Village council representatives have received a pay rise of $300 tala a fortnight following the parliament’s passing of the 2021/2022 Budget last week. 

A village mayor previously got paid $250 tala a fortnight while the women representatives were paid $150 tala for the same period of time. 

However, the Minister of Women Community and Social Development, Leota Laki Leota recently announced in the parliament that the women’s representative also gets $300 tala for two weeks work.

Leota, speaking during the Government’s response to the budget debate, said the new Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (F.A.S.T.) Government’s motto is to increase the standard of living for all citizens.

The Minister said there are different ways of measuring poverty and recent reports confirmed Samoa has 22 per cent of people living below the poverty line.

“If Samoa has a population of 215,000 that means 47,300 people are below the defined poverty line,” said Leota. 

He said the breakdown would indicate that 6,000 families in the country are facing poverty and lifting the standard or equity is the way to tackle the issue.

Furthermore, the Minister said the drop out percentage for Year 11–13 shows 25 per cent for Year 13 and 20 per cent for Year 11 students which is a challenge for the authorities.

“The new Government’s focus is on the development and assistance given to the social sector to address these important issues,” he said.

Amongst other grants provided by the new Government is disability benefit where $3 million is allocated for this incentive for the current financial year.

According to the Minister, the funds will be provided to schools such as Fia Malamalama, Senese, Loto Taumafai and others. 

The $1 million policy under the District Development Committee is another initiative of the Government to strengthen the social sector. Instead of the promised $1million tala for each constituency, the budget has allocated $11 million which translates to $200,000 for each district to kick off preparations for the plan. 

Leota said the main objective of the project is for the development of constituencies and a project management committee will be responsible for reviewing where the funding will go. 

He said the committee will comprise people with skills and knowledge on management and development from the respective constituencies, which would also mean the provision of employment. 

The Minister then emphasised the need to have a balance of women on the committee that will focus on projects for the common good of the constituencies.