Budget 2021: The Role of Community Development Councils
Speaker Sir, I stand to support Budget 2021.
Mr Pritam Singh asked about the CDC Vouchers Scheme and the role of CDCs and Mayors. Let me start with the CDC Vouchers Scheme.
CDC VOUCHERS SCHEME
The CDC Vouchers Scheme was conceived for 2 purposes. One, to help Singapore households defray the cost of living (COL) and two, to support local businesses in the heartlands. Supporting two target groups affected by the COVID pandemic – residents and heartlands businesses
The first tranche of $20 million was rolled out last year to lower and middle-income households, to much success. With good support, the CDCs recently rolled out another $20mil of CDC Vouchers under Tranche 2 in January this year.
More than 7,000 merchants participated in the scheme. They go beyond the ‘neighbourhood mom-and-pop shops’ that was suggested by Workers’ Party’s Mr Png Eng Huat.
The range of shops covered the smaller supermarkets, coffee shops, wet and dry markets stalls, confectionaries, medicine shops, hair salons and so on. Mr Singh could have found out that NTUC Fairprice, Sheng Siong and Giant were not included right from the start.
The function of the CDCs in the Vouchers Scheme is clear.
From scratch, we organise the resources, communicate the scheme and get as many merchants as possible to sign up and make full use of this well-intended help scheme.
Unlike what Mr Singh claimed, local bodies like the grassroots Consultative Citizens’ Committees (CCCs) do not always have market and shop representatives sitting in the committees.
Instead, merchant and hawker associations are reached by tapping on a network organised by the CDCs that comprise CDC and CC staff, contract staff, grassroots volunteers and national bodies such as the Singapore Federation of Merchants’ Associations and its subsidiary, the Heartlands Enterprise Singapore (HECS).
Sir, Mr Singh’s suggestion to have the CCCs or grassroots volunteers run this multi-million help scheme is ignorant of or insensitive to the reality on the ground. CCCs are not set up to run schemes of this magnitude.
In the last year, many grassroots volunteers quietly helped in the massive distribution of the sanitisers, free meals, millions of face masks and the Trace Together Token.
Even today, they are knocking on doors to encourage residents to go for their vaccinations to get the herd immunity that Singapore would need to keep us safe from COVDI-19.
In any case, the CCCs are not set up to organise schemes such as the CDC Voucher Scheme.
Finally, Sir, back to the operation of the next tranche of $150 million CDC vouchers.
Besides supporting residents and merchants, the third tranche is also intended to thank everyone for their support during this Covid pandemic and to celebrate hawker culture.
This tranche is now more than 7 times the initial 2 exercises - due to one key reason. DPM Heng has listened and decided that the vouchers would be extended to every Singaporean household, regardless of public and private dwelling.
The CDCs are still working on the processes, cost and timeframe of the scheme. Details will be announced once they are ready.
I hope that heartland merchants from all constituencies, including Hougang, Aljunied and SengKang GRCs, will join this Voucher scheme so that both merchants and more residents will benefit from it.
ROLE OF CDCs
Next, Speaker Sir, I wish to speak on the role of CDCs and Mayors.
The idea of the CDCs was mooted by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 1996 as part of his vision of a ‘tightly-knit, compassionate and self-reliant community in Singapore, with the more able in society helping the less able’.
Unlike government ministries which have very focused functions, CDCs are geographic district-based entities that are another way to serve citizens who need help. The mission is to assist, bond and connect.
For many years, CDCs focused primarily on ‘assisting’ and are known mostly to lower-income households for administering the Government’s financial assistance schemes. This administration has since been taken over by the MSF’s Social Service Offices (SSOs) in more than 20 towns.
Although SSOs are now administering financial assistance schemes, CDCs continue to assist in different ways.
At the district level, CDCs perform duties that grassroots or government ministries are not quite set up to do – effectively, 3 functions:
Aggregating the needs and resources at district level
Build Capability
Connect the Community
WORK OF THE CDCs
The CDCs operate at the DISTRICT level and continue to be called upon to support national initiatives such as the CDC vouchers scheme.
For instance, the 5 Mayors strongly support the lifelong learning and SkillsFuture movement of Singapore. A total of 4,819 free SkillsFuture Advice workshops run by the 5 CDCs reached more than 127,000 participants in the last 3 years. During Covid-19, the 5 CDCs quickly acquired online capabilities and aggregated resources from government agencies such as MOE’s SkillsFuture Singapore and MOM’s WSG, e2i, IHLs and private training companies. The network helped residents navigate the Skillsfuture landscape to stay relevant and find jobs during the pandemic.
In one week last year, the partners managed to reach out and connect over 250,000 viewers online, and more than 6,000 of them joined in the online SkillsFuture workshops.
CDCs work at the DISTRICT level, complementing the work of the grassroots, but more importantly, in the NON-GRASSROOTS space.
CDCs keep in regular touch with non-grassroots players like the district’s business and the corporate community, the social service agencies, schools and Institutions of Higher Learning. With these networks, the 5 CDCs quickly rolled out between February and October 2020, close to 70 local district initiatives that served over 676,000 beneficiaries during the pandemic.
A recent example is the CDC STUDENTS MEALS. Within 10 days of the Circuit Breaker, the Mayors received ground feedback that vulnerable students who used to receive free school meals in school might not be able to afford meals during the Circuit Breaker. We sprung into action, garnered support from corporate partner Grab Singapore, raised funds from a philanthropist introduced by a friend and put in place an initiative to give out e-vouchers to students in rental flats.
The agility and ability to garner resources is one of the CDCs’ uniqueness.
Over the years, the CDCs have also championed the culture of giving back to society. We have regular platforms to foster the spirit of giving by individuals, businesses and other partners either for existing programmes or new ones co-created with our partners.
Donors such as Far East Organisation, United Overseas Bank, StarHub, MayBank, Ngee Ann Kongsi and Kwang Ming San Temples are but some of the donors the CDCs were able to approach for our district residents.
Last year, the CDCs drew on their networks to raise $12.3 million (in cash and in-kind).
The value of the CDC structure, although within the People’s Association, is its relative agility and ability to respond and develop programmes in the district faster than a bigger government machinery. We have developed programmes through innovative solutions and collaborations with partners to better serve target residents.
Some of the more signature district programmes include:
North West CDC’s Club 100 which has close to 800 regular donors collectively contributing $1m a year towards the NW Food Aid Programme benefits low-income households in their 19 divisions;
South East CDC’s famous WALK FOR RICE @ South East in which rice and oats are donated to the district’s vulnerable families, for every 300m that participants walk or run;
South West CDC’s ADOPT @ South West which leads more than 100 corporate and community partners to uplift the vulnerable in social wellness, healthcare, home safety, education and enrichment;
North East CDC’s Project Refresh which supports more than 10 volunteer agencies and have refurbished close to 400 households; activating close to 3,500 corporate volunteers;
For Central Singapore with which I am most familiar, let me name a few (out of a suite of 52 programmes):
Ready for School Cheques donated by Far East Organisation to relieve the cost of starting school for 12,000 students;
The holiday Digital Bootcamps sponsored by UOB for 2,000 students so they would not be overly affected by any digital divide;
Pan-district projects like The Purple Parade which is supported by all 5 Mayors and CDCs. The Purple Parade is Singapore’s largest movement to support inclusion and celebrate the abilities of persons with disabilities.
The disability cause has been supported by Central Singapore CDC since 2013 and is one of the CDC’s signature initiatives – perhaps still unknown to some. Many of the participants are not people with disabilities. The Purple Parade reached out to over 10,000 participants annually and connected over 200 Corporate and Community partners – MNCs, local stat boards, SMEs, schools and 40 disability organisations.
The COVID-19 pandemic did not stop the Parade, and it went online for the first time and continued to receive very encouraging support – again made possible by the strong network cultivated by the CDCs over the years. I have been a disability volunteer for years, but I don’t think I can organise the purple parade without the support of the CDC. I am not certain there will be a Purple Parade if not for the CDC.
Sir, I can take another budget day to share what the CDCs do.
Mr Singh’s accusation that the Government is trying to find some way for the CDCs to be relevant by asking them to manage the CDC vouchers scheme is belittling the CDCs and our partners.
There is nothing to be ashamed about making sure one is always relevant, and add value with the times.
When PM Lee graciously created the role of the Leader of the Opposition, much to Mr Singh’s surprise himself, did Mr Singh not accept the role when asked (and the office, research assistant and salary) and try to do his best to be relevant?
Singaporeans, too ask what the role of the Leader of Opposition in our Parliament is - under the circumstances that all 9 of the elected Opposition MPs are from one single Opposition Party.
Nonetheless, I want to still thank Mr Singh for bringing up the subject of CDCs. His comment on the CDCs’ “relative absence in the public mindshare” has also given some food for thought.
Perhaps the biggest mistake the CDCs made was not to have better publicized the work it does.
But the real work is in the work.
How much publicity does one have to put out just to justify one’s existence and to prove one’s value-add?
The real work is in the work and the people we benefitted.
So I hope there is no attempt to politicize the good work of the CDCs and our partners.
Would Singapore Society be worse or better off without the CDCs? Sir, this is a question best answered by the beneficiaries of the work of the CDCs.
Sir, I support the budget.
Denise Phua
2.10 PM