Developing a socio-economic framework for assessing the effectiveness of Expanded Public Works Programmes (EPWP): The case of the Prosopis mesquite Working for Water clearing project in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Ntsonge, Sinazo
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Public works South Africa Northern Cape Evaluation , Mesquite , South Africa. Expanded Public Works Programme , Working for Water Programme , Project management Case studies , Livelihood
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/419219 , vital:71626 , DOI 10.21504/10962/419219
- Description: The EPWP functions as a bridge between unemployment and entry into the labour market by providing work readiness skills training to its beneficiaries who receive below-market rate stipends for the short- term duration of their participation. The EPWP combines service delivery issues with social development objectives by promoting intensive manual labour in its projects. As a social protection strategy, public works programmes cater to those who do not meet the criteria to receive government social grants. As one of the programmes under the EPWP dealing with the control and eradication of invasive alien plants, the Working for Water (WfW) programme also uses intensive manual labour methods for clearing alien plant species. Although the clearing successes of WfW are well documented, the programme has focused little attention to the longer-term livelihood impacts of the temporary work and skills training provided to beneficiaries. This study suggests this could be due to a lack of the appropriate indicators to measure these outcomes. Therefore, an evaluation framework for environmental public works projects is proposed, which consists of outcome indicators to track the livelihood impact of the work experience and skills training on the beneficiaries post-participation, since the aim of these EPWP interventions is to improve beneficiaries’ labour market outcomes. The Northern Cape province’s Prosopis mesquite clearing project was used as the case study to develop and test the evaluation framework. The outcome indicators were informed by the key stakeholders’ interviews and the beneficiaries’ survey, specifically since the beneficiaries were well placed to give feedback on the benefits of the work experience and training post-participation. The combined strengths of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach and the Capability Approach were useful for formulating the outcomes indicators, while the indicators for the inputs, activities and outputs were formulated from the key stakeholder interviews and online EPWP reports. A mixed methods approach was used and primary data were collected through key stakeholder interviews with the Prosopis mesquite clearing project managers and an online survey with some of the beneficiaries. Online EPWP reports and records obtained from WfW were used as secondary data. Data analysis used RStudio, Microsoft Excel and GraphPad Prism. The data analysis and evaluation framework indicators constituted the results section and aimed to highlight the factors that managers should focus on to achieve the desired livelihood outcomes. The proposed outcome indicators can be used to gauge the effectiveness of environmental public works’ social development interventions. The results revealed that the project budget fluctuations resulted in the Working for Water managers adopting a myopic view in administering the workdays and skills training, which diminished the livelihood impact of the Prosopis mesquite clearing project to merely a ‘make work’ project with no observable longer-term livelihood benefits. The selection input indicators and their utilisation during project activities needs to be better aligned with the desired longer-term livelihood outcomes that these environmental public works projects seek to achieve, mainly that of preparing beneficiaries for jobs in the labour market. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2023
- Full Text:
- Authors: Ntsonge, Sinazo
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Public works South Africa Northern Cape Evaluation , Mesquite , South Africa. Expanded Public Works Programme , Working for Water Programme , Project management Case studies , Livelihood
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/419219 , vital:71626 , DOI 10.21504/10962/419219
- Description: The EPWP functions as a bridge between unemployment and entry into the labour market by providing work readiness skills training to its beneficiaries who receive below-market rate stipends for the short- term duration of their participation. The EPWP combines service delivery issues with social development objectives by promoting intensive manual labour in its projects. As a social protection strategy, public works programmes cater to those who do not meet the criteria to receive government social grants. As one of the programmes under the EPWP dealing with the control and eradication of invasive alien plants, the Working for Water (WfW) programme also uses intensive manual labour methods for clearing alien plant species. Although the clearing successes of WfW are well documented, the programme has focused little attention to the longer-term livelihood impacts of the temporary work and skills training provided to beneficiaries. This study suggests this could be due to a lack of the appropriate indicators to measure these outcomes. Therefore, an evaluation framework for environmental public works projects is proposed, which consists of outcome indicators to track the livelihood impact of the work experience and skills training on the beneficiaries post-participation, since the aim of these EPWP interventions is to improve beneficiaries’ labour market outcomes. The Northern Cape province’s Prosopis mesquite clearing project was used as the case study to develop and test the evaluation framework. The outcome indicators were informed by the key stakeholders’ interviews and the beneficiaries’ survey, specifically since the beneficiaries were well placed to give feedback on the benefits of the work experience and training post-participation. The combined strengths of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach and the Capability Approach were useful for formulating the outcomes indicators, while the indicators for the inputs, activities and outputs were formulated from the key stakeholder interviews and online EPWP reports. A mixed methods approach was used and primary data were collected through key stakeholder interviews with the Prosopis mesquite clearing project managers and an online survey with some of the beneficiaries. Online EPWP reports and records obtained from WfW were used as secondary data. Data analysis used RStudio, Microsoft Excel and GraphPad Prism. The data analysis and evaluation framework indicators constituted the results section and aimed to highlight the factors that managers should focus on to achieve the desired livelihood outcomes. The proposed outcome indicators can be used to gauge the effectiveness of environmental public works’ social development interventions. The results revealed that the project budget fluctuations resulted in the Working for Water managers adopting a myopic view in administering the workdays and skills training, which diminished the livelihood impact of the Prosopis mesquite clearing project to merely a ‘make work’ project with no observable longer-term livelihood benefits. The selection input indicators and their utilisation during project activities needs to be better aligned with the desired longer-term livelihood outcomes that these environmental public works projects seek to achieve, mainly that of preparing beneficiaries for jobs in the labour market. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2023
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A framework for the economic valuation of wetland rehabilitation: case studies from South Africa
- Authors: Browne, Michelle
- Date: 2022-04-06
- Subjects: Wetland restoration South Africa , Wetland management South Africa , Ecosystem management South Africa , Ecosystem services South Africa , Ecosystem management Economic aspects South Africa , Wetland restoration Cost effectiveness South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263560 , vital:53638 , DOI 10.21504/10962/263561
- Description: Wetlands are recognised as having the potential to contribute long-term benefits to society; wetland rehabilitation is undertaken to recover these benefits in response to widespread wetland degradation. Increasingly, there have been calls to value the benefits of wetland rehabilitation to justify further investment. Such is the case in South Africa. Furthermore, recent global agendas and targets for ecosystem restoration, such as the declaration of the Decade of Restoration 2021-2030, suggest increasing pressure on governments to implement rehabilitation and imply a concomitant increase in decision-making regarding where and how to rehabilitate. In response to these information needs, this thesis explores the economic valuation of wetland rehabilitation through a narrative review of the foundational theory of values and valuation, a quantitative review of applied wetland rehabilitation economic valuation studies, and the evaluation of five wetland rehabilitation projects from South Africa. Projects were selected as case studies to represent various rehabilitation goals and explore different contexts (urban-rural; beneficiary groups), the timing of the evaluation (ex ante, ex post) and value types and valuation methods. The final chapter of the thesis integrates the case study experiences with the findings of the theoretical research components to propose a framework for the valuation of wetland rehabilitation, which can be applied in South Africa, and more generally, to further demonstrate the values of wetland rehabilitation, and as a tool to guide wetland rehabilitation decision-making. While initially grounded in mainstream economics, the research led into a number of fields including philosophy, social-ecological systems and social-ecological relations thinking, several environmental science areas and livelihood and human well-being frameworks. A deeper look into economic theory and history revealed an evolution of thinking on the meaning of ‘value’ and view of ‘nature’ and numerous critiques of standard neoclassical economics. From the insights gained and the case study experiences, this thesis argues that the neoclassical economic perspective, especially combined with a monetary metric, is too restrictive, and arguably too abstract in its assumptions of human behaviour and reliance on mathematical models, as an overarching framework for the valuation of wetland rehabilition. This is not to suggest that standard economic valuation concepts and methods cannot be useful, as the research case studies illustrated, but rather that wetland valuation must be approached from a value pluralism perspective. To this end, the proposed framework offers a way to think beyond, or in addition to, standard economic approaches in articulating the values of wetland rehabilitation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
- Authors: Browne, Michelle
- Date: 2022-04-06
- Subjects: Wetland restoration South Africa , Wetland management South Africa , Ecosystem management South Africa , Ecosystem services South Africa , Ecosystem management Economic aspects South Africa , Wetland restoration Cost effectiveness South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/263560 , vital:53638 , DOI 10.21504/10962/263561
- Description: Wetlands are recognised as having the potential to contribute long-term benefits to society; wetland rehabilitation is undertaken to recover these benefits in response to widespread wetland degradation. Increasingly, there have been calls to value the benefits of wetland rehabilitation to justify further investment. Such is the case in South Africa. Furthermore, recent global agendas and targets for ecosystem restoration, such as the declaration of the Decade of Restoration 2021-2030, suggest increasing pressure on governments to implement rehabilitation and imply a concomitant increase in decision-making regarding where and how to rehabilitate. In response to these information needs, this thesis explores the economic valuation of wetland rehabilitation through a narrative review of the foundational theory of values and valuation, a quantitative review of applied wetland rehabilitation economic valuation studies, and the evaluation of five wetland rehabilitation projects from South Africa. Projects were selected as case studies to represent various rehabilitation goals and explore different contexts (urban-rural; beneficiary groups), the timing of the evaluation (ex ante, ex post) and value types and valuation methods. The final chapter of the thesis integrates the case study experiences with the findings of the theoretical research components to propose a framework for the valuation of wetland rehabilitation, which can be applied in South Africa, and more generally, to further demonstrate the values of wetland rehabilitation, and as a tool to guide wetland rehabilitation decision-making. While initially grounded in mainstream economics, the research led into a number of fields including philosophy, social-ecological systems and social-ecological relations thinking, several environmental science areas and livelihood and human well-being frameworks. A deeper look into economic theory and history revealed an evolution of thinking on the meaning of ‘value’ and view of ‘nature’ and numerous critiques of standard neoclassical economics. From the insights gained and the case study experiences, this thesis argues that the neoclassical economic perspective, especially combined with a monetary metric, is too restrictive, and arguably too abstract in its assumptions of human behaviour and reliance on mathematical models, as an overarching framework for the valuation of wetland rehabilition. This is not to suggest that standard economic valuation concepts and methods cannot be useful, as the research case studies illustrated, but rather that wetland valuation must be approached from a value pluralism perspective. To this end, the proposed framework offers a way to think beyond, or in addition to, standard economic approaches in articulating the values of wetland rehabilitation. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Commerce, Economics and Economic History, 2022
- Full Text:
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