The Fijian Government is committed to ensuring that development around the nation reaches the unreached.

The Permanent Secretary for Youth and Sports Mr Rovereto Nayacalevu, while officiating at the opening of the 2020 Fiji Saemaul Undong (SMU) workshop, said that the development of rural areas is key to eradicating poverty.

PS Nayacalevu encouraged the youth participants saying they are at the prime time of their lives, “Youths have a lot of energy and if channelled correctly, positive development will always materialise.”

“In foresight, my ministry ensures that we continue to encourage our youths to work in partnership with the community and the government using the available resources to create employment opportunities in their locality,” PS Nayacalevu said.

SMU refers to any community development movement, which builds a village or community to improve villagers’ quality of life based on the spirits of diligence, self-help and cooperation, and approaches by the villagers, of the villagers and for the villagers.

“SMU concept is based around letting the community take ownership of their own development. The Government’s role in SMU is to only provide technical, administrative and financial support, while the decision making role is that of the community. Projects undertaken should be focused first on infrastructure development and then move on to enhancing the community’s economy,” he said.
In early 2018, the Ministry of Youth and Sports signed the Memorandum of Understanding for the SMU development initiative with the Korean Government.

The workshop is made up of a total of 60 village-participants.