Welcome to the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP):Phase 2
The Expanded Public Works Programme is one of government arrays of programmes aimed at providing poverty and income relief through temporary work for the unemployed to carry out socially useful activities.
The Expanded Public Work Programme was launched in April 2004 to promote economic growth and create sustainable development. The immediate goal of the EPWP Phase 1 was to help alleviate unemployment by creating at least 1 million work opportunities, of which at least 40% of beneficiaries will be women, 30% youth and 2% people with disabilities.| Read more... |
As part of the contribution to the income of the poor, the target for 1-million work opportunities through the Expanded Public Works Programme was attained in 2008, a year earlier than envisaged in the 2004 electoral mandate. This has created the possibility massively to expand this programme and improve its quality”. (SONA 2009)
“Next year, government will initiate the second phase of the expanded public works programme. Drawing on the successes and lessons of this programme over the past five years, R4 billion is added to this programme to incentivise the creation of longer term, more stable employment in provinces, municipalities and non-governmental organisations. It is anticipated that this programme will be phased up to grow the number of full time equivalent jobs from about 145 000 at present to over 300 000 a year” (MTBS 2009)
EPWP Phase 2
The Expanded Public Works Programme Phase 2 was launched in April 2009 at the University of the Western Cape. The goal of EPWP phase 2 is to create 2 million full time equivalent (FTE) jobs[1] for poor and unemployed people in South Africa so as to contribute to halving unemployment by 2014, through the delivery of public and community services. (This will scale up from 210,000 FTE jobs per year in 2009/10 to 610 000 FTE jobs in 2013/14)[2]. This translates to 4,5 million (short and ongoing) work opportunities. The average duration of employments is assumed to be 100 days. This will scale up from 500 000 work opportunities in 2009 to 1,5 million in 2014
Public bodies from all spheres of government (in terms of their normal mandates and budgets) and the Non State sector (supported by government incentives), are expected to deliberately optimise the creation of work opportunities for unemployed and poor people in South Africa through the delivery of public and community services. Training and enterprise development will be implemented in sector specific programmes to enhance service delivery and beneficiary well-being
