Public Works Program Research Articles

Botswana’s Ipelegeng Programme Design and Implementation: Reduction or Perpetuation/Entrenchment of Poverty?

Botswana launched a Public Works Programme (PWP) – commonly known as Ipelegeng (IP) in 2008 as one, among a myriad of initiatives meant to reduce poverty for sustainable development in marginalized contexts. Research shows that well designed and properly implemented (PWPs) have potential to reduce poverty among the poor by creating the much needed employment opportunities and other forms of sustainable livelihood. This paper assesses the contribution of Ipelegeng towards poverty reduction in Botswana. A nationwide review of Ipelegeng was conducted in 2012. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted at 23 research sites followed by a detailed analysis of data collected. Evidence based on both empirical and documentary analysis suggests that although Ipelegeng has made some contribution to poverty reduction, its successes are far outweighed by its failures. Poor programme designs and flawed implementation has been blamed for Ipelegeng failure to deliver on set objectives. This paper concludes by asserting the need for the development of robust Ipelegeng designs and implementation tools that will ensure the realisation of sustained poverty reduction outcomes.

The divisive character of public works programmes

Among the tools of labour market, public works is one of the oldest; therefore its use is almost natural. Although at the same time it is the aim of public works, the extent and targetedness of its use which decide whether public works functions as an active tool of employment policy or rather as a socio-political tool to manage poverty. Connecting welfare to public works (workfare) can only be understood related to reintegration efforts aiming at the unemployed and also to fighting poverty. The aim of reintegrating programmes is to support the permanent unemployed and other underprivileged groups to return to labour market. The principle of public works in Hungarian practice is: „work instead of social benefit”. The question is whether public works is a relevant and professionally supportable tool in the long run for those who are interested or something else might prove more efficient. The study presents the issue of this dichotomy. The actuality of the chosen topic is given by the fact that the amount the national resource spent on public works has almost quintupled since 2010.

Unintended Consequences of a Public Works Program: Agricultural Yields, Weather Shocks and Indiaas Employment Guarantee

India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the world’s largest public works program, has been demonstrated to have beneficial impacts on a wide range of outcomes, but its effects on agricultural productivity have been relatively understudied (Sukhtankar, 2017). We test whether NREGA modulates the impact of adverse weather shocks on agricultural yields. Our empirical strategy exploits the staggered rollout of NREGA and random fluctuations in weather. Using nationwide data, we find evidence that NREGA slightly increases yields in years with average rainfall, but that it also makes yields more sensitive to low rainfall shocks. Our results highlight the importance of understanding how social protection programs influence agricultural productivity and how they interact with weather shocks.

The controversial nature of workfare programmes

Abstract According to the OECD, active employment policies include all social expenditure that are directed at improving the chances of finding a job and income generation (except education). Active labour market policies are around to assist in enhancing labour market flexibility at the times of economic changes. Their key components are the so-called activation strategies that act as typical prerequisites of benefitting from unemployment security/support systems in every EU country. The workfare concept lies behind the public work programmes. There are serious professional debates whether public work can primarily be seen as a ’compulsion and work test’ or, rather, as an opportunity of entering the primary labour market. The available efficiency analyses unanimously state that public work forms have the biggest role in testing willingness to work and the obligatory nature is the strongest of all active labour market policies. Research also indicates that public work reintegrates only few people back to the primary labour market and the majority are restrained from seeking a job and other income generating activities. There are several reasons for and against public work and opinions differ. The paper summarises the benefits and drawbacks on the basis of international and Hungarian analyses.

Accidents of Electrical and Mechanical Works for Public Sector Projects in Hong Kong.

A study on electrical and mechanical (E&M) works-related accidents for public sector projects provided the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the causes of accidents by analyzing the circumstances of all E&M works accidents. The research aims to examine accidents of E&M works which happened in public sector projects. A total of 421 E&M works-related accidents in the “Public Works Programme Construction Site Safety and Environmental Statistics” (PCSES) system were extracted for analysis. Two-step cluster analysis was conducted to classify the E&M accidents into different groups. The results identified three E&M accidents groups: (1) electricians with over 15 years of experience were prone to ‘fall of person from height’; (2) electricians with zero to five years of experience were prone to ‘slip, trip or fall on same level’; (3) air-conditioning workers with zero to five years of experience were prone to multiple types of accidents. Practical measures were recommended for each specific cluster group to avoid recurrence of similar accidents. The accident analysis would be vital for industry practitioners to enhance the safety performance of public sector projects. This study contributes to filling the knowledge gap of how and why E&M accidents occur and promulgating preventive measures for E&M accidents which have been under researched.

Workfare and Infant Health: Evidence from India's Public Works Program

This paper examines the relationship between maternal employment and infant health in the context of a large workfare program that explicitly prioritizes female participation, India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Using multiple estimation strategies including a triple difference strategy that exploits a discontinuity in program eligibility at age 18, we find that the program had negative impacts on newborn infant survival, increasing newborn mortality among women who were eligible to participate in the program.

Political Activism as a Determinant of Clientelistic Transfers: Evidence from an Indian Public Works Program

Are political activists preferentially targeted by politicians engaging in clientelistic transfers to bolster political support? We provide the first model to highlight two possible rationales for such transfers: to mobilize support from the activists themselves, or to mobilize support from electors these activists have influence over. Using novel household data on ex ante political affiliation and jobs received subsequent to large-scale decentralized workfare program in India, we find that activists are indeed preferentially targeted, and furthermore, such transfers are more pronounced in locations where citizen political involvement is less common, and in remote and less connected areas where activists' role in information transfers is most critical. We argue that the evidence is consistent with the use of transfers to leverage the influence of activists over the decision-making of other electors. Our results are not driven by self selection, reverse causality, and other program transfers, and are robust to alternate definitions of activism.

Public Policy Reform and Informal Institutions: The Political Articulation of the Demand for Work in Rural India

Summary The emphasis on rights that individual citizens can claim from the state represents a significant institutional development for poverty alleviation policies. In India, important legislation was passed in 2005 to guarantee rural households 100 days of work paid at a statutory wage rate. This Right to Work legislation has enabled the implementation of the world’s largest public works program—the “Mahatma Gandhi” National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or NREGS. This study explores variation in policy outcomes under NREGS within a rural district of North India (Uttar Pradesh). It finds that this variation is the product of the interaction between formal and informal institutions. As such, the demand for work benefits does not emerge spontaneously from self-selecting rural citizens, but is articulated by local elected officials who are pressurised to accommodate demands for rents from the bureaucracy. Specifically, local elected officials are compelled to proceed to a selective activation of the demand for benefits to ensure the generation of a surplus which will form the basis of bureaucratic rent payments. The study relies on qualitative data, specifically interviews with past beneficiaries of the scheme, bureaucrats tasked with policy implementation, and elected village leaders (the Gram Pradhans in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh) to document the conditions under which a surplus is extracted and rent payments made. The study shows that caste and political leadership structures at the local level affect the generation of surpluses and the payment of rents by Gram Pradhans to the bureaucracy. While the Right to Work legislation represents progress for poverty alleviation, policies such as NREGS that emphasize rights and the expression of a demand for benefits need to consider more carefully the conditions under which this demand emerges as well as the ways in which discretionary authority can thwart the goals of public policy.

Can public works increase equilibrium wages? Evidence from India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee

We estimate the impact of the world’s largest public works program, India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), on agricultural wages. NREGS was rolled out across India in three distinct phases, and this phased introduction is used to identify difference-in-difference estimates of the program effect. Using monthly data on wage rates from the period 2000–2011 in 209 districts across 18 Indian states, we include district-specific fixed effects and trends to control for differences in wage rates in the absence of the program. We find that, on average, the program boosted the growth rate of real daily agricultural wages by 4.3% per year. The effect of the scheme is more consistent with an increase in the growth rate of wages than with a discontinuous jump in wages. The effect was concentrated in some states and in the agricultural peak season, appears to have been gender-neutral and was biased towards unskilled labor. Since many of the world’s poorest depend on casual agricultural labor for their livelihood, while at the same time minimum-wage legislation is unlikely to be effective in many developing countries, we argue that rural public employment programs constitute a potentially important anti-poverty policy tool.

Financial Inclusion Through Public Works Program: Does Gender-Based Violence Make a Difference?

The study investigates the impact of gender-related violence on financial inclusion. Exploiting the staggered rollout of a major public works program across Indian districts, we find evidence that households in states with gender-related violence are less likely to own a bank account, notwithstanding the fact that districts in these states were early implementers of the public works program. These findings are however, different after the government launched a massive program to promote universal financial inclusion. To be more specific, we find evidence of an increase in account ownership consistent during this period by over 100 percentage points, although the use of bank account by working women declines significantly. These findings of increased access are consistent with the bargaining theory, which suggests by gaining greater resources, women also gain more power. However, low use of accounts highlights the theory of male backlash as a response to undermined economic role at home. Overall, these results suggest that any attempt at ensuring universal financial inclusion needs to adequately take on board the aspect of gender-related violence, which can be the outcome of not only economic, but also social and cultural factors.

Aktif İstihdam Politikası Olarak Toplum Yararına Programlar: Tokat İli Araştırması

Aktif İstihdam Politikası Olarak Toplum Yararına Programlar: Tokat İli Araştırması

Social protection as a strategy to address climate-induced migration

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss the roles of social protection in reducing and facilitating climate-induced migration. Social protection gained attention in the international climate negotiations with the establishment of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. Yet, its potential to address migration, considered as a key issue in the loss and damage debate, has not been sufficiently explored. This paper aims at identifying key characteristics of social protection schemes which could effectively address climate-induced migration and attempts to derive recommendations for policy design.Design/methodology/approachBased on the existing literature, the paper links empirical evidence on the effects of social protection to climate-related drivers of migration and the needs of vulnerable populations. This approach allows conceptually identifying characteristics of effective social protection policies.FindingsFindings indicate that social protection can be part of a proactive approach to managing climate-induced migration both in rural and urban areas. In particular, public work programmes offer solutions to different migration outcomes, from no to permanent migration. Benefits are achieved when programmes explicitly integrate climate change impacts into their design. Social protection can provide temporary support to facilitate migration, in situ adaptation or integration and adaptation in destination areas. It is no substitution for but can help trigger sustainable adaptation solutions.Originality/valueThe paper helps close research gaps regarding the potential roles and channels of social protection for addressing and facilitating climate-induced migration and providing public support in destination, mostly in urban areas.

The “Discouraged Worker Effect” in Public Works Programs: Evidence from the MGNREGA in India

Summary This study investigates the consequences of poor implementation in public workfare programs, focusing on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in India. Using nationally representative data, we test empirically for a discouraged worker effect arising from either of two mechanisms: administrative rationing of jobs among those who seek work and delays in wage payments. We find strong evidence at the household and district levels that administrative rationing discourages subsequent demand for work. Delayed wage payments seem to matter significantly during rainfall shocks. We find further that rationing is strongly associated with indicators of implementation ability such as staff capacity. Politics appears to play only a limited role. The findings suggest that assessments of the relevance of public programs over their lifecycle need to factor in implementation quality.

Political reservation for women and delivery of public works program

AbstractWe examine the impact of political reservations for women to analyze the effectiveness of female leaders in executing public works under NREGA, India's largest public works program. The 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution mandated that one third of Panchayat seats be randomly assigned to women. Using detailed data on Panchayat elections, employment, and public works expenditure for nine districts in Uttar Pradesh, we find female Panchayat leaders significantly increase the demand for work under NREGA. We also find that women leaders take up projects that directly benefit women, such as water control and harvesting. Finally, we find no difference between male and female leaders in generating employment or efficiently implementing public works under NREGA.

The Expanded Public Works Programme: Perspectives of direct beneficiaries

Scholarship on the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in South Africa tends to focus on quantitative evaluation to measure the progress made in the implementation of EPWP projects. The number of employment opportunities created by EPWP, demographic profiling, skills acquired by beneficiaries and training opportunities related to the Programme form the basis of typical statistical evaluations of it, but exclude comment by the workers who participate in its projects. Based on primary sources, including in-depth interviews, newspaper reports and internet sources, this article seeks to provide a qualitative review of the EPWP from the perspective of the beneficiaries of municipal EPWP projects. Various South African government sectors hire EPWP workers to provide local services such as cleaning and maintaining infrastructure, but the employment of these workers can still be regarded as precarious, in the sense that they have no job security, earn low wages and have no benefits such as medical aid or pension fund. The interviewees indicated that, although they appreciate the temporary employment opportunities provided by the EPWP, they also experience health and safety risks and lack the advantages of organised labour groupings. Their main disadvantage, however, is that they cannot access permanent employment, which offers better wages and concomitant benefits.

Community development workers as agents of change and conduit of authentic public participation: The case of Mpumalanga Province in South Africa

This article explores the role of community development workers (CDWs) in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. The CDWs are by law expected to regularly communicate, inter alia, government initiatives in a way which is easily accessible to community members. Literature shows that the CDWs forward concerns and issues on the service provided by national and provincial government in general, and local government to be specific. This article acknowledges that CDWs share the working space with Ward Committees who have a direct say in the planning, decision-making and project implementation that have impact on their respective wards. The question that this article attempts to answer is whether the establishment of CDWs in the country has achieved the desired result to the extent that it can be recommended for permanent incorporation in the local municipality structures. The research design used in this article was a qualitative method. Data were collected through extensive review of public documents, accredited journal articles, observations and interviews. The results showed that the CDWs coordinate teams of volunteers in community projects, coordinate teams employed on public works programmes, help communities develop and submit proposals for inclusion in integrated development plans to municipalities, and other spheres of government or donors. Furthermore, the roles and functions of both CDWs and Ward Committees do overlap. It is very difficult for the local communities to differentiate between these two structures.

Does MGNREGA Lead to Agrarian Crisis? Evidence from Andhra Pradesh

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is an ambitious public works programme which was introduced in 2006 to provide a basic safety net for the rural poor. It has already completed 10 years of its journey. This study attempted to draw some lessons from the past 10 years' experiences of MGNREGA implementation. During this journey, MGNREGA influenced the rural economy in different ways, especially, the agriculture sector, in addition to providing employment to the rural poor. So, this study mainly focused on agriculture to understand the effects of MGNREGA. The objective of the study was to analyze reasons for increasing wage rates in the agricultural sector which are influenced by MGNREGA. Increasing agricultural wages are caused by several factors along with MGNREGA. Although it couldn't be completed successfully, it brought some changes in the rural economy through setting up a floor wage rate which ultimately affected the cost of cultivation. In the process of undergoing structural changes in the economy, the MGNREGA was also responsible for agrarian crisis along with several other factors.

Can public works programs reduce youth crime? Evidence from Papua New Guinea\u2019s Urban Youth Employment Project

Crime rates in Papua New Guinea’s capital city of Port Moresby are among the highest in the world. Few youth work, and good jobs are scarce. In 2013, the National Capital District Commission partnered with the World Bank to implement the Urban Youth Employment Project. The project offers out-of-school and out-of-work youth 2 months of public works employment or, for academically qualified candidates, 6 months of classroom and on-the-job training. This paper presents difference-in-differences estimates of project impacts on participants’ social and criminal behavior, 12 to 18 months after completion. The control group consists of observably similar youth living in areas not served by the program. Project participants became less likely to hang out with friends at night, have a best friend involved in crime, and have friends involved in fights or robberies. The program also increased subsequent employment rates and significantly reduced aggressive behavior and gratuitous property damage. However, there is little robust evidence that the program reduced participants’ engagement in or exposure to crime. The study concludes that the program had strong and healthy effects on participants’ peer group and behavior, but more limited effects on the socio-economic causes of crime.

The Effectiveness of the Expanded Public Works Program in Promoting Local Economic Development: A case study of Zibambele Project, eThekwini Municipality

In South Africa, with the advent of democracy, the Expanded Public Works Programme was conceived as an employment strategy by government in order to alleviate poverty and promote a better standard of living for marginalised groups, particularly youth and women in South Africa. This is a qualitative exploratory research in which the data was collected through face-to-face interviews with beneficiaries. The researcher utilised the exploratory research in order to explore the effectiveness of the Zibambele Project at the local level, and to see how it creates employment opportunities for marginalised groups. The key focus of the literature review is on local economic development, with special reference to the poverty alleviation strategies as a guideline for economic growth at local levels. The findings show that the government-led programmes that eliminate poverty at the grassroots level as well as creating employment opportunities for marginalised are crucial. Furthermore, the study shows that the government programmes are more needed in order to tackle poverty and also increase local economic development in South Africa.

The Effectiveness of the Expanded Public Works Program in Promoting Local Economic Development: A case study of Zibambele Project, eThekwini Municipality

In South Africa, with the advent of democracy, the Expanded Public Works Programme was conceived as an employment strategy by government in order to alleviate poverty and promote a better standard of living for marginalised groups, particularly youth and women in South Africa. This is a qualitative exploratory research in which the data was collected through face-to-face interviews with beneficiaries. The researcher utilised the exploratory research in order to explore the effectiveness of the Zibambele Project at the local level, and to see how it creates employment opportunities for marginalised groups. The key focus of the literature review is on local economic development, with special reference to the poverty alleviation strategies as a guideline for economic growth at local levels. The findings show that the government-led programmes that eliminate poverty at the grassroots level as well as creating employment opportunities for marginalised are crucial. Furthermore, the study shows that the government programmes are more needed in order to tackle poverty and also increase local economic development in South Africa.