We rolled out IPR because past cash programmes didn’t help poor improve, says Rafizi
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — Minister of Economy Rafizi Ramli today defended a conditional aid programme that would nudge the hardcore poor into farming and food sales by saying cash handouts alone failed to help them escape poverty.
Rafizi, the MP for Pandan, is the architect of the People’s Income Initiative, a RM750 million programme aimed at training some 120,000 hardcore poor households to grow crops, sell cooked food and provide in-demand services to raise their income.
The project, which Rafizi described as a way to give the poor the proverbial “fishing rod”, has polarised opinions, with some public policy advocates predicting it would fail. Critics of the IPR suggested it would be better to give recipients autonomy to decide how best to use the money.
“That was actually the programme in the past; three, four decades in the past,” he told reporters after delivering a speech at a forum organised by a public service alumni here.
“To eradicate hardcore poverty, what they did previously was they asked each (applicant) what do they want to do, what are necessary items that they needed, and the government would give them the money.
“But there were many problems with it. First the take-up rate was very low. When the government asked them what do they want to do (to earn), they said ‘I don’t want to do anything’,” he added.
Under the IPR, participants will be given support in the form of training and monthly supplemental income of up to RM2,500 — depending on the programme — for up to two years.
Rafizi said during its launch that IPR’s primary goal is to create an “ecosystem” that would enable a long-term, income-generating programme for its participants that spans from retail to the entire supply chain.
The programme’s three main thrusts are Intan, Insan and Ikhsan. The first will nurture agricultural entrepreneurs who would be trained to grow food. This food will then be supplied as raw ingredients for cooked food entrepreneurs trained under Insan.
Ikhsan’s goal would be to train participants for in-demand work that experience labour shortage. Rafizi was less clear about this particular programme, but his ministry suggested that it could involve grooming participants to do jobs usually performed by migrant workers.
