Institutionalising pro-poor local economic development through expanded public works in the urban environment of Cape Town

Abstract

Cape Town provides a very useful location from which to explore the broad-based anti-poverty strategy that advocates human development. Cape Town is the birthplace of South Africa's new public works programmes, with the Working for Water Programme being a key anti-poverty measure. In this paper, lessons from two case studies are set against a general discussion of the impact of pro-poor interventions in the city. We argue that an authoritative assessment of EPWP (extended public works programme) outcomes is not possible as the City has no effective monitoring or evaluation of poverty relief. That said, there is much of value in Cape Town and the use of the urban environmental sector as a domain of broad-based poverty relief offers particular scope.