Official reply: 9 Jun 2010
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION 956
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
Date of publication on internal question paper: 30 March 2010
Internal question paper no 9
Mrs H Lamola (DA) to ask the Minister of Social Development:
Whether any measures are in place to ensure that parents receiving child
grants benefit from any additional social development services to ensure
that the cycle of poverty is broken; if not, why not; if so, what are the
relevant details? NW1120E
REPLY:
Linking the poor, the vulnerable and marginalized to sustainable
livelihoods and economic activities
The Department of Social Development has developed a programme to link the
poor, the vulnerable and marginalized to sustainable livelihoods and
economic activities such as jobs, further education and training (FET) and
enterprising activities. Its objective is to ensure that participants are
linked to opportunities that best match their interests, skills and needs
within the context of opportunities available in the local area.
The project targets mainly the care givers/parents of CSG beneficiaries,
most of whom are young, able-bodied and within the economically active age
category. However, it will not exclude people with disabilities and those
over 35yrs.
The specific objectives of the programme are to:
⢠complement social grants and improve their impact on the quality of life
of the poor
⢠enhance the livelihood strategies of poor households and increase their
capacity to provide for their basic needs
⢠engage the poor in sustainable and viable enterprising
⢠target opportunities for absorption and placement of qualifying
individuals in the formal/business sector labour force
⢠provide the skills required by the economy, and
⢠build capacity and provide resources across society to encourage self-
employment
The programme utilizes linkages drawn from national and international best
practices (e.g. OECD countries). It explores the option of direct job
creation schemes such as the Community Employment Programme (CEP). In this
case, participants are offered temporary employment in their communities
e.g. in social services; health care; environment; education etc. with the
possibility to create regular employment. Nationally, the programme
partners with existing initiatives such as the EPWP where funds can be ring-
fenced to provide long-term subsidized employment for individuals with
reduced work or earning capacity.
The programme also applies activation strategies to help job seekers to
have a better chance to find employment and to participate in
entrepreneurial activities as well as cooperatives as part of the social
and mainstream economy.
The National Integrated Social Information System (NISIS)
The Department of Social Development leads the Social Protection &
Community Development Cluster in the implementation of the National
Integrated Social Information System (NISIS). NISIS will establish at the
heart of the cluster a common technology platform to support key social
programmes. Specific objectives are to:
o Provide a database of households living in poverty to enable the
coordinated targeting of households and communities most in need;
o Provide a service referral system to coordinate the delivery of social
protection services across the tiers of government and its partners;
o Provide visibility of individualsâ circumstances and participation
across major social programmes for the purposes of targeting, tracking
and fraud mitigation, and many other objectives.
NISIS has gone through a process of conceptualisation, feasibility study
and proof-of-concept which was completed in 2008. NISIS is presently in its
initial phases of implementation in collaboration with other key social
programmes as follows:
o The War on Poverty Campaign (WOPC) and Comprehensive Rural Development
Programme (CRDP) â The WOPC and CRDP rely on NISIS to operationalise
and strengthen their implementation in the most deprived Wards in the
country. NISIS assists in determination of household needs, and
referral to the relevant line departments for action. The CSG and
other complimentary anti-poverty services form part of the basket of
services for which referrals are made. To date NISIS caters for
over 50,000 households with 180,000 referrals generated. These numbers
are growing rapidly as the both WOPC and CRDP roll-out.
o City of Johannesburg (CoJ) â The CoJ and DSD are collaborating to
deliver CoJâs Expanded Social Package whose first phase has already
been implemented. The current phase is now focused on enabling the pre-
registration of social grant recipients for Free Basic Services and
providing access to a broader range of social protection services from
CoJ service points.
o Department of Basic Education â The department collaborates with the
Department of Basic Education through the cross-referencing of CSG and
learner information. This allows children in receipt of CSG but not
registered for school to be supported through our social work and
thereby increase school attendance. Similar approaches to cross-
referencing administrative data sources for the purposes of targeting
interventions will be applied to other anti-poverty services in future
phases.
Through NISIS and in collaboration with its partners, the Department of
Social Development is taking important steps towards developing a more
integrated approach to delivering services to the poor in order to break
the cycle of poverty. Nevertheless, due to the complexity of integrating
government, these represent only the start of what will need to be a multi-
year journey.
SASSA (SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIAL SECURITY AGENCY)
SASSAâs mandate is to administer and pay social assistance grants.
However, the SASSA strategic plan for 2010/11 has identified integrated
developmental services for the vulnerable as a key output, in support of
the required outcomes identified by Government.
In order to link grant beneficiaries to sustainable development
opportunities, SASSA works closely with other stakeholders, including the
Department of Social Development. Our pilot of linking women in receipt
of child support grants to development opportunities is being implemented
in KwaZulu-Natal. This pilot will inform the development of a more
comprehensive strategy to support the achievement of the output identified.
The comprehensive strategy will be progressively implemented throughout
all SASSA regions.
End.
Source: DSD and SASSA