Public symposium on new CDF law set, 6 July

A symposium to get public opinion and views on the newly proposed Constituency Development Fund (CDF) Act 2023 is set for tomorrow, Thursday 6 July 2023.

The symposium will be held at the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) Lecture Theatre, Kukum Campus. It will commence at 1pm.

The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) in collaboration with the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) is hosting the public symposium.

Public and those who want to see changes to the governance and administration of CDF are encouraged to attend.

This symposium is part of the mandatory reforms that MRD is undertaking to improve and strengthen the delivery mechanisms of the CDF program and its governance.

Panelists for the symposium are: Dr Samson Viulu MRD Permanent Secretary, Dr Transform Aqorau SINU Vice-Chancellor, Dr Lincy Pende from the SINU Faculty of Education & Humanities and Mr Shadrach Fanega SINU Pro Vice Chancellor (Corporate).

Work on reforming CDF has commenced in August last year by MRD with the formulation of the first ever Solomon Islands Constituency Development (SICD) Policy, and the symposium is part of the process.

Cabinet has approved the policy (SICD) in March this year and that sets a bedrock for the ministry to go ahead with the review work on the CDF legislation 2023.

“This is a long overdue issue and our people have been waiting and eager to see improvements to the management and governance of the CDF program.

“CDF is not new and not bad. CDF is a good thing since it is easy to access by rural people, reaches remote rural areas and touches rural lives in many ways. But the management and governance part of it is an issue, and so the review work to improve it.

“We have captured views and complains from our stakeholders, integrity organisations and the rural folks during our previous consultations and that has helped us a lot towards this review work for a way forward in the management of the CDF program.

“For the benefit of our children and our future generations, we (MRD) have to make this bold move to amend this CDF program to guarantee every Solomon Islanders participate meaningfully in economic development activities to improve their social and economic livelihoods, and we thank the DCGA Government for seeing it fit to effect these changes” the Permanent Secretary of MRD Dr Samson Viulu previously said.

The new CDF Act and legislation once passed in Parliament will improves the CDF delivery mechanisms as well as pave the way for more positive changes in our rural communities to ensure all rural Solomon Islanders become meaningfully participated in development activities to improve their social and economic livelihood.

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.

UNDP is funding the CDF reform work.

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