Government has identified job creation as a key focus during the 2011/12 financial year. The SONA highlighted the strategic significance of rural development and land reform as a lever for improving lives of the rural people. It further showed that 500 000 jobs would be created in the rural sector over the next 10 years. In that context, the DRDLR considered the New Growth Path that provided strategies for creation of jobs and identified the manners in which it could contribute towards job creation. It planned to develop strategies and programmes that would create jobs specifically for rural communities. Such programmes included the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP), Recapitalization and Development Programme (RADP) for land reform projects, National Rural Youth Service Corps (NARYSEC) that targeted skills development and employment of youth. Since 2009, the Department has implemented the CRDP pilot projects. It also identified CRDP as a key driver for the creation of jobs in rural communities and revival of land reform projects, distressed farms owned by individuals as well as irrigation schemes. NARYSEC was launched in November 2010; the DRDLR has already recruited 7000 young people from all the Provinces except Kwazulu-Natal where a different programme was being implemented. It also reported it targeted to reach 22 401 youth by 2014.