THE EXPANDED PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME

1. THE EXPANDED PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME 18 NOVEMBER 2003

2. BACKGROUND • ANC policy conference Stellebosch 2002 • President’s State of the Nation Address February 2003 • Growth and Development Summit June 2003 • Cabinet approved conceptual framework November 2003

3. DEFINITION Nation-wide programme which will draw significant numbers of the unemployed into productive work, so that workers gain skills while they work, and increase their capacity to earn an income

4. OBJECTIVE To utilise public sector budgets to reduce and alleviate unemployment

5. This will be achieved by: • Creating productive employment opportunities: • Increasing the labour intensity of government-funded infrastructure projects • Creating work opportunities in public environmental programmes (eg Working for Water) • Creating work opportunities in public social programmes (eg community health workers) • Utilising general government expenditure on goods and services to provide the work experience component of small enterprise learnership / incubation programmes

6. Enhancing the ability of workers to earn an income, either through the labour market or through entrepreneurial activity • Provide unemployed people with work experience • Provide education and skills development programmes to the workers

8. SCOPE • Covers all spheres of government and SOE’s • Each public body must formulate plans for utilising its budget to draw significant numbers of the unemployed into productive work, and to provide them with training

9. TARGETS • Target the unemployed and marginalised • To provide one million employment opportunities with training to unemployed people, within the first five years of the programme

10. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS • Overall coordination by EPWP unit in DPW • DG’s Steering Committee • Sector coordinating Dept’s: DEAT, DTI, DSD • Link to NEDLAC Public Works committee

11. WORK OPPORTUNITIES • Need to be careful to avoid displacement of existing workers and SMME’s by workers on EPWP programmes • Employment conditions during work experience will be governed by the following frameworks gazetted by DOL: • Code of Good Practice for Special Public Works Programmes, or • Learnership Determination for unemployed learners

12. Key aspects of the EPWP employment conditions frameworks: • Gazetted after negotiations at NEDLAC • Allow for special conditions of employment to facilitate greater employment on Public Works Programmes: • Employers may set rates of pay locally at self-targeting rates, to avoid attracting workers away from more permanent employment • Reduced obligations for employers, eg no UIF insurance payments • Task-based payment for labour-intensive works

13. These special conditions of employment are on condition that: • Workers have an entitlement to training • The duration of employment of a worker under these special conditions is limited

14. TRAINING • Exit strategies to be developed for each sector: • Identify possible exit routes for beneficiaries, eg into longer-term employment, self-employment, or further training • Exit strategies should inform the training provided to beneficiaries under the programme: • In some sectors, training provided may be unrelated to work being carried out • Training related to exit strategies for longer-term income opportunities and further education and training should be focused on the youth

15. Examples of possible exit strategies

16. INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMMES • Plan in place for provincial and municipal infrastructure: • Large-scale programme of labour-intensive upgrading and maintenance of rural roads and municipal infrastructure • Targets types of civils infrastructure most amenable to use of labour-intensive methods, where large numbers of additional work opportunities can be created

17. At least R15 bn will be spent on labour-intensive upgrading of rural and municipal roads and municipal pipelines, stormwater drains, and sidewalks over the next five years • Aim to create work opportunities for 750 000 targeted unemployed people (250 000 person-years of employment) • Will build 37 000 km of roads, 31 000 km of pipelines, 1500 km of stormwater drains, 150 km of urban sidewalks

18. Implementation of the labour-intensive provincial and municipal infrastructure programme • Additional conditionalities will be attached to the conditional provincial and municipal infrastructure grants • Total conditional infrastructure grants over next five years = R45 bn (targeting 1/3 of this) • Total public sector infrastructure spend over next five years > R150 bn (targeting 10% of this)

19. Conditionalities on the infrastructure grants will require provinces and municipalities to: • Allocate an increasing proportion of targeted infrastructure projects as labour-intensive projects over time • Use PWD guidelines for identifying, designing, and producing tender documentation for labour-intensive projects • Apply eligibility requirements for appointment of contractors and engineers on labour intensive projects (they must be qualified in the use of labour intensive methods)

20. Public Works will provide support to provinces and municipalities to simplify implementation • Change to labour-intensive production techniques requires capacity building in the construction industry: • DPW putting in place NQF unit standards, qualifications, and accredited training programmes for contractors and engineers for labour-intensive construction • DPW will inform the industry of eligibility requirements for appointment • Pace of change to labour-intensive methods will be linked to pace of capacity building, to ensure that quality is not sacrificed

21. Training: • All 750 000 workers will obtain training funded by the Department of Labour • CETA-funded learnerships for 500 emerging contractors in labour-intensive construction • Learner contractors will receive classroom and on-site training, exit from the programme with qualifications, experience, and credit record • Graduate contractors will tender for ongoing labour-intensive projects issued by government

22. Other infrastructure programmes with potential (plans still to be developed), eg maintenance of government buildings, trenching in the electrification programme • Aim to create a further 150 000 work opportunities (50 000 person-years) for targeted unemployed people from other infrastructure programmes over the next five years

23. ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL PROGRAMMES • Includes: • DOA Land Care programme • DEAT People and Parks, Coastal Care, Sustainable Land-based Livelihoods, Cleaning up SA, Growing a Tourism Economy programmes • DWAF Working for Water, Wetlands, Fire programmes • DAC programmes

24. Aim to create work opportunities for 200 000 targeted unemployed people over the next five years (200 000 person-years of employment) • Aim to create 400 sustainable SMME’s • Physical outputs over next five years have been quantified, eg • control invasion of alien plants on 1 million hectares of land • improve 1200 km of coastline • Scope for further expansion, eg waste management

25. SOCIAL PROGRAMMES • DSD to produce sector plan • Initial focus of social sector initiatives: • Home-based care workers - Community Health Workers (DOH) and Community-based Care and Support Workers (DSD) • Early childhood development (ECD) workers (DOE and DSD)

26. NGO’s and CBO’s to be main delivery agents of social sector programmes, funded by government and possibly business • All social sector programmes involve recruitment of unemployed people, providing them with on-the-job experience, a stipend and training for a period, leading to NQF qualifications and possible longer-term income opportunities • More work needs to be done on common delivery models

27. ECONOMIC PROGRAMMES • DTI to produce sector plan • Examples of possible economic sector initiatives: • Community production centres (DoA) • Community-based / cooperative income generating projects (GDS) (possible funding from business) • Enterprise ‘incubator’ / learnership programmes (DOL, DTI)

28. Micro-enterprise incubation / venture learnerships: • Selection of learners from amongst the unemployed, using open and transparent process with predetermined selection criteria • Registration on full-time SETA-funded learnerships • Classroom training funded by SETA’s • Practical work experience (departments allocate learning contracts to the learners, using general government expenditure on goods and services) • Mentoring (possible assistance from Business) • Access to micro-finance (possible assistance from Business) • Graduate with NQF qualification, experience and credit track record • Target: 3000 learnerships over 5 years, 3 employees per learner

29. SUMMARY OVER FIRST FIVE YEARS

30. FUNDING

31. ROLES OF BUSINESS, LABOUR, NGO’s, CBO’s • Role of Business: • Participate in NEDLAC advisory body • Assist with the development of exit strategies and appropriate training • Business Trust to play a role

32. Role of Labour: • Participate in advisory body • Inputs into overall programme policies, exit strategy, training and qualifications frameworks • Support EPWP programmes and projects • Role of CBOs, NGOs, and experts: • CBO’s involved in project prioritisation and selection of workers on infrastructure projects • Management of social sector projects • Expert (eg academics) involvement in advisory body

33. PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION TIMEFRAMES • Complete remaining aspects of all sectoral plans: February 2004 • Implementation has started on parts of sectoral plans which are ready: • Preparations for labour-intensive infrastructure programmes are under way, some programmes are running, expansion from April 2004 • Environmental programmes are running END