Review of the Community Work Programme

The Community Work Programme means we cannot put a board on the gate that says: 'No Job.' Instead we need a board that says:

Jobs are Here!
We Need People!'

King George Mohlala
CWP Project Manager, Bokfontein.

Contents

1. Attendance
2. Purpose
3. Key Themes from Site Reports
4. Monitoring and Evaluation Report
5. Discussion of Key Design Issues
6. Summary of Action Points 

1.Attendance

The workshop was attended by delegations from each Community Work Programme site, by representatives of the Implementing Agencies (Aktivity, Teba Development and the IDT), Khanya aicdd, the Alfred Nzo Municipality, DSD, DWAF, and the Second Economy Strategy Project, with participants from EPWP, DPLG, and Shisaka joining us on Day 2.

2. Purpose of the Workshop

The purpose of the workshop was defined as follows:

• To consider outcomes and impacts of the pilots to date
• To identify key lessons from implementation thus far
• To identify key design issues necessary to strengthen delivery and improve outcomes
• To clarify how best to manage the interface with existing programmes, local government and IDP processes;
• To consider how best to institutionalise the CWP to go to greater scale as a government-funded programme;
• To provide information on processes underway that will determine the future of the programme.

In addition, the workshop had a report on the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) Conference on 2-3 September. The CWP is now included as part of EPWP Phase 2.. The following main issues and concerns were raised in the Commission on the CWP: at this Conference:

• How the CWP should link to local government and Integrated Development Plan (IDP) processes;
• The nature of the work, the scope to sustain useful work at this scale at the local level;
• The framework of technical support, eg for infrastructure where applicable;
• The scope for the CWP to scale up faster than currently projected.

Addressing these issues was included as part of the deliberations.

3. Key Themes Arising from the Community Work Programme Site Reports

The agenda on Day One was focused on detailed reports from each CWP site. These reports painted a detailed picture of community development in action, including its many challenges: how some of these have been overcome, and those that still remain. But the overall message was one of strong positives and lots of commitment.

3.1. The CWP is working: and work is impacting on poverty:

In relation to poverty impacts and the extent to which the CWP is achieving its purpose, the following trends were highlighted:

1. Attendance rate increases are very rapid; (see graphs attached in Addendum 2)
2. 'Useful work' is being identified by communities and people are seeing the outcomes of their decisions.
3. There are tangible improvements in the quality of life where the CWP is operating: most marked in Bokfontein, with borehole water (instead of water trucked in weekly) and a road, controversial as the road may be!

Now that we have a borehole right there in our community, people come and get water day and night, left and right.'

1. The team-leader/supervisor structures are creating leadership opportunities;
2. Project managers believe the CWP is having an impact on alcoholism, drug use, sexual abuse and crime. These are issues that will have to be verified over time by the Monitoring ዶꖹꭢ� (M�).
3. Self respect and dignity:

The mindset of the community has changed: we are not beggars but people with ability. People have started think: 'my community needs me.'

1. There is smoke from every house at night: mothers are preparing food for their families.' Bokfontein Report.

The M� report emphasized that the CWP's impacts on poverty cannot be measured in 'money-metric' terms alone. Much of the feedback focused on these less tangible issues of empowerment, social cohesion, self-esteem and dignity: as well the more measurable impacts on incomes and consumption.

3.2. The nature of work

Work varies in each community, but some common themes emerged: food gardens; support to vulnerable households; auxiliary services to home-based care (cleaning, provision of labour to sustain household food security); maintenance and repairs to classrooms, cutting long grass, fencing.
Apart from how ‘work' relates to IDP's, there were other issues about the nature of work:

• So far, the pilots have managed to find useful work for up to 1,000 people a week: but this is a lot of people to keep meaningfully engaged;
• There is a risk of deploying more people than are really needed for the job: this needs to be avoided. For core activities, it is suggested that standard ratios be developed as benchmarks eg for home based care, for food gardens, etc. to avoid ‘slippage'.
• There is a need to develop a ‘core menu' of work activities that are recurrent.

See below for the issues around the links between this work and existing commitments in eg the IDP. 

3.3. Links to local government and IDP processes

This was a key theme of discussion. Apart from Bokfontein (where the municipality has given its formal support but remains somewhat distant in practice), relations with municipalities are good, even where there was some hesitation at first. Such partnership is key to success.

In Alfred Nzo and Munsieville: the ward committees are where ‘work' is identified and prioritised. In Munsieville, this take place weekly; in Alfred Nzo, there is a strong partnership also. This makes the link between local identification of needs and the translation of this into ‘work' very direct, with strong positive effects on the ‘return on investment' in participation for communities. This has potential to deepen and sustain local participation in ward-level structures between the annual IDP processes in ways that are aligned with and supportive of such processes.

At the same time, the fact that the CWP has to deliver work at scale every week acts as a catalyst for action and delivery, galvanising additional local resources and translating into continuous and highly visible delivery every week.

‘No-one can ignore the CWP: it is there every week, it is working every week, it is improving the life of the community every week. Everyone can see the difference.' Mfanafuthi Khanyile, Project Manager, Munsieville.

The reports also highlighted different kinds of work taking place, with different implications for relations with local government. Each of these types of scenarios exists currently (and often concurrently):

1. The CWP is doing work that is very local – such as cutting the long grass – that is below the radar of the IDP – but initiated by ward committees;
2. In some cases, the CWP is able to help implement ‘unfunded mandates' in the IDP's;
3. In some cases (Munsieville and Alfred NZO) there is co-funding of initiatives by local government;
4. There are however cases where the CWP is being used to do things the municipality should be doing but is failing to do: or things for which eg schools and clinics are supposed to have budgets for: but they say they don't know how to access these budgets. It was recognised that funding the CWP to do such tasks is a form of double funding which National Treasury would never agree to -  nor should it: although clearly, communities see this as a way to get delivery when the municipality is failing.
5. The issue of displacing existing jobs needs to be explicitly avoided/ managed, although it is not a significant issue at this stage: it arose briefly in relation to waste collection in Munsieville, and was resolved.

3.4. Links to national programmes

It was noted that many of the priorities identified at local level relate to existing national and provincial programmes, but where delivery is not currently reaching this level.

How do we link these? This would need the support of local authorities also. Can we develop protocols to do so?

3.5. Significant issues arose around banking.

All sites experienced problems with payment systems:

• Munsieville had to terminate the contract with the first bank used; in addition to delays and frustrations, there were instances of fraud where bank clerks had added funeral policies and life assurance deductions without the knowledge of account holders (for a commission). This lead to staff dismissals at the bank concerned,. Problems were significantly reduced by changing to a different provider.
• There were problems that many people had opened Mzansi accounts, but these go ‘dormant' if unused for a mere three months. Participants provided these account numbers in good faith, only to have the money bounce.
• Some participants would check the ATM up to 8 times on the day funds were due, and be shocked to have R20 out of R70 deducted ‘for nothing'.
• In Matshamhlope, the taxi to Matatiele to draw the money costs R70 – more than the daily rate there; a group account is being considered, but the risks of carrying large amounts of cash remain.
• In Bokfontein, the bank sends a mobile unit to the site, and people get paid out by the bank in cash. This is harder to negotiate in remote areas.

Predictably, these problems were worst in the most rural site, Alfred Nzo.
Also predictably, participants blame the CWP not the banks. When an exasperated CWP project manager asked why this was so, the reply was: 'Because it is easier to fight you than to fight the bank!'

The impacts on the programme were significant, with measurable drops in attendance while these issues were resolved. As part of the wider roll-out, it will be necessary to engage with the banks to avoid such problems, and to  addressing the issues that arose that clearly still serve to limit access to banking services for poor people.

3.6. Big picture design issues about targeting

The need for clarity on targeting was raised.

3.7. The wage rate

The wage rates were set locally and vary in each project, between R50 – R70.  While this avoided the CWP setting a rate, it raises its own problems now. It was noted however that rather than all targeting the top rate, we need to take into account the impact the EPWP wage incentive base rate will have on funding, as any increase on the base rate that is set may lead to a later requirement of additional sources of funding to top this up.

3.8. The need to formalize institutional arrangements and create certainty for future contracts and funding.

The pilot phase has been characterized by short-term contracts and lack of certainty all credit to implementing agencies for achieving what has been done under these conditions of risk. The potential has now been demonstrated: the challenge is to institutionalize the CWP and scale it up. How?

This will create a range of opportunities, such as for more formal links to training processes, for longer-term agreements with municipalities, and departments.

In this process, there is a need to assess compliance issues in terms of health and safety, workmen's compensation and UIF: taking into account the wider Expanded Public Works Programme framework.

4. Report on Monitoring and Evaluation (M�): Khanya aicdd

The M� is being conducted by Khanya aicdd. The key deliverables of the M� System are:

• A tailor-made participatory monitoring & evaluation system that tracks the activities and outcomes of the pilot projects;

• An IMS (Information Management System) that will ensure regular and accurate quantitative and qualitative data collection by the Implementing Agents. Key to the IMS is the putting in place of an electronic participant registration system;

• A qualitative impact assessment that consolidates the lessons from the pilots and draws out their implications for the roll out of the broader Community Work Programme.

Data is still being processed; some initial findings:

• 31% participants have missed 1 or more workdays, mostly because of illness and funerals, and other family commitments
•  64% of the participants in our sample had cellphones
• 45% of respondents in the sample lived in de facto female headed households
•  61% of sampled households have members who are recipients of a grant or pension
• 37% of sampled households have no children under 14yrs of age in the place of residence
•  53% of sampled households have at least one child support grant and on average each h/hold in receipt of CSGs, get just over 2 of these grants 

Payment delays still affecting Alfred Nzo at the time of data-collection meant some people had not yet being paid, affecting data on how income had been spent. However, taking this into account:

• Respondents had spent their CWP income as follows: 58% had spent it ‘mostly in formal shops in town', while 42% had spent it ‘mostly in small businesses in the local community'

• Food was priority # 1 for 68% of respondents for spending their CWP income; another 13% listed food as their 2nd or 3rd priority purchase with CWP income

• Significantly, 11% had prioritised saving their CWP income, frequently towards ‘buying a house' or starting a business, often ‘back home.'

It was also noted that in Bokfontein, one respondent had passed up a piece job to work in the CWP, because although the piece job paid more, transport costs to get there meant the CWP would leave him with more in his pocket. In another case, the respondent said they had used the CWP money to pay for transport to go and look for other work.

The M� report raised a range of key design issues, most of which echoed the wider themes emerging form the site reports and addressed on Day 2.

5. Day Two: Addressing Key Design Issues

Arising from Day One, the following issues were prioritized for the agenda of Day 2:

• The development of a protocol for engagement with local government
• Can we develop a core menu (but not a restrictive menu) of work options and look at the kinds of agreements required with departments?
• The issue of targeting: how much targeting do we do?
• The issue of scale and expansion going forward.

5.1. Developing a protocol for engagement with local government

National Framework issues

Input from the Department of Provincial and Local Government clarified the importance of the CWP engaging at a framework level:

1. The national Local Economic Development (LED) framework will allow the CWP to take root more effectively;
2. Amendments to the Local Governmentt Systems Act includes Ward-based development activities, spatially-based planning and funding 'all have a good fit with CWP' and will enable CWP, if we get it right.
3. There's a need a formal engagement with DPLG and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA)[eg for 'letters of endorsement' to take to local municipalities]
4. The need to understand and use - the intergovernmental relations protocol: in terms of the role of provincial departments, eg. DSD and its Sustainable Livelihoods directorate. So there's a need to formalise these relations also.

Engagement with Local Government

It was agreed that the CWP needs to clarify the kind of protocol it seeks to enter into with local municipalities, as well as a set of standard (but flexible)  terms for a ‘framework agreement' around how issues such as the steps to be taken where proposals from the wards are for work that is in the IDP, or for the creation of assets that require municipal maintenance.

The meeting developed a draft framework, which is attached.

5.2. Entering agreements with departments

The meeting recognised that while some proposals for work at the local level were very specific to local conditions, there were also some common trends emerging across the sites. In many instances (but not all), there are existing national or provincial programmes that support work in such areas. For example home-base care, food gardens, road maintenance, informal settlement upgrading.

It would assist the CWP if a set of core agreements existed at a framework level, that allowed the CWP to link up with such programmes in an agreed way, rather than each site navigating government systems on their own. Such linkages would also need to align with municipal processes of engaging such programmes, but the potential exists to create a ‘demand-side' pull on such programmes from communities, and to access resources. Rather than duplicate funding, this can help unlock existing allocations.

The active participation of Department of Water and Forestry (DWAF) in the CWP processes means that linkages here are the easiest to effect, and may help establish a precedent. All the non-urban sites could integrate environmental services as part of their ‘core menu' of work.

Opportunities highlighted include the following:

• Home Based Care and Early Childhood Development
• Community & homestead gardens [food security] and tree-planting
• Water and sanitation programme
• Waste management and larger Working for Energy prog
• Natural resource management and restoration programmes (Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, , DWAF, DoAgric)
• People's housing programme (PHP) and informal settlement upgrading
•  ‘Healthy lifestyles'
• Literacy programme
• Education: CWP at schools (eg. Teaching assistants)
• Developing school sports facilities and supporting schools sports [see work only as labour but more broadly as ‘service to the community']
• Aftercare and drop-in centres
• Emergency shelters
• Road maintenance

5.3. Targeting: how much do we do?

Here too, there is a spectrum of approaches. While the purpose is to reach those who need it most, this can be defined more or less broadly how poor is 'poor' - and there are different ways of achieving it. IN the pilot phase, different approaches have been used.

Working for Water/IDT have a formal, existing system for identifying vulnerable households, which they are using; in Alfred Nzo, vulnerable households were identified at ward level, and in Munsieville and Bokfontein, the programme has been open to anyone who wants to attend. While the outcomes will need to be monitored, at this stage, participants are mainly youth, with a high proportion of women. In Alfred Nzo, participation is overwhelmingly by young women.

The following was agreed:

1. The CWP should target spatially – targeting the poorest areas, possibly prioritizing the poverty nodes.
2. Where targeting involves selection, it raises many problems: but reliance on self-selection can do so too, and either way, outcomes need to be closely monitored;
3. The wage rate is an important targeting mechanism: taking CWP to scale requires an uncomplicated system. A low wage rate serves to target the really needy.
4. Willingness to work is a factor
5. While it would be wrong to exclude those receiving a child support grant, the CSG is meant to target the child, there is a policy issue about the inclusion of people receiving old age pensions. This should be taken up with DSD.
6. We need to be careful about social grant thresholds, particularly in respect of CSG means tests: we don't want to find that by participating in the CWP, someone receiving the CSG becomes ineligible. This needs further investigation with DSD's assistance.

5.4. Scale and expansion: balancing the urgency of need with capacity (and resources) to deliver:

While current proposals for scaling up for next year represent a more than 8-fold increase in scale ,not insignificant, this still falls below the ambition of the kinds of targets being set in eg the anti-poverty strategy. However, the key challenge next year is to institutionalize the CWP, to get framework agreements in place, and to build the capacity for a much wider roll-out. This groundwork matters more for large-scale expansion in the future than the number of new sites, although the envelope will be pushed as far as capacity and resources allow in this area also.

The workshop was followed up by a meeting with implementing agencies to look at detailed projections for expansion to new areas and sites.. In the workshop, the capacity of existing sites to expand was explored.

            Alfred Nzo:

1.  
   1. There's scope to extend the programme to a further 20 villages ie to triple it in Alfred Nzo, and it could be very useful to deliver the CWP across a whole local municipality and monitor the impacts over time, rather than a scatter gun approach within the district. The municipality would be keen: constraints have to do with logistics and management, rather than work opportunities
   2. Constraints relating to the distribution of villages/work sites, needs a planning framework for how to tackle the roll-out spatially, in terms of distribution across wards [working with 3000 participants/LM]
2. Munsieville:
   1. scaling up to elsewhere in Mogale City would be possible, because people are emerging well-versed in the CWP process from M'ville
   2. The Mogale City manager has requested this.
3. B'fontein: the possibility of replication across Madibeng municipality exists and could soften the stance of Madibeng municipality.

1. Existing implementing agents are also able to expand to new sites, including in other provinces.

1. It was agreed that now that core operating principles and practices have been established, a 'call for proposals' approach should be used to could expand delivery capacity.

1. In a side meeting with the implementing agents, the following was agreed:

1. 
   
   1. That assuming the pre-approved funds from DFID/Economic Cluster fund become available, the implementing agencies can start an additional 5 pilots in the period to March 2008;
   2. That (including these) the current projections for expansion in 2009/10 are an accurate reflection of what can be delivered by the existing implementing agencies;
   3. That a wider call for proposals could significantly increase the rate at which the CWP can be scaled up, and if resources can be made available, this should be done to test the scope for more rapid expansion, which would affect the figures for the following years.

6. Summary of Action Points

1. Develop an operations manual for CWP
2. Formalise and finalise the protocol and framework for Memorandums of Understanding (MOU's) with local government, building on the draft developed in the meeting;
3. Initiate formal engagements with DPLG and SALGA; strengthen alignment with DPLG's Local Economic Development strategy, in relation to ward-based planning and budgeting;
4. Develop a plan to institutionalise the CWP and build back-office and technical support capacity.
5. Develop standard procedures in relation to worksite health and safety, and issues of UIF, taking into account the EPWP framework.
6. Develop productivity benchmarks for core activities to prevent unproductive use of labour.
7. Initiate agreements with a set of targeted departments to assist the CWP to draw down on and assist delivery of existing programmes in government where applicable. DSD, DWAF/DEAT, Department of Health and others.
8. Formalise a technical support agreement between the 'Working for' programmes and each non-urban site: the demand for a range of environmental services is there in all the rural sites. Agreed in principle.
9. Develop a communications strategy for CWP. Start with better circulation of reports between implementing agents, and of M� information and feedback of insights gained.
10. Last but not least: tie up the funding contracts to create a clearer planning environment for the future!

This document is available as a PDF for download, which includes the Addenda: