Purpose of the Programme:

The Department of Social Development has been given the responsibility to lead the Social Sector together with the Departments of Health and Education.  The Department has further identified the Departments of Safety and Liaison, Sport, Arts and Culture, Labour, Roads and Public Works, National Public Works as well as the Independent Development Trust as key role players of the Social Sector. The EPWP Social Sector Provincial Coordination unit under the Directorate Community Development within the lead department has been established to coordinate the EPWP activities of the Social Sector.

Programme Management

The EPWP Social Sector is a complex system with cross cutting mandates, different levels of capacity and dedicated focal persons in the programme.  The expansion of the programme in Phase 2 and engagements with municipalities presents another of the challenge.   To effectively marshal the knowledge and institutions within the Social Cluster to achieve the best possible executive decisions remains an ongoing challenge for EPWP social sector
Effectively the programme is driven by three implementation activities. These activities are stated as:

Coordination entails the management of horizontal relations and integration of activities between line functions. Currently the Department of Public Works is responsible for coordinating all the four sectors of EPWP, namely, Infrastructure, Economic, Environment and Social sectors

Driving: The primary function is achieving the delivery outputs. It is a vertically driven process within the line functions. The driving capability in the programme is supposed to exist within all lead departments including at the municipality level.

Support is when proving support to those responsible for the delivery of the programme.
The EPWP Social Sector Provincial Coordination unit has an established a provincial steering committee that meets regularly to ensure effective coordination, monitoring and evaluation of all EPWP activities.

The responsibility of the provincial steering committee is:
•    To give inputs in the development of Provincial Business Plan.
•    To set targets and identify people to undergo EPWP training.
•    To identify new areas for expansion and exit strategies.
•    To develop a database of beneficiaries who exited from EPWP training.
•    To identify projects to be visited by Provincial or National Delegations.
•    To monitor and support training and expenditure.
•    To compile monthly and quarterly reports and submit to the lead department.
•    To meet once per month to discuss progress regarding implementation.
•    To effectively ensure that users receive adequate training on the Web Based Reporting System

Policy Mandates

•    Constitution of South Africa – 1997
•    Social Assistance Act- 1992
•    Skills Development Act- 1998
•    Children Care Act - 1983
•    Expanded Public Works Programme- 2003
•    National Youth Service Framework – 2003
•    White Paper for Social Welfare- 1997
•    Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA)
•    Joint Initiative on Priorities Skills Acquisition (JIPSA)
•    Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS)- Northern Cape
•    Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997. Ministerial Determination & Code of Good Practice.

Situational Analysis

Cabinet in 2003/04 approved the EPWP conceptual framework and business plan proposed by the social cluster to use more labour absorbing programmes and skills development to enhance and expand service delivery. This was a fundamental departure from the traditionally held perception that labour intensity should and is confined to infrastructure and construction work. The EPWP first phase (2004-2009) promised to create one million job opportunities in five years. The social sector was allocated 15% or 150,000 of the target. The programme managed to reach the target before the end of the five years in September 2008 and the programme was concluded on 31 March 2009. There was explicit expectation and directive of the first phase process that it should undertake a rigorous interrogation of the true potential and prospects of the sector (expansions) to create more job opportunities through the identification and confirmation of other service delivery programmes. As alluded there was indeed new areas identified that enhanced the scope of the pilot programme.

EPWP Phase 2
The EPWP phase 2 started in April 2009 (2009/10) with the former Deputy President Ms Baleka Mbethe, launching the programme 04 April 2009 in Cape Town. Recently President Jacob Zuma in his state of the nation address on the 3rd June 2009 announced that Phase 2 of the EPWP will be fast tracked and promised that four million job opportunities will be created by 2014. He went further to say that by end of this year (Dec 2009) 500, 000 job opportunities will have been created.   The target of the Social Sector is to create 750,000 work opportunities by 2013/2014 which translates to 24 838 work opportunities for the province. The principle of the EPWP aims to ensure at least 40% of beneficiaries would be women, 30% youth and 2% people with disabilities.

Analysis of Constraints and Measures Planned to overcome them:
•    Lack of human resources: the programme has been co-ordinated with a limited budget and no personnel at district levels.
•    Cooperation and reporting of Sector departments.
•    Lack of Standardized procedures for implementation of EPWP in line function programmes.
•    Poor participation of municipalities in the Social Sector

Description of Planned Quality Improvement Measures:

•    Introduction of EPWP Social sector Fiscal incentive grant
•    Ongoing training and the development of the logical Framework and Web based reporting system for EPWP.
•    Develop and implement the Municipal Engagement Strategy
•    Regular workshops on Ministerial Determination and Code of Good Practice for EPWP.
•    Identify and support progressive NPO’s and NGOs in the province and to advocate transformation of the ones not complying with the NPO Act.
•    Continues engagements with departments on Social Sector related Norms and Standards.
•    Assisting sector departments in identifying additional potential social sector programmes.