Background

For too long, Māori have experienced unacceptably poor health and socio-economic status in comparison to non-Māori. This disparity has resulted from a complex mix of social, cultural and economic factors. Māori health and social development have struggled with lack of capacity, an insufficiently skilled workforce and fragmented sources of funding to adhere to a kaupapa of improving Māori wellbeing.

From this struggle has arisen a bond and determination to make the necessary change that is rooted in a shared history of working to affect change against all odds. The growing urgency from within the Māori community and from Crown agencies to resolve these inherent inequities has served to encourage Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu to take a leading role in investigating, planning for and responding to their health and social service needs.

Ngai Tahu Development Corporation initiated the establishment of He Oranga Pounamu Charitable Trust, a vehicle for organising and integrating health and social services.

In May 1999, Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu adopted the Ngai Tahu Health and Social Services strategy, which encompassed two key parts. These were:

• The negotiation of Treaty based relationships with the Crown and its agencies in the health and social policy sectors, and
• The establishment of a structure to manage the provision of health and social services to Māori in the Ngai Tahu rohe.

The Treaty based relationship between Ngai Tahu and the Health Funding Authority was agreed in August 1999. Ngai Tahu are now negotiating with the Crown to ensure the successful transfer of this Treaty relationship to the new District Health Boards and/or Ministry of Health.

The second part of the strategy is the establishment of He Oranga Pounamu. The purpose of He Oranga Pounamu is to facilitate and integrate health and social services in a model that includes Māori service providers and Māori community organisations by affiliation. It is anticipated that over time He Oranga Pounamu will enable the return of control and responsibility for the quality of service provision to kaupapa Māori and iwi organisations.

Several issues that contributed to the impetus to establish He Oranga Pounamu were:

• The disparity between Māori and non-Māori in health and social service areas has created an urgency for effective responses;
• Conventional methods of purchasing and providing health and other services to Māori have been disorganised and fragmented and as a result have not worked to close the gaps;
• Iwi are in the best position to understand the needs of Māori but to date have had limited involvement in planning, policy design and resource allocation for improving Māori well being;
• Whanau well-being is pivotal to iwi development.

As the process of establishing He Oranga Pounamu progressed, the decision was made to set up the new entity as a charitable trust. He Oranga Pounamu is not profit driven and therefore can perform most efficiently with charitable status. The vision, mission statement and objectives from the Ngai Tahu Health and Social Services strategy have been adopted by He Oranga Pounamu and form the basis of He Oranga Pounamu's draft strategic plan.