“Despite decades of good intentions, multiple strategies and thousands of contracts, we are not getting enough impact from the Government’s efforts to improve the lives of our most vulnerable. We can do so much better,” Willis said.
“Social investment is about intervening earlier, empowering NGOs to innovate and drive change, and making better use of data to target improved outcomes for people.”
Leahy said the Social Investment Board would have to be as interested in outcomes as it was in inputs and outputs.
Too often the impact of government services was measured by the metrics of delivery rather than the outcomes experienced by communities, she said.
“In other words, what is the difference that whānau actually want to see in their lives – not just being served up more of the same.
“We have an abundance of evidence through Whānau Ora how even a small investment of public sector funding in indigenous concepts of wellbeing can disrupt the trajectory of intergenerational disadvantage.
“The board will have to turn our head in looking at such models – successful cross-agency service delivery, local circuit breakers, what are the break-through approaches to make the change we need, what data will we require, what are the outcomes we seek.”
Capability development worked by increasing the ability of whānau to respond positively to the challenges and opportunities in their lives, she said.
“It enables whānau to be self-reliant rather than depend on state intervention.”
As pou ārahi/chief executive of Ngā Waihua o Paerangi (the operations arm of central North Island iwi Ngāti Rangi), Leahy works with and for a community that has experienced housing affordability and availability challenges, high unemployment and low household incomes.
Leahy has a Masters of Education Policy and a background in sexual and reproductive health. She is a former chief of staff for the Māori Party and has previously been a member of two ministerial advisory committees: Modernising Child Youth and Family, and the Energy Hardship Expert Panel. She is a member of the Understanding Policing Delivery independent panel.
Appointees to the board are Laura Black, Te Ururoa Flavell, Helen Leahy, Katie Murray, Julie Nelson, Dr Graham Scott (chairman), Debbie Sorensen, Mike Williams and David Woods.
The board attracted more than 250 applicants.
Willis said she was confident those appointed were willing to challenge the status quo.
“I am very much looking forward to working with them.”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
