29 September 2021
Official information request: 8140009138
(Please quote this in any correspondence)
By email:
[FYI request #16625 email]
Tēnā koe Robert
Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) and
Privacy Act 2020
Re: Information on the Western Initiative
Thank you for your email, which we received on 5, September 2021, requesting information
on The Western Initiative in relation to the Waitākere Ranges Local Board.
The specific details of your request and our response is below.
In 2018, Auckland Council allocated $5 million over 10 years for the West Initiative.
•
Is there a landing page, website, or sources for further information on the Western
Initiative?
•
How much of the $5 million has been spent or is planned on being spent in the
Waitakere Ranges Local Board Area?
•
What outcomes are there for the Waitakere Ranges, and what has been done
under the program so far to achieve those outcomes in the Waitakere Ranges
Local Board Area?
About The Western Initiative
The Western Initiative (TWI) was established in 2019 and is part of the Community and
Social Innovation department of Auckland Council. TWI are the council’s socio-economic
innovation capacity in west Auckland. TWI is not a localised, service delivery or community
development function; these are covered by other council departments.
Funding for TWI was first approved in the Long-term Plan beginning the 2018-19 financial
year for $500k per annum, for the following ten years. However, due to the impact of Covid-
19, this was reduced to $470k per annum. All of the staffing and project costs must be met
within this TWI funding envelope. As a result, TWI must secure investment from external
sources for scaling successful initiatives and has been highly successful in attracting
additional resource into west Auckland that wouldn’t otherwise have happened.
The purpose of TWI is to demonstrate innovative economic development initiatives that are
just, inclusive, circular and regenerative across the west Auckland sub-region, namely the
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geographical catchment of Whau, Henderson-Massey and Waitākere Ranges local board
areas. TWI’s remit is to focus on population groups most at risk of entrenched, poor
economic outcomes.
TWI’s activities do not focus on localised issues specific to a particular local board but rather
on addressing macro-economic issues that affect west Auckland as a whole. TWI does not
allocate its budget by local board; TWI’s job is to take a strategic overview of economic
challenges and opportunities across west Auckland and allocate budget accordingly.
TWI’s objective is straightforward; to understand the most effective way, at scale, of
increasing disposable incomes and wealth of west Aucklanders who face greatest
disadvantage in the economy, through higher value and resilient employment and enterprise
opportunities. TWI has a particular focus on Māori and Pasifika peoples, who collectively
make up just under a quarter of residents in the Waitākere Ranges local board area.
TWI has three principles which guides its work:
• Build on west Auckland’s strengths, such as its strong NGO sector and Eco City history.
• Maximise Auckland Council’s leverage as a large organisation, such as being a
purchaser of a wide range of goods, services and works, and a large employer etc.
• Look to the future, such as ensuring that skills, training and employment pipelines are
responding to the changing nature of work and the mega-trend of increased use of
technology.
TWI currently has three staff and a modest budget (in relation to the scale of the challenge)
to deliver initiatives so it must be strategic and focussed on what it does and concentrate on
those activities which create the most economic impact across the sub-region of west
Auckland. Its activities are delivered through partnerships with colleagues across the
Auckland Council family, central government, NGOs, community groups, education
providers and businesses.
Is there a landing page, website or sources for further information on the Western
Initiative?
TWI does not have a dedicated website as it has neither resource to build it or, most
importantly, to maintain it. TWI is featured on The Southern Initiative’s website in lieu of this
and we are currently investigating how TWI might better utilise the TSI platform whilst still
retaining a distinctive west Auckland brand and focus. (The Southern Initiative is the sister
social innovation team covering south Auckland and is also part of the Community and
Social Innovation department).
How much of the $5 million has been spent or is planned on being spent in the
Waitakere Ranges Local Board Area?
TWI does not allocate its budget specifically to any of the three local board areas in the
catchment of TWI. Nor is the budget accounted for in that way. The purpose of TWI is to
deliver sub-regional activities; activities that have an impact across the whole of west
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Auckland. Exceptions are where we administer funding on behalf of local boards or when we
are prototyping activity to determine its efficacy before being scaled across west Auckland.
Planning is done, within the context of our three principles, on a biannual basis for the
broader strategy and the project plans are constantly reviewed. We work to this cycle, rather
than a 10-year planning cycle, because the economic challenges and opportunities are
constantly changing, for example, needing to adjust course due to Covid-19 or because
important data comes to light.
What outcomes are there for the Waitakere Ranges, and what has been done under
the program so far to achieve those outcomes in the Waitakere Ranges Local Board
Area?
TWI administers funding on behalf of Waitākere Ranges Local Board for skills and
training aimed at young people to improve their employment prospects.
• TWI’s role is to identify projects that align with the local board’s priorities and, if agreed
by the local board, administers the funding on behalf of the local board. TWI provides
support to the grantee organisations, writes and manages the funding agreements and
reports back to the local board on progress etc. This involves TWI staff time (met by our
budget, not covered by local board funding).
• Since 2019, four community organisations have been funded to deliver education and
skill building programmes with young people resident in the Waitākere Ranges local
board.
• Examples include vocational educational pathways whilst students are still studying at
secondary school (e.g. achieve credits and experience in trades prior to going into an
apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship trades training) and working with young people and
their families to develop skills in digital literacy and in making and managing investment
decisions
• To date, 109 end users have been engaged in the projects and more than $83,000 in
funding has been administered to community organisations to do so. A further $20,000
has yet to be administered for this financial year.
• In addition to these activities funded by the Waitākere Local Board, TWI staff have also
supported other youth employment outcomes including: brokering three young people
from the Waitākere Ranges local board area into employment; supporting Vertical
Horizons, a private training establishment, and the wellknown NGO VisionWest, to
recruit and support trainees from the Waitākere Ranges local board area for their Pae
Aronui training; and are exploring the possibility of an employment programme with the
Glenora Rugby League Club for their members.
TWI is delivering a programme to transition Pasifika workers into higher paid roles in
more resilient occupations.
• In relation to the labour market and employment, TWI focuses on under-utilisation (as
defined by the ILO). Under-utilisation is a far greater issue than unemployment.
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• In July this year, TWI and The Southern Initiative started a four-year project across south
and west Auckland to transition Pasifika workers stuck in low paid work in vulnerable
sectors into higher paid occupations in more resilient industries. It is delivered in
partnership with a key Pasifika NGO based in west Auckland.
• The project, called Uptempo, doesn’t just focus on individuals, but on the whole
household, recognising that rewards and failures in the labour market are born
collectively and that the primary economic unit is the household.
• In just three months of establishing the project, four west Auckland families have been
recruited. The families in Uptempo have an average of 6.7 members. More families are
being recruited.
• This major initiative is externally funded and again illustrates how TWI’s innovation
approach is attracting resources into west Auckland that would not have happened
otherwise.
TWI established the country’s supplier diversity intermediary to increase engagement
of Māori and Pasifika owned businesses in supply chains.
• Māori and Pasifika entrepreneurship is an important economic pathway and an area of
the economy that has yet to reach its full potential. Māori who own their own businesses
and employ others, for example, have income earnings on par with non-Māori employers
which is not the case with employment. In addition, Māori and Pasifika owned
businesses disproportionately employ significantly more Māori and Pasifika peoples than
non-Māori and Pasifika owned businesses.
• In 2019, TWI established Amotai (formerly He Waka Eke Noa) to connect public and
private sector buyers with Māori and Pasifika businesses. Supplier diversity and
development is a procurement practice which connects large buyers (such as the council
family) to underused businesses. This is known as business-to-business procurement
(which is different from the business-to-consumer market with ‘bricks-and-mortar’ shops).
Auckland Council is a significant purchaser of goods, services and works in Auckland
and this is a good example of the principle of TWI leveraging a strength of the council.
• To date, 750 Māori and Pasifika owned businesses are registered with Amotai, 500 of
which are Auckland based. Collectively, the Auckland based businesses employ more
than 7,000 staff, the majority of whom are Māori and/or Pasifika peoples. Of the
Auckland based businesses, 65 are based in West Auckland, 12 of which are based in
the Waitākere Ranges local board area. Their services span construction to professional
services. It is free for the businesses to register, as is support from Amotai. There are
also 65 public and private sector buyers subscribed to Amotai.
• Growing supplier diversity and Amotai was TWI’s focus in 2020, particularly once the
pandemic reached NZ’s shores. Media articles about Amotai’s work during the first
lockdown are available
here and here.
• More than $150 million worth of contracts have been awarded to Amotai businesses to
date. Successes of west Auckland businesses include a large deconstruction contract
and a large residential construction contract in Gisborne; opportunities that are enabling
business growth of west Auckland enterprises.
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• This is a good example of TWI’s influence in both supply and demand. TWI directly
influenced central government’s policy on procurement. It also has deep connections to
Māori and Pasifika businesses. Amotai attracted significant central government funding
and now operates nationally, with its own dedicated team, meaning that TWI could turn
its attention to other endeavours. Amotai is also an excellent illustration of TWI’s purpose
– to demonstrate impactful economic initiatives that can then be scaled up and spun out.
TWI’s next big flagship project is a portfolio of work, designed and delivered with
external partners, aimed at closing the tech and digital equity divide.
• Covid-19 laid bare the digital and technology divide in communities. As a result, TWI is
working with a range of partners to develop a large-scale plan to tackle: physical access
to technology (devices and broadband) of households; technological literacy of
households; training and employment opportunities in tech and digital occupations (the
highest paid roles in NZ); preparing workers for the changing nature of work (tech
capability is becoming increasingly mainstream across all industries); and
entrepreneurial opportunities offered by increased and improved use of technology.
• TWI is leading the development of the West Auckland Digital Equity Strategy (WADES).
The portfolio will include programmes and projects for all different ages (i.e. not just
young people). It aligns to our third principle of look to the future by ensuring that west
Auckland is adequately prepared for the fourth (and fifth) industrial revolution, rather than
being further alienated by it.
• One of the first prototypes was with a decile two primary school in the Waitākere Ranges
local board area. The project, West Tech, engages students in recycling broken Chrome
books into fixed and useable devices. They learn how the technology works, how the
device is built and how to work together to problem solve. Once repaired, the children
are allowed to keep the devices. It was tested with 20 children and 14 Chrome books
were assembled/repaired. Valuable resources were diverted from landfill. There were
positive responses from parents and teachers. In the latest lockdown, eight families in
the school were supplied with devices from this project.
• As a result of the West Tech prototype, TWI has recently gained $200,000 worth of
external funding to scale up the project within the current primary school and to reach
more schools across west Auckland, and is exploring whether this could be an
opportunity for local social enterprise. This is another example of TWI’s approach of
trialling, scaling and spinning out.
• The second activity of the WADES portfolio is supporting the west Auckland Pasifika
Collective to establish a multi-use platform to facilitate economic, social and health
engagement in the Pasifika community. TWI was able to build on previous support
provided to the Collective by a philanthropy to enable the Collective to take the platform
to the next level.
• A number of other projects are in development including a major project, led by TWI but
working with community groups, NGOs, education facilities, community facilities,
entrepreneurs and local businesses to improve access to tech and digital infrastructure.
Other projects being developed include tech and digital training with a guaranteed job
interview and/or paid work experience upon successful graduation.
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TWI is about to embark on a programme of skills, employment and enterprise in the
emerging ‘green’ economy.
• Earlier this month TWI recruited the country’s first Intrapreneur Green New Deal. This
role will focus on growing productivity in the circular and regenerative economies. This
includes supporting business ventures at all scales, using council’s size and position to
create new markets in the ‘green’ economy, and using The Southern Initiative’s status as
a tertiary education organisation and lead of a Māori and Pasifika Trades Training
consortium to develop new curriculum, training courses and accreditations in ‘green
skills’ to ensure there is a skilled workforce to develop growth.
• TWI played a critical role in growing demand for deconstruction and salvage services;
this market didn’t exist four years’ ago and now it is worth more than $100 million per
annum. TWI has supported a west Auckland, Amotai businesses to enter this market to
great success, and is now supporting their development of accredited training in this
field. As a result, more than 150
new jobs have been created.
• TWI has identified other areas with similar accelerant opportunities and is investing
heavily in creating transformative green economy opportunities in the next 12 months.
This is of interest to all the west Auckland local boards but Waitākere Ranges in
particular.
• This is another area where TWI has influence in both demand and supply. It also aligns
to TWI’s principles of building on the strengths and history of west Auckland (the Eco
City legacy), leveraging council’s strengths (as a major procurer) and looking to the
future (the need to radically decarbonise the economy).
TWI plays an important role in facilitating the west Auckland NGO and community
sector so it can achieve more than the sum of its parts.
• West Auckland’s NGO and community sector is a major asset. It has a long and strong
history of community-led development and TWI supports the continuation of this into the
future. This aligns to TWI’s principle of building on west Auckland’s strengths.
• West Auckland Together (WAT) brings together NGO and community organisations from
across all three local boards in the TWI area to work collectively for greater impact
across west Auckland as a sub-region. This will become even more critical in the advent
of a Covid-19-induced recession.
• TWI has been a supporter of WAT since its inception. As a bipartisan supporter outside
of the NGO/community sector (and therefore, not a competitor), TWI has played a key
role in facilitating the formation of WAT into a collective with a clearly defined purpose
and end goal, and has supported WAT to obtain external funding to support its efforts.
• TWI is also involved with several other networks including localised ones such as the
Glen Eden Youth Providers Network and the Youth Future Focus Collective which
includes providers and schools from the Waitākere Ranges local board area.
TWI plays an important role in advising west Auckland local government elected
representatives about central government economic policy, and in advocating for
west Auckland to central government.
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• One of TWI’s important roles is advising local board members and councillors of the
latest economic policies and economic data about the west Auckland sub-region. TWI
undertakes a lot of policy, strategy and research work to ensure that decision makers
have robust information to help them in their decision making.
• TWI are also engaged with the central government civil service on active labour market
policies, small and medium sized businesses, vocational education and procurement
practices. Part of TWI’s job is to ensure that west Auckland is fairly represented in
central government policy and funding. TWI also has good relationships with local MPs.
• TWI and The Southern Initiative are well regarded for their knowledge of and practical
experience in economic innovation and sit on several national boards and is the only
local government representative to do so.
The decision by Auckland Council to release the information contained in this response was
made by Tania Pouwhare, Acting General Manager, Community and Social Innovation.
Should you believe Auckland Council has not responded appropriately to your request, you
have the right to seek an investigation and review of this response by the Ombudsman.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz
or freephone 0800 802 602.
If you have any further queries, please contact me on 09 301 0101 quoting official
information request number 8140009138.
Ngā mihi.
Elaine Tunai-Po
Privacy & Official Information Business Partner
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