SANDAKAN: Sabah Wanita UMNO will focus on five fields with good public demand in implementing the 1Azam programme in the state.
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Its chief Datuk Armani Mahiruddin said the five fields were handicraft, beauty care and make-up, commercial cuisine, mobile phone repair and reflexology.
She said these business fields were popular as they were easy to be run by the programme participants after they were given guidance by the relevant ministries and assistance in the form of funds and equipment by the government.
"The 1Azam programme implemented by the Barisan Nasional government is aimed at eradicating urban and rural poverty," she said after closing a 1Azam course, here, today.
Armani, who is also state Women, Family and Community Development Council chairman, said the 1Azam programme which had entered its fifth year of implementation, was introduced in mid-2008, and became part of the National Key Result Area aimed at raising the standard of living of low-income households.
She said Sabah was among the pioneers for the 1Azam programme with funds channelled by the Implementation and Coordination Unit under the Prime Minister's Department amounting to RM6 million in 2009.
Armani said to date, 815 participants from Libaran, Sandakan, Batu Sapi, Kinabatangan and Beluran had received 1Azam assistance in the form of equipment to operate their business.
The government has recently introduced the 1Azam insurance scheme that will insure 100,000 low-income households for RM12 million as part of an initiative under the Low-Income Households (LIH) NKRA to increase the living standards of the poor.
ReplyDeleteThe insurance scheme is managed by Allianz Insurance under the purview of the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry and will benefit 500,000 poor people.
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DeleteThe scheme is only available to participants who are registered with the e-Kasih system.
The 1Azam insurance scheme, which covers death and permanent disability, is for a duration of one year which started in January 1 and expires on December 31 this year.
DeleteUp to date, a total amount of RM3 million has been identified to be handed out to eligible recipients nationwide.
DeleteThe 1Azam insurance scheme was another effort by the government to show its concern and commitment to improve the welfare of the poor households under the GTP.
DeleteThe women, family and community development ministry has achieved most of its National Key Performance Indicators (NKPI) targeted under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), despite having encountered difficulties.
DeleteThe most outstanding achievement was the reduction of 44,535 abject poor households to almost zero per cent by the end of last year.
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DeleteIn the GTP Annual Report 2010 issued by the Prime Minister's Department, the total number of households showed that 99.8 per cent of abject poor households had been eradicated from the actual target of 44,643 households.This leaves only 0.2 per cent or 108 to remain, as at Dec 31, last year.
DeleteThe 1AZAM monthly allowance was successful in helping us achieve the NKPI target as was the initiative to leverage on the eKasih database to monitor and verify progress.
DeleteThe 1AZAM initiative was offered to extremely poor and poor households registered in the eKasih database whereby registered households in the eKasih database have to undergo verification by the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) of the Prime Minister's Department.
The 1AZAM monthly allowance, a temporary cash assistance programme which was launched on Oct 25, last year by the ministry, had enabled 21,062 extremely poor households to enjoy the benefits which were made available via redemption at post offices and in the form of 1AZAM Investment.
DeleteEqually important is the fact that we are confident of sustaining the zero extreme poverty figure via 1AZAM.
DeleteAnother major win was the training of women entrepreneurs in which the ministry scored 100 per cent achievement to train and develop 2,000 women entrepreneurs by end of last year.
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DeleteAnother 3,804 candidates are currently undergoing training and of this number, 1,000 are expected to complete their course by 2011 and the remainder thereafter.
DeleteThe units were sold to them at a low price of between RM21,500 and RM35,000 per unit, up to 75 per cent less than the market value.
The target to reduce the number of poor households by 46,000 had only managed to reach 34.5 per cent or 15,868 households from the total amount due to certain circumstances.
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DeleteThe 3.6 per cent incidence of poverty baseline was based on an estimate of 208,000 households and the 2.8 per cent target based on an estimate of 162,000 households, this translates to a reduction of 46,000 households.
If this reduction is used as the 2010 target for this NKPI, then this target was not reached, since the number of households categorised as 'poor' in the eKasih database was only reduced by 15,868 or 34.5 per cent.
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DeleteTherefore, going forward into 2011, a new NKPI has been introduced for the 1AZAM initiative which was aimed at significantly reducing the number of poor households in 2011.
The related ministry is committed to ensure 57,793 eKasih-registered poor households participate in the 1AZAM initiatives by end of last year.
DeleteAll the 2010's backlog eKasih cases would be cleared by March this year and the new 2011 cases would be cleared in the same year.
DeleteThe verification process is to take no longer than 14 days in Peninsular Malaysia and no longer than 28 days in Sabah and Sarawak.
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