Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers present, Deputy Ministers, hon Members of Parliament, officials of departments and guests, good afternoon.
The mandate of the Department of Social Development is to provide a comprehensive social protection service to the most vulnerable and reduce poverty. It does this through social grants, welfare services and community development. Evidence has shown that social grants continue to be vital in improving access to food in households that are most likely to experience hunger.
To further improve access to food security, the Department of Social Development, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, will establish a food security - Zero Hunger - programme which aims to fight food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition. This is a significant initiative that the department is embarking on as it would benefit female-headed households, children and people with disability who currently fall in the policy gaps. The programme has had major successes in Brazil in fighting poverty.
Hon members, it gives me great pleasure to speak about the National Development Agency, NDA, which is an entity of government that was established after 1994. Its main purpose is to contribute to the eradication of poverty through an interfaced partnership with civil society organisations. As this auspicious House we have high expectations for the agency and appreciate the role that it has played over the past ten years.
The NDA continues to unlock the potential of civil society organisations that implement development projects in poor communities, consequentially linking them to government priorities and outcomes.
In the 2011-12 financial year, it successfully dispersed R83 million in cash to projects and approved 53 projects to the value of R78 million. As the Deputy Minister indicated, the National Development Agency has invested R10,2 million to support capacity-building interventions of the civil society organisations in the sectors of early childhood development, vulnerable groups and rural development.
For this financial year and beyond, the NDA will be focusing on four key areas, which I believe will contribute to lessening the burden of poverty in some of the communities that we serve. These are: early childhood development; food security; income generation programmes and projects; as well as capacity-building, which runs through all these programmes.
In terms of food security, the NDA will fund agricultural projects aimed at providing food security at community and household level. It will step up capacity development initiatives partnerships with organisations engaged in food security through resource sharing and collaboration, and undertake continuous research on the status of food security, policy development, lobbying and advocacy.
The future can never be bright without taking into account income generation programmes to ensure sustainable employment and skilling of women, youth and people with disabilities so as to enable them to participate in the mainstream economy. To this effect, the NDA will continue to fund civil society organisations-based income generation projects that can create employment for the poor in targeted communities.
In respect of capacity-building, the NDA will strengthen the capacity of the NDA-funded projects to deliver effective services to the poor. It will support the intermediary civil society organisations to reach out to a wide range of CSOs at local level. It will also support NPO directorate at the Department of Social Development in addressing institutional capacity constraints of registered CSOs.
Hon members, the NDA's mandate is to contribute towards redressing the past. It works with the most vulnerable members of our society and some are located in very remote areas. It needs resources and everyone's support in order to reach out to as many people as possible.
The NDA will establish a programme management unit to leverage on its legislative mandate of being a conduit for local and international resources. The programme management unit will specifically deliver on the following: It will focus on the provision of project management services to government, the private sector and donors. It will manage funds from the public, private sector and individual citizens both locally and internationally.
The NDA has over the years struggled with the issue of monitoring funded projects. Hon members, I am pleased to report that there has been significant improvement in this area. I think a bit of context is in order in this regard. There are several reasons why monitoring and evaluation are undertaken in community development. The following are but some of these reasons: It assesses the performance of programmes and projects. It reviews activities against plans and assesses risks and provides support. It enables the project to comply with contractual obligations and improves the effectiveness of management and projects administration. It develops a source of data for learning and innovation, and it informs future planning of projects and programmes.
One critical concern we have is the closure of advice centres and provincial development councils in the Western Cape as vehicles of providing access to information advice, lobbying and advocacy for the poor. We call upon the Western Cape government to recognise civil society as an important player in developing poor communities.
Sihlalo, njengobe siLikomidi Letekutfutfukisa Tenhlalakahle Yebantfu nje, sike savakashela lemiklamo ye-NDA eMpumalanga kanye naseMphumalanga Kapa. Yonkhe lena lesiyibonile iyasebenta futsi itimele, seyidzimate yavula nematfuba emisebenti emimangweni ledla imbuya ngelutsi. (Translation of Siswati paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, as a Committee of Social Development, we once visited the NDA projects at Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape. All the projects we saw are functioning and are independent; they have even created job opportunities for poor communities.]