Zahid, the rural and regional development minister, however said this approach did not mean commercialising assistance.
“It demands efficiency, swift decision-making, clear roles and timelines so that what we do is not just about fulfilling social responsibilities, but produces tangible, measurable outcomes that directly benefit the people,” he said at his ministry’s New Year gathering.
Zahid said without a change in mindset and work systems, development efforts would remain routine.
“Routine will not lead to transformation. If our way of thinking stays the same, the results will also be the same,” he said.
He added that a bottom-up approach should be the core of the ministry’s work, where policies are not formulated solely from the top, but are rooted in the realities and needs of rural communities who directly experience the impact of policies.
“When the voices of the rural community are heard, they are no longer just beneficiaries, but strategic partners of the government in driving development,” he said.
He added that the government wanted to shift from evaluating “output” to assessing “outcomes”, saying true success was not measured merely by the number of programmes or the size of allocations, but by real change in the lives of the community.
“The questions we must answer are whether their incomes have increased, whether assistance has made them more self-reliant, and whether government interventions are solving real problems on the ground.”
He said the government was also planning to establish a rural strategic thinking platform as a centre for research and policy reference, in addition to documenting achievements through journals, reports and book publications.
“What is required is the courage to refine priorities, streamline implementation and ensure that every intervention truly shapes the future of rural communities,” he said.
He said that this year, his ministry would focus on the “5Ps” of “people, place, productivity, prosperity and prophetic”, encompassing social mobility, rural growth clusters, productivity enhancement, wellbeing and leadership values inspired by the Prophet Muhammad.