Australia's MP Pat Conroy announces AUD$9.5m community program [1]
Thursday, August 29, 2024 - 19:20. Updated on Friday, August 30, 2024 - 11:52.
By Katalina Siasau
Australia’s Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Hon. Pat Conroy MP visits the MORDI Tonga Trust facilities today, at Havelu, on the side of the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Nuku'alofa.
He attended the official announcement of the Tonga Australia Resilient Communities Program, where Australia committed a TOP $15 million (AUD$9.5m) for the Tonga Australia Resilient Communities program.
Australia will partner with Mainstreaming of Rural Development Innovation (MORDI), Tonga’s largest non-government organisation, to work with communities to improve water security, food production and local infrastructure.
This new program will provide funding to communities across Tonga, to implement priority projects identified in village community development plans (CDPs) in collaboration with MORDI Tonga Trust, over a period of five years.
“This program will provide all communities across Tonga to implement their priorities identified in community development programs, and I saw some of the products there, projects like water storage, food security and community evacuation, and projects which build resilience to climate change," said Hon. Conroy.
He said that these communities projects have an important focus on women in the community, and giving an income to women.
About 88 per cent of Tonga’s population lives in rural areas and 84 per cent lives within one kilometre of the coast.
The new program recognises the biggest security threat we face is climate change and aims to enhance community resilience to climate change, in line with the the 53rd PIF theme, “Transformative Resilient Pasifiki: Build Better Now.”
The Minister Conroy toured the MORDI Tonga Trust Facilities, and saw outdoor plantations; of vanila, lime, breadfruit, and other crops. He was joined by the Minister for MEIDECC, Hon. Fekita 'Utoikamanu, Minister for Internal Affairs Lord Vaea, Australia's High Commissioner to Tonga, Brek Batley, and others. Town officers and district officers from various communities across Tongatapu attended the event.