations will bring more stories on the impact of CDF in EAC in the coming days.
Current MP for EAC is Hon. Peter Kenilorea Jr.
