The Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development for Financial Years annual report from 2019, 2020, 2021 was tabled in Parliament this week.
Chairman of the Social Sector Committee Laumatiamanu Ringo M Purcell outlined recommendations including a call for the Ministry to pilot Reviews and monitoring of village Faalupega to ensure traditions and cultural treasures pertaining to respective villages are safeguarded and are not lost with the changes of time.
Also, the committee recommends the Ministry provide effective awareness of the term “Rights of the Child” to avoid Children overstepping boundaries and neglecting the Samoan value of respect.
Furthermore, the Ministry to be the leading agency in advocating for villages and government Ministries/Organizations through awareness programmes paving more opportunities for community development and that the Ministry to be vigilant in monitoring issues relating to domestic violence and create policies that aim to eliminate violence against women and children.
In response, Minister of Women, Community and Social Development, Leota Laki Lamositele says that reviewing village faalupega has always been the practice led by the Ministry in the past.
However, the continuation of that lead role is now in the court of the Faleula Advisory Committee with Ministry support. Further to this, a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is assigned for the implementation of this role under Output 2 of the Ministry’s Annual Management Plan for this financial year (FY2022-23), to ensure alignment of this activity to the Ministry’s integrated planning framework.
“In addition, a monitoring and reviewing activity for the village faalupega is one of the planned tasks included in the annual work plan of the Committee to be undertaken in this financial year.
Moreover, the Ministry continued to encourage villages through Sui o Nuu (SN), Sui Tamaitai o Nuu (STN) and Sui o le Malo (SM), to develop village by-laws to ensure monitoring of village faalupega are included and together will serve as an important mechanism to help them to make decisions considering crucial pillars of Good governance.”
