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Date Added to
Site: 18th February 2003 |
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Short Summary
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| Title |
Developmental Social Welfare: Who Benefits, Who
Pays? |
| Author |
Mullagee, F., Nyman, R., Budlender, D. and Newman,
N. |
| Publication
Date |
June 2001 |
| Publisher |
IDASA |
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Short Summary |
The concept of “developmental social welfare”
(DSW) is a key component of the South African welfare department's
policy on budgeting for poverty relief. It is an approach that emphasises
implementation and sustainability of poverty relief programmes, building
capacity and participation among beneficiaries, and involving civil
society groups. This paper, from the sixth year of the South African
Women's Budget Initiative, outlines the results of a gender analysis
of two case studies that use DSW for poverty relief funds. The first
is of two “Flagship” programmes - income-generating initiatives for
unemployed women with children under five years of age. One involves
making handicrafts to sell to tourists and local consumers in urban
areas, and the other is small farming of a community garden site in
a rural area. Although neither Flagship programme was generating income
at the time this paper was written, the community farming project
had resulted in increased empowerment of the women due to their earning
of wages. They had not valued their work in the home as it is unpaid.
The second case study, “Working for Water”, is of a public works project
which is seeking to reach a quota of 60 per cent women in the Department
of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF). The project has targeted individuals
in female-headed households, introducing services such as provision
of childcare for workers. Since the participants and beneficiaries
in this project are employees of a government department and therefore
received a fixed income, the programme has proved more sustainable
than the “Flagship” programmes. Although DSW has the potential to
combine income generation with skills training, procedures and systems
must be in place to run these projects adequately. The “Flagship”
programmes have illustrated that the timescale of how long it takes
to actually begin generating income must be understood by all at the
beginning of the project and strategies need to be developed for what
to do should the project fail to generate income. External monitoring
systems must also be in place to ensure budgets are spent correctly
and that labour standards are being upheld. |
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