KOTA BARU – Challenges faced in the first phase of the Keluarga Malaysia (Malaysian Family) hardcore poverty eradication programme pilot project must be addressed to ensure its smooth implementation in the following phases.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the challenges that have been identified include the appropriateness of the programmes to be carried out by the target group, the hardcore poor, in efforts to improve their living standards.
“Other problems faced include the dynamic status of the hardcore poor household heads, less sustainable project implementation model, the lack of understanding of the parties involved including the household heads as well as the low participation of strategic partners.
“However, most of the issues and challenges have been resolved and God willing, the rest will also be settled soon,” he told a press conference, here today.
Elaborating, Mustapa said the first phase of the pilot project which began last June involved the participation of about 2,500 household heads from 80 localities nationwide.
According to him, the second phase is expected to commence in the middle of September with the participation of 5,000 household heads from 100 localities, to be followed by the third phase in December this year.
“Based on the National Poverty Data Bank system (eKasih), as of August 15, Kelantan recorded the third highest number of hardcore poor in Malaysia totalling 15,455 out of a total of 134,853 nationwide.
“To help raise the income of 249 hardcore poor households in Kelantan, 47 projects involving costs of RM2,579,465 have been approved,” he said.
He also hoped that the target to achieve zero hardcore poverty by the end of 2025 as set in the 12th Malaysia Plan could be achieved through this programme. – Bernama, August 28, 2022
