CDF Vital for Small Community Projects

The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is a vital resource for small community projects within constituencies and is not intended to be used for major capital projects.

This was stated by Member of Parliament for St. Andrew East Rural, and Chair of the CDF Parliamentary Sub Committee, the Most Hon. Juliet Holness, during a recent Nationwide News Network (NNN) radio segment, ‘Ask the Minister’.

“The CDF was created as an emergency response to smaller projects that the community really wanted but was taking a little longer to get it through the central system of government,” she explained.

The CDF functions as a designated financing mechanism for constituency projects.

All 63 Members of Parliament are each allocated $20 million annually to promote human and infrastructure development in their constituencies.

There are four major components of the CDF.

Funding for each category carries a minimum and maximum allocation to ensure that the primary needs of each constituency are addressed.

The Education Assistance component of the Fund, which facilitates a minimum of $5 million and a maximum of $10 million, is set aside for education assistance.

This includes the purchase of book vouchers, payment of tuition, uniforms, school bags, shoes, laptops, and computers.

The Social Housing component of the Fund facilitates $1 million and a cap of $3 million towards financing small projects for home improvement.

A mandatory disbursement of $250,000 is issued per quarter.

Its intended use is to fund small projects within constituencies.

“That emergency fund of $1 million is used for small projects – a window, a door, a couple bags of cement – those are the items, and for that you can choose with your constituents [what needs to be done],” Mrs. Holness said.

She noted that the Welfare and Emergency component is also a minimum of $1 million and capped at $3 million with an allocation of $250,000 per quarter.

“Persons use this for medication, helping persons to pay for something at the doctor,” Mrs. Holness said.

Infrastructure Development is capped at $10 million.

In addition, under the Economic Enablement component of the Fund, assistance is provided to members within the constituency who are seeking to start or improve their businesses.

“It is really to help you to start a little business or to improve a struggling business, so that you can take care of yourself,” Mrs. Holness said.

Persons can get assistance with acquiring tools and other resources to improve their business operations.

Provisions are also made under the Fund for agriculture, sports, health, and disaster mitigation.

In addition, a nominal figure may also be provided from the Fund to assist with funeral expenses.

There is a mandatory application process for funding assistance across all categories.

Approval must be granted for all projects as part of the accountability framework.

All projects must be completed within a two-term cycle.

This is subject to availability of funds and the extent of the work required for the project.

“[With] the CDF, the hope and dream of having [provided] this allocation is that in a targeted way (MPs) can work with persons and communities to show that you have been able to develop a project beyond the general resources of Central Government and Ministries and you have been able to target specific persons and areas that they are able to uplift at the community level,” Mrs. Holness said.