President to focus on rural development

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President to focus on rural development

Mizzima, 02 Sep 2013

URL: http://www.mizzima.com/news/development/9979-presi
A network of children’s welfare hubs is to be rolled out in each township over the next five years as part of a government initiative to improve implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Department of Social Welfare is to open or expand 66 offices next year in key townships, with all 330 townships scheduled to receive such facilities by 2019, deputy director general U Tun Tun Oo said.

“We will prioritise townships in border areas and those recognised as having particular child welfare issues,” he said.

The centres will allow INGOs and NGOs to work alongside the department on implementing the convention, collecting data, protecting children from abuse and carrying out other welfare activities.

The offices will be managed by the social welfare department and the government will fund their establishment and operation with assistance from NGOs.

The President has announced that he would focus on rural development programs during the remaining 30 months of his 5 year tenure.

“People in rural areas will soon experience tangible results of development programs”, President Thein Sein said in his radio speech on September 1.

He pledged to prioritize and focus his effort on providing citizens in rural areas with purified drinking water and irrigation water for agriculture which is the primary means of rural livelihood, electricity, better communication facilities, job opportunities and better agricultural programs.

The President also said that the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development has been formed to implement rural development programs effectively.

The Ministry announced 3 objectives to accomplish rural development on August 25, during a meeting with local and international civil societies. The three objectives are to provide sufficient purified water in rural area, to provide adequate electricity, and to offer programs to produce adequate food.

The Minister also stated their plans to upgrade and construct the roads and bridges in rural area, to build public lavatories, to provide rural housings for migrated citizens, to implement programs that will facilitate sustainable livelihood, and to carry out livestock farming through profit sharing system.

The Ministry will work together with local and international NGOs to carry out rural development programs and as the first step, the program will be implemented in 33 townships in Ayeyarwaddy Delta Region, Mid-Myanmar Tropical Zone and Mountain Regions.