Five universities join to evaluate CIIF

Academics from five universities have formed a consortium to evaluate the impact of the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund (CIIF) in building up the social capital of Hong Kong.

"I am very impressed with the level of goodwill and commitment among the 16 academics from five universities to form a consortium to evaluate the overall impact of the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund (CIIF)," the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, said after awarding the contract to the consortium today (September 24).

Dr Yeoh said it was a breakthrough and boded well for the partnerships between academics and the Bureau to be fostered, to contribute to the common good of Hong Kong.

The consortium is formed, voluntarily, by seven research teams involving 16 academics from five universities: Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, Lingnan University, Polytechnic University of Hong Kong and University of Hong Kong.

The consortium will jointly evaluate the impact of the CIIF, announced by the Chief Executive in the 2001 Policy Address and launched two years ago to support community initiated projects that would promote mutual aid and concern and encourage cross-sectoral collaboration to address local social issues.

More than 59 projects have been selected so far, with potential impact on communities distributed over all the districts, covering a variety of target groups, applying different strategies, and potentially engaging around 300,000 people. These offer rich grounds for study.

The Chairman of CIIF Committee, Dr Raymond Wu, said the formation of the consortium among the academic institutions was sure a sign of social capital that the CIIF aimed to promote.

"I am really touched by the altruistic spirits of the research teams involved. The total contract value for the seven studies amounted to $1.3 million with the component costs averaging less than $200,000 each," Dr Wu said.

The evaluation exercise will begin on December 1, 2004, and will last for 15 months.

Ends/Friday, September 24, 2004

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