Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong and the academics

Academics from five universities have formed a consortium to evaluate the impact of the Community Investment & Inclusion Fund in building Hong Kong's social capital.

The consortium is formed, voluntarily, by seven research teams involving 16 academics from the Chinese, City, Lingnan, Polytechnic, and Hong Kong Universities.

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

More than 59 projects have been selected, with potential impact on communities distributed over all districts, covering a variety of target groups, applying different strategies, and potentially engaging around 300,000 people.

Goodwill lauded

Awarding the contract to the consortium today, Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong said: "I am very impressed with the level of goodwill and commitment amongst the academics to form a consortium to evaluate the overall impact of the fund."

Chairman of the fund's committee Dr Raymond Wu said the formation of the consortium was sure a sign of the social capital the fund 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 starts December 1, and will last 15 months.