The pilot project for the hugely successful 1AZAM programme was held in Iskandar Malaysia two years ago. It was then implemented nationwide in stages, creating opportunities, raising income level and changing lives of Malaysians throughout the country.
Source from (The Star Online): http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/3/28/nation/12899589&sec=nation
Published: March 29, 2013
The programme provides assistance in four essential areas; job placements (Azam Kerja), creating small business enterprises (Azam Niaga), creating small service providers (Azam Khidmat) and creating opportunities in agriculture (Azam Tani).
Azam Kerja is an initiative aimed at helping to secure job placements for poverty-stricken individuals who have little or no work experience while Azam Niaga helps its participants set up small businesses by providing training and micro-credit financing.
Participants of Azam Khidmat are exposed to the knowledge and skills required to start up small service-based businesses such as spa therapy or reflexology while Azam Tani creates opportunities through the provision of agricultural knowledge such as facilitating co-operative farming schemes, promoting cash crops and livestock farming.
The programme attempts to strike a balance between providing direct aid and economic opportunities to its participants to ensure that these individuals become financially self-sustaining.
While it had previously been distributing cash assistance, the NKRA in 2011 substituted this with economic activity programmes to guide the poor and extreme poor on ways to increase their income and break away from the vicious cycle of poverty.
To promote sustainability, another KPI was introduced the following year to ensure that all 1AZAM participants who received grants in 2011 were earning an income above the Poverty Line Index (PLI).
The impact of these programmes was monitored through the eKasih database.
Over the next three years, the Low Income Household NKRA will zoom in on developing “economic enablers” or creating a conducive and empowering environment for these families, such as proper education, nutrition and skills training.
A more targeted approach, compared to the approach used in GTP 1.0, will be undertaken in addressing the needs of specific communities such as the orang asli (indigenous people) and Penan communities.
The 1AZAM programme, moving forward, will be “more granular” and state specific to target under-served districts and to place greater emphasis on the “urban poor”.
Selection of participants for 1AZAM will also be made more stringent under GTP 2.0.
According to the Government Transformation Programme's 2012 Report, selection priority will be given to participants who fall into the extreme poor and poor categories, have not yet received any assistance, or are from districts where there are a high number of poor and extreme poor households but without a corresponding number of 1AZAM participants.
As for targeting specific communities, compared to the broader approach taken in GTP 1.0, the NKRA will zoom in on “neglected communities” such as the Penan people in Sarawak and orang asli groups.
The GTP 2012 report states that 80% of the Penan and 30% of the orang asli still remain in the poor or extreme poor categories.
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