Transforming rural communities through employment

Transforming rural communities through employment

Ngāti Pāhauwera, a Northern Hawke’s Bay iwi, is transforming its rural community through employment and training initiatives.

We have been working with Ngāti Pāhauwera since 2017 to co-design and deliver sustainable employment opportunities for their whānui.

We recognised that the iwi know their people best, have the mandate and are trusted to work for and alongside their people. We shared resources by seconding a skilled work broker directly to the iwi to provide access to the knowledge, systems and wider capability and support that MSD brings.

Our support has helped the iwi to improve the use of its land assets and has led to innovative solutions including cadetships on water management, riverside planting and water protection, driver’s licence programmes, pest control work, nursery development, forestry management and water safety. We have also provided financial support for some key initiatives.

More than 200 people have achieved sustainable employment that focuses on the use of land assets since 2017. Ngāti Pāhauwera has actively worked with other iwi and hapū to promote their Crown partnering, opening the door for the Crown to engage with others.

The success of this partnership was recognised in the State Services Commission’s 2019 Spirit of Service Awards with the Māori/Crown Relationships Award.