The Evaluation of the Expanded Public Works Programme II (EPWP II) 2009-2014 in KwaZulu-Natal

Description:
This data set contains the responses from 476 participants regarding household demographic information, poverty perceptions, household income and expenditure patterns, food and nutrition security, asset status of the household, health status, children and education, unemployment and poverty, employment and income generating history of household members, credit risk, general overview of the EPWP project, EPWP employment, skill and training profile, and personal/household benefit from EPWP.

The study targeted 400 EPWP beneficiaries and the actual realised sample was 376 EPWP current and past beneficiaries from 15 EPWP projects in 4 KZN districts. The study also targeted 100 non-beneficiaries for comparisons.

The data set contains 476 cases and 1087 variables.
Abstract:
Public employment programmes (PEPs) or (public works programmes (PWPs) remain a popular policy instrument globally and particularly in developing countries as a short term measure for tackling unemployment and alleviating poverty. They are premised on the notion that employment will directly impact household livelihoods through access to wages, while it will more broadly act as a stimulus for the economy.

Public employment programmes transfer impacts in three key ways, namely:

transfer of wages,

asset accumulation at the individual and household levels and

assets that are created from projects for the community at large.

A socio-economic impact assessment of EPWP Phase 2 in KwaZulu-Natal and a measure to estimate the total rand value of each EPWP job in the province was commissioned by the Provincial Department of Transport (DoT), the lead agency responsible for the co-ordination and monitoring of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in the province.

The evaluation adopted a mixed methods design that drew on the strengths of quantitative data collection and analysis involving a purpose built comprehensive household survey. Qualitative data collection methods and analysis was widely used on focus groups and key informant interviews. The survey was administered to a total of 376 EPWP participants both current and past, from fifteen projects in four districts across KZN namely Zululand, eThekwini, uGu and uMzinyathi. In addition 100 non beneficiary (comparison group) stakeholders were interviewed. The beneficiaries were identified from projects across all four EPWP sectors.