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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Robert Hope
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In 1995, the government of the Republic of South Africa launched the Working for Water (WfW) programme that links environmental and developmental goals through the removal of high water-consuming alien plants with pro-poor rural employment opportunities. Whilst bio-physical evaluations have widely reported on the hydrological, ecological and conservation components of the programme, there exists growing uncertainty over the programme's role as a poverty reduction mechanism. This paper evaluates three projects in the Luvuvhu catchment, Limpopo Province, against five socio-economic workfare criteria and the underlying biophysical rationale. Results show that asset creation from incremental streamflow is economically efficient and is likely to improve significantly if biodiversity benefits, community harvesting of riparian goods and services, ecological non-use values and seasonal water demand values are incorporated into the analysis. However, socio-economic benefits are more questionable: poverty targeting is weak with wage rates failing to self-select the poor; a minor proportion (0.5%) of catchment households benefit from the highly-valued employment opportunities; high variability in monthly employment causes financial difficulties for labourers; labourers are not 'empowered' as is evidenced by the failure of the 2-year exit strategy; and programme efficiency is high in proportional allocation of cash-flow to non-management wage labour. It is concluded that the Working for Programme is a potentially replicable model in other semi-arid contexts in developing countries if based on its core biophysical remit but is a transitory and limited poverty reduction mechanism for improving rural livelihoods. © Springer 2006.
Author(s): Hope RA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Environment, Development and Sustainability
Year: 2006
Volume: 8
Issue: 1
Pages: 139-156
Print publication date: 01/02/2006
ISSN (print): 1387-585X
ISSN (electronic): 1573-2975
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10668-005-1780-4
DOI: 10.1007/s10668-005-1780-4
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