JOHANNESBURG, 29 February 2008 (IRIN) - Although the South African government's Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) is on track to achieve its main objective of creating one million jobs for the poor by 2009, much desired significant and sustained poverty alleviation is unlikely, according to an independent review of the project.

The EPWP is one of government's initiatives to bridge the gap between the growing economy and the large numbers of unskilled and unemployed people who have yet to fully enjoy the benefits of economic development.

It involves creating temporary work opportunities, with the emphasis on relatively unskilled work opportunities, using public sector expenditure, and is one of several state-initiated strategies aimed at addressing the high levels of joblessness, especially among women, the youth and the disabled.

All the work opportunities generated by the EPWP are therefore combined with training, education or skills development, with the aim of increasing the ability of people to earn an income once they leave the programme.

The Mid-Term Review of the Expanded Public Works Programme in 2007 by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) said the EPWP was a relevant response to the unemployment and poverty challenges facing South Africa, and that some positive local effects on poverty alleviation were being experienced.

It revealed that the programme had managed to create 716,399 jobs in its first three years, leading observers to believe the target of one million was likely to be achieved a year in advance of the deadline.

However, the report also insisted that in the wider context of poverty reduction the EPWP was falling short: the transfer of wages to the unemployed was not substantial or sustainable, due to the low pay and the intermittent nature of the employment.

Boosting the programme

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel noted in his national budget speech on 20 February 2008: "Our high rate of unemployment remains our greatest economic challenge. Over the past decade we have done much to reshape our economy, and since 2002 there has been significant progress in job creation.

"But our response to the unemployment challenge needs to be better coordinated - this is at the centre of our war on poverty. In particular, efforts to increase employment of young people have to be intensified and skills development better focused.

"This budget recognises that there is considerable scope for job creation in several areas of public service delivery. Programmes under the umbrella of the Expanded Public Works Programme which have demonstrated the ability to create jobs are supported with a further R1 billion over the period ahead."

The HSRC's review commented, "Poverty reduction in the context of chronic poverty and unemployment can only be achieved through Public Works programmes if they offer sustained employment or employment guarantees."

The EPWP was launched in 2003, when 4.6 million South Africans were considered unemployed, and a further 3.7 million were unemployed but able to work casually on occasion.

According to the government's 'Labour Force Survey 2007', about a quarter of the nearly 17 million strong labour force - 4.3 million of those aged 15 to 65 in a population of 47.7 million - remain officially unemployed. A further 3.5 million are classified as "discouraged work-seekers" or "unemployed persons who are available to work but who say that they are not actively looking for work".

Expectations were that training programmes, together with labour intensive projects by local government's service delivery entities, would create jobs to help the country's chronically poor find work that would last.

Targeting the poor

The EPWP's Chief Director, Ismail Akhalwaya, said the review was being taken seriously as a means to improve delivery results, but maintained that poor communities were benefiting from the programme despite the low wages and short-term nature of the jobs created.

"When the EPWP was launched it was done so as a short- to medium-term strategy to act as a point for people to re-enter the working world. It was not intended that the government would provide long-term employment ... that kind of employment needs to be secured in the private sector.

"To counteract the short-term nature of the jobs we have created a training element, so that once the contracts are finished participants will have acquired accredited qualifications that will help them secure work elsewhere in the future."

Akhalwaya added that paying low wages was part of the strategy, as a way of ensuring the country's poorest were the programme's beneficiaries. "If the payment rates were too high, the jobs would attract others who may already be employed, and thus the really poor would continue to lose out."

The EPWP targeted four sectors it believed had high job creation potential - infrastructure, social, economic and the environment - with service delivery, construction and the general maintenance and upgrading of public amenities seen as the main areas where labour intensive jobs could be created.

Engaging with potential entrepreneurs to create new enterprises was viewed as a means to create employment in the economic sector, the social sector targeted early childhood development and community home-based care as growth areas, while the environment sector offered labour intensive jobs like ensuring a clean water supply and the removal of alien vegetation.

To date, infrastructure and the environment have provided the most employment, with 631,490 jobs created between them.

Step up the training

The HRSC review was also critical of the programme's training element. "The EPWP commits itself to the principle of enhancing the employability of workers through skills development and work experience ... [however] the training aspect of the EPWP, while improving, is not as targeted and developed as would be required to be an effective response to the skills gaps in the country.

"In general, it would appear from the research that the training offered is too brief, too general [there has been a focus on life skills and other very basic skills], and not linked to any deliberate and immediately implementable strategy of qualification and placement," the report said.

Akhalwaya acknowledged that only 19 percent of those involved in the programme were receiving sufficient training, but said one of the main obstacles was accessing the state-held funds to pay for it.

"We experienced logistical problems up until recently, but last December [2007] we hired a team of 18 assistant directors and nine deputy directors for the nine provinces to deal with the problem; their main job is to act as the interface between us and the department of labour, which holds the funds. We are confident that the training element will be scaled up in the near future."

Waiting for the trickle to come down

In relation to the review's assertion that the programme was not having a broad positive effect on alleviating poverty, Akhalwaya maintained that the EPWP's impact studies suggested otherwise and, although wages might be low, the programme offered people a means to better themselves.

Joyce Ndlovu, 36, a mother of two from the town of Witbank in Mpumalanga Province, has participated in the Vuk'uphile Contractor Learnership Programme, one of the EPWP's flagship projects offered through the Nkangala District Municipality, for the past two years.

She had been unemployed for seven years before joining the Vuk'uphile programme, which aims to build capacity among emerging construction contractors so they can access the increasing volume of labour intensive infrastructure work spawned by the EPWP.

"I never thought I would work in construction, but here I am. I am starting my second [construction project], which is to put in a sewer system for a township extension.

"I think the programme is very good because of the training. I feel confident that when I finish I will be able to secure more work and also provide employment to people who might otherwise not have a job. My only fear is that the banks may not support me once the programme is finished. I need to get money to start my business," she said.

Alan Zimbwa, who oversees some of Nkangala District Municipality's EPWP programmes, said 4,590 people had benefited from employment and training in the two years Vuk'uphile has been operational in his district. "The only problem I see with it is we need more money to ensure training, both for participants and the officials who are involved."

The review concluded that there was evidence from the Labour Force Survey (part of the overall HRSC review) that the EPWP was able to bring about a lasting improvement in people's lives.

"Among the beneficiaries reporting about the ways in which they personally benefited from the programme, a range of 60 - 80 percent of respondents reported a positive impact in work experience, skills for other employment, greater self-confidence, and felt confident about being prepared for future employment."

But these perceptions may differ from reality: only 14 percent of respondents said they had been able to get a sustainable job after the programme.

The poor results in terms of securing employment after participating in the EPWP were attributed to the approach to training and the lack of "exit strategies". Of the 33 sites visited as part of the review, 75 percent did not have exit strategies to help participants find a job once they left the programme.

"The EPWP is an ongoing programme," said Akhalwaya, "and for Phase 2 [post-2009] we will make the necessary changes to its design, including training and exit strategies, that will improve its ability to deliver on its objectives."

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