By Loretta B Manele

Government’s budget assistance from development partners is focused mainly on urban areas, Environment minister Manamahaga has said.

Trevor Hedley Manemahaga, minister for the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM) stated this at the Sine Die Motion on Thursday, December 19 in parliament last year.

Manemahaga emphasised that if you look at the budget, a lot of funding support is towards urban areas and projects from development partners are also heavily focused on urban development.

“We smaller provinces are disadvantaged because they base their assistance on population; that’s the index they use.”

He said this is why he will continue to support RCDF because it is the only financial mechanism, he sees going down to the rural areas.

Manemahaga said the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) when established was mainly for rural development, however the new act kind of takes away the intention of the CDF which is for rural development.

“So, Gao/Bugotu calls for the review of this CDF act so that it becomes relevant and gives some flexibility in terms of addressing the development challenges that we have.”

The member of parliament for Gao/Bugotu constituency stated that this must change and they must be fair.

Manemahaga said they must look at the comparative advantages of each province and donors must make sure they are strategic in their allocation of projects to rural areas.