Where development projects have affected the environmental and built environments where FEDUP and ISN groups are organised, CORC and uTshani Fund have helped secure jobs for communities in collaboration with government agencies. FEDUP and ISN have demonstrated that people-centred approaches to development is more sustainable, cost-effective, just and participative. The strong emphasis on gender-equality and addresses power imbalances. When resources are locally owned and managed, an enabling environment is created which in turn offers alternatives to top-down and exclusive development.
Extended Public Works Programme:
President Thabo Mbeki announced the EPWP programme in 2004 as part of government’s intervensions in the “second economy” aimed at creating jobs and alleviating poverty while contributing to economic growth and sustainable development. The programme targets four sectors: infrastructure, non-state, environment, and social. The EPWP is currently in phase 2 that aims to halve unemployment by 2014. For more information, go to: http://www.epwp.gov.za/
Infrastructure Programme: In Cape Town and Stellenbosch, where partnerships with municipalities have been critalised in MoU signings, ISN members are remunerated through the EPWP in the informal settlement upgrading context. These are funded through the infrastructure programme, or the community works programme (CWP).
Environmental Programme: FEDUP groups have been involved in environmental programmes of the EPWP since 1995. The largest of these is the Working for Water.
Working for Water: Invasive alien plants pose a significant threat for South Africa’s biological diversity, water security, and ecological functioning. The WfW programme seeks to partner with local communities and other stakeholders to create jobs while securing scares ecological resources. In the past, FEDUP groups have signed more than 50 contracts, proving jobs for more than 450 women. Currently CORC is assisting FEDUP in securing 450 contracts to the value of R22 million, which will provide roughly 4,000 jobs per year in Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga.