“If we want to resolve this poverty issue, and if we love Sabah and the people of Sabah, then we must focus on channelling assistance to areas that are really in need.

“If we simply distribute the allocation from top to bottom like that, it will not solve the problem. The problems are not the same everywhere. Even among the poor, the circumstances are not the same,” the former Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development told Bernama.

Based on the 2022 Household Income and Expenditure Survey Report by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), the eight districts are Tongod, with a hardcore poverty rate of 5.9 per cent, Beluran (5.0 per cent), Pitas (4.8 per cent), Kinabatangan (4.6 per cent), Kota Marudu (4.0 per cent), Tuaran (2.6 per cent), as well Ranau and Lahad Datu, both at 2.4 per cent.

Azizah said addressing issues related to water, electricity and roads was crucial as these three basic amenities directly impact the economic activities of local communities, including the ability of rural residents to increase production and transport their produce to market.

She also cautioned that delays in project implementation due to lengthy bureaucratic processes could lead to rising development costs and further prolong the people’s hardships.

To ensure that more allocations reached the areas in need, Azizah said IDS had proposed that 10 to 15 per cent of the RM1.5 billion Interim Special Grant under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) be ring-fenced as a Special Community Development Fund to be channelled directly to impoverished districts.

She said targeted distribution should be based on data and actual conditions on the ground, as the root causes of poverty varied from one district to another, including difficulties in accessing markets, a lack of infrastructure and the reliance of fishermen and smallholders on middlemen.

In this regard, the IDS is conducting detailed poverty mapping, beginning with Pitas and Kota Marudu, to identify the locations and profiles of poor households, as well as the economic constraints they face. The study is targeted for completion next year.

Meanwhile, Sabah Bumiputera Women’s Small and Medium Industries Association (IKSNITA) president Datuk Dayang Khatijah Bachtiyal said the benefits of Budget 2027 should also reach women entrepreneurs in rural areas, who face difficulties in accessing training, guidance and entrepreneurial assistance.

She said distance and travel costs made it difficult for many women in remote areas to participate in programmes concentrated in urban centres, thereby limiting their opportunities to improve their skills and income.

As such, she urged the government to organise more women entrepreneurship empowerment programmes in districts with high poverty rates, while increasing support for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to conduct outreach programmes in rural areas. 

Dayang Khatijah said rural areas had various local resources with commercial potential, but a lack of training, research and development (R&D), entrepreneurial guidance and infrastructure challenges had prevented this potential from being fully realised.

She also called for entrepreneurial assistance and grants to be distributed fairly and in a targeted manner, ensuring that they did not repeatedly benefit the same recipients but were extended to those truly in need.

-- BERNAMA