Making The Expanded Public Works Programme Work:

Summary

The Expanded public works programme (EPWP) is hailed as an important Government intervention to grow the economy, alleviate poverty and to eliminate unemployment. Now, almost two years since its September 2004 inception, the Democratic Alliance believes that the time has come to assess the implementation of the EPWP and look at how Government is doing in achieving the goals of the programme.

The Democratic Alliance has compiled a set of ten criteria by which to assess Government's implementation of the Expanded Public Works Programme. The DA plans to use the criteria as a basis upon which to:

• visit and assess the implementation of various EPWP projects; and,



• assess the implementation and outcomes of the programmes right up to its envisioned completion in 2009.

An initial analysis of the implementation of the EPWP according to each of these criteria has already revealed a number of problems. Along with the 10 implementation criteria and problems identified for each of these criteria, the comprehensive part of this document also includes proposed policy solutions for each of the problems identified, as well as a five-step action plan for the implementation of these solutions.

The ten criteria read as follows:

1. Participant recruitment and application procedures need to be fair, equitable, well-targeted, well-defined, simple, easily practicable and transparent.



2. Remuneration must be set at levels that would appeal mostly to the target population, but, on its own, should not be seen or utilised as a self-selection mechanism sufficient to draw only the poorest into the EPWP.



3. Remuneration must be structured with a productive work ethic and income security in mind.



4. The specification of every work opportunity and the workload of every participant must aligned with the outcomes envisioned for the programme; and, planned for, co-ordinated and managed individually and per programme project.



5. Programme participation needs to be based on the actual demand for labour and used to plan, co-ordinate and manage work opportunities in an integrated manner.



6. Planned or need-based infrastructure projects should be reprioritised for the purposes of the labour-intensive PWP as far as is possible.



7. The level and type of exposure to training and work experience for each participant need to be predetermined and planned in accordance with supply-side constraints and in recognition of demand-side criteria.



8. On exit from the programme, each participant should be made aware of how they have been advantaged by their engagement in the EPWP and how to translate this into improved future engagement with the labour market.



9. On exit from the programme, each participant should be provided with credible documents detailing their participation in the EPWP.



10. The programme should be evaluated in terms of its pre-determined inputs, outputs and outcomes.

The analysis contained in the comprehensive part of this document determined that, in order for the EPWP to live up to its envisioned outcomes, Government needs to take the following five actions steps:

STEP 1: The entire programme should be properly alligned from concept, through implementation, its impact on the lives of its participants, its envisioned outcomes, right through to post-programme review.

STEP 2: The central planning and support capacity of the EPWP unit should be expanded so that it can ensure the quality of the programme, as well as manage its full life-cycle implementation properly.

STEP 3: The concept implementation of the EPWP needs to be adapted to local conditions so as to ensure the necessary focus on envisioned impacts and outcomes; and, to ensure that only the targeted population is drawn into the programme.

STEP 4: The cause and requirements of the EPWP need to be integrated into the planning of each and every Government Department.

STEP 5: The monitoring and evaluation of the EPWP needs to be completely reviewed so that it yields management information for the full-lifecycle of the programme as well as clear yardsticks for the progress of the progamme in terms of its envisioned outcomes.

The DA's campaign will continue to identify weak areas in the implementation of the EPWP, and continue advancing solutions in how to ensure its successful conclusion.

Download full document (EPWP.doc)