President Ali declares that development of Amerindian communities paramount

Indigenous leaders during the exercise

Participants of the National Toshaos Conference (NTC) were urged by President Irfaan Ali to work together to identify issues within their communities and to come up with core plans to address them.

The call was made by Ali as he interacted with indigenous leaders on day three of the NTC at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. “Having reviewed every single thing that you have said so far, I will suggest to you a methodology for us to achieve some results. In this methodology, I want us to spend the rest of this afternoon defining some core issues and come up with some core plans that could come to accelerate your needs and accelerate the implementation of your ideas,” he said.

The President stressed that the main aim, is for the participants to devise an action plan to accelerate the projects identified. These projects, with the agreement of the participants, have been grouped into nine categories, including food security and agriculture, women’s affairs, pensioners and the elderly, children and youth, human resources, facilities, services, economic activities and empowerment, and infrastructure.

President Irfaan Ali on day three of the National Toshaos Conference

“As leaders, that is what I want us to think about; what is it we want to achieve?,” he asked. Ali tasked cabinet ministers and their technical teams to work along with the indigenous leaders and community representatives to identify their needs in these areas and to present their plans for discussions before the end of the day.

The Head of State also pointed to the importance of monitoring and evaluating projects in hinterland communities and announced that a team would be set up to oversee the implementation of needed projects. The aim, he stressed, is to ensure that indigenous communities have equal developmental opportunities.

It was revealed that the NTC is being held this week under the theme “Good Governance and Fast-Tracking Amerindian Development”. It brings together indigenous leaders from over 200 Amerindian communities across the country.