Kotahitanga - Spirit of Service award-winning partnerships

Partnership transforming Hawke’s Bay communities

Annie Aranui, MSD Regional Commissioner East Coast, and Toro Waaka, Chair, Ngāti Pāhauwera Iwi Development Trust.

Ngāti Pāhauwera and MSD’s partnership is delivering sustainable jobs and training initiatives that are transforming the communities of Raupunga and Mohaka in the Hawke’s Bay. The partnership recently won the Spirit of Service Māori/Crown Relationship Award.

In an area of high unemployment (24 percent of adults in the Wairoa district are out of work), Ngāti Pāhauwera is focused on employment and economic initiatives and funding social programmes to support the health and wellbeing of its people.

Collaborating with the iwi, our East Coast regional team has helped develop solutions that build on Ngāti Pāhauwera’s own unique heritage and tikanga, and improve the use of their own land assets. This has seen the creation of five new forestry and conservation businesses.

The partnership has created sustainable employment opportunities for over 200 people, with more in the pipeline. Youth and whānau have also been supported into opportunities such as ICT training (470 youth in ICT clubs), driver licensing (20 youth), HT licenses (12 whānau). Cross-agency collaboration is also supporting participation in Department of Conservation programmes (21 youth), and Police and Corrections recruitment drives.

Placing an MSD labour market advisor with the Ngāti Pāhauwera Development Trust ensured we understood the aspirations of Ngāti Pāhauwera, and could match MSD products and services with both industry and individual people.

This innovative approach is helping MSD understand new and better approaches for engaging with hapū and iwi.

Winning the Māori/Crown Relationship Award has been a highlight in the partnership. It’s been a great opportunity to celebrate a partnership built on trust, heart and innovation. It is bringing durable solutions and creating opportunities that are changing lives.

Enabling good lives for disabled people

Back row, (from left) Adri Isbister (Ministry of Health), Prof Grant Guilford (Victoria University), Peter Allen (Mana Whaikaha), James Poskitt (MSD/seconded to Ministry of Health), Simon MacPherson (MSD Deputy Chief Executive Policy). Middle row: Zahira Mohammed, Mark Benjamin (EGL), Glen Terry (EGL), Sacha O’Dea (DPMC). Front row: Gary Williams (EGL), Gerri Pomeroy (EGL), Tom Callanan (EGL).

Disabled people, families, whānau, Māori, disability-led organisations, service providers and government are working together to bring about a world-leading transformation of the disability support system in New Zealand.

Enabling Good Lives is a genuine and passionate response to support self-determination for disabled people in New Zealand. It recently won the Spirit of Service Leadership in Governance Award.

Based on principles decided by the disability sector and agreed with the Government in 2012, it’s helping disabled people and their families to create good lives for themselves, through greater choice and control over the system, supports and services they receive.

This person-centred and mana-enhancing approach has been delivered through demonstrations in Christchurch and Waikato, and more recently a prototype in the mid Central DHB region. As a government partner, MSD has responsibility for the demonstration in the Waikato.

The disabled-person led leadership groups have been guiding this work for 10 years, backed by the commitment and perseverance of the disabled community.

The work to date has established strong foundations for the next stage of the work programme, which will look at a system response to what has been learned.