Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) says it will commence its monitoring of Constituency Development Funds (CDF) on selected constituencies next week.
The SBD$90 million CDF was released to the fifty Members of Parliament this week. Each MP received SBD$1.9 million, to be used for various development projects at their respective constituencies.
MRD Deputy Secretary Technical (DST) Hugo Hebala said that the monitoring of CDF is an instrument that seeks to complement the M & E monitoring activity at the constituency level.
The monitoring will be carried out by the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit officers in MRD until the M&E framework is developed and finalised in early 2022. Hebala also confirmed that this exercise is just for interim period pending development and finalisation of M & E framework next year.
“MRD is trying to improve how we monitor projects at the constituency level,” Hebala added.
He said, thus the need for MRD to develop this CDF support monitoring is, to complement the work our M&E unit already carried out in the constituency level.
For this CDF support monitoring, Hebala said that it will take into account constituency projects from last year 2020.
Selected constituencies that the ministry’s M&E officers will be visiting as of next week include three Honiara Constituencies (East, Central and West), Central Guadalcanal Constituency and Northeast Guadalcanal Constituency in Guadalcanal Province, Savo Russell Constituency and Ngella Constituency in Central Island Province and Gao-Bugotu Constituency in Isabel province.
“Our target is to complete these constituencies in the coming weeks before the festive season while the remain constituencies will be covered next year 2022.”
Meanwhile, Hebala calls on the constituents to support this activity by providing accurate information to officers who will be deployed into these respective constituencies on how CDF has either contributed positively or negatively towards their livelihood.
The Constituency Development Fund intends to support the delivery of socio-economic development projects within the fifty (50) constituencies in the Solomon Islands.
The main objectives of the Constituency Development Funds are:
• To provide how the disadvantaged, remote, and inadequately served communities, groups, families, and individuals can have access to rural development funds to help them participate in revenue-generating projects;
• To assist individuals, families, and community-based organizations to participate in socio-economic developments to help alleviate poverty within the rural areas, and;
• To help address the problem of unemployment within the constituencies by involving people in meaningful income-generating projects.
MRD is fully committed to see that all rural Solomon Islanders become meaningfully participated in development activities to improve their social and economic livelihoods.
Source: MRD Media