Submissions were made by:

1. University of Transkei
2. Women’s Health Project, University of the Witwatersrand
3. University of Natal (Population Research Unit)
4. Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA)
5. Rhodes University, Population Research Unit – HIV/AIDS
6. Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA)
7. University of Pretoria

1. Reproductive Health Issues, including HIV / AIDS, sexual crimes, teenage pregnancy and gender imbalance in reproductive responsibilities.
2. Family Structure and Development – development policies and welfare systems are not aligned to matrifocal and three-generational rural households
3. Migration and Development – rapid urbanisation and constant movement of population within rural areas but impact unknown.
4. Monitoring and Information Collection – paucity of data and the need for schemes for rapid transmission and ownership of information by communities.

1. More research on population issues must be undertaken.
2. Workshops and training programmes for communities, government officials, civil servants and NGOs.
3. Integration of population issues into government policies in all departments.
4. Education at schools that will enable students to go to rural areas after graduation and make a positive contribution.
5. More positive socio-economic programmes must be put in place in rural areas so as to attract skilled people to work in the rural areas.
6. The provincial population units need to be revived to co-ordinate partnerships at provincial and local level. Provincial committees could be formed to draw up a programme of action and monitor progress.

Minister Skweyiya:

• Is there any research taking place on these issues at the University? Answer: Yes, on fertility issues and migration.
• How does the University work with the community? Answer: Partnerships are not strong. Units work independently without consultation or interaction. NPU should co-ordinate this.

1. Access to government data – necessary for planning and evaluation of impact. But data is owned by government departments.
2. Role of the NPU and provincial units is to enable government departments to plan and monitor, versus data provision role of Statistics SA (which excludes policy analysis).
3. Lack of capacity of national and provincial population units – need demographic and social analytical skills.
4. Planning to mitigate the impact of AIDS should be a priority, especially within government bureaucracy to ensure capacity.
5. Relationship of national work to international work – to ensure continuity and prioritising of work, as well as proper assessment of progress.

1. NPU should free and immediate access to all government data.
2. Data must be made accessible (easy to understand) for public dissemination and to share data.
3. Minister to address issue of establishing dedicated provincial population units and the relocation of population units to become part of the broader development planning bodies.
4. Skills development and capacity building in social and demographic analysis.
5. Must build alliances with other sectors to ensure that impact of HIV / AIDS is addressed, while also focussing on prevention.
6. Need a more systematic process of engagement by government and NGOs with international forums and issues.
7. Minister to address role of G77

Minister Skweyiya:

• We must unpack what focus on HIV/AIDS will mean, for example in relation to NGOs

B Klugman:

• NPU’s role is to help people to understand impact of HIV / AIDS with data available, e.g. work with universities and people doing modelling as private sector units such as mining houses and Eskom, to engage with them to see what they are doing.
• There is a book on best practices in mitigation available

1. An issue of concern for the University of Natal is the lack of data on persons. There is no information on whom is being born. Not the numbers of people, but information about the person such as their family structure, the community in which they are born, the economic and social factors already affecting their family and so on.
2. Research is only done on poverty, not on wealth and its link to poverty

1. A civil registration system is needed.
2. There is a need for a combined poverty and wealth research, as it is possible that one person’s wealth is the cause of another’s poverty.
3. There is need to engage in systems thinking that will analyse the cultural and psychological dynamics of incidents, so as to better prepare or prevent the recurrence of some incidents.
4. Starting applied population studies programme that will look at case studies, e.g. Working for Water and the Flagship Programme for Unemployed Women.

Minister Skweyiya:

• We should not be too hard on provinces
• There is lack of capacity and the Ministry will work to build capacity not only with the University of Natal, but with all universities.

The presenter did not identify any key issues or areas of concern for the Department’s attention. The presentation focused on the PPASA and the work they do.

One key point was that poverty alleviation can be addressed through partnerships, but the issue of sustainability must be looked at, as well as integrating other services/recreation into programmes and life skills education.

In response to the massive job losses in the mining industry in the last ten years, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has campaigned for the implementation of the Social Plan for the areas affected by the crises. One result of this is the establishment of regional Development Centres through which ex-miners are encouraged to set up micro-enterprises.

The Centre provides the following services in support of local economic activity:

• Technical training
• Business training and advice
• Hire and Sale of production equipment
• Sale of raw material needed for small business – steel, cement, poultry feed, baking premix, etc.
• Product development and marketing linkages

1. Ex-miners cannot access raw materials to run their enterprises, mainly due to the lack of finance. Often there is demand for their products but they cannot produce because they cannot get the raw materials they need.
2. The downscaling of the mines affects the economies of Lesotho and Mozambique. The MDA is collaborating with institutions to address this. Funding is received from the Department of Labour, but only for training of SA miners. Can a synergy with the Department of Welfare and the Department of Labour help with this?

In response, the MDA has set up a central buying agency that has national accounts with all suppliers, and has negotiated for discounts.

Raw materials are bought at discount prices of up to 40% less. MDA is also setting up local level bulk-supply shops to take the products closer to the local entrepreneurs.

Meetings are planned with the Mozambique government and continuous interaction with Lesotho. A successful centre is set up in Lesotho.

To look into making loans available to the ex-miners so that they can purchase the necessary materials needed for their businesses.

1. Is MDA working with SADC countries other than those mentioned? Answer: most foreign miners come from Mozambique and Lesotho.
2. What are the migrating patterns of retrenched miners? Answer: they often go back to their home village and stay for a few months, but then they return to the mining towns.
3. Do the ex-miners have markets to sustain their businesses? Answer: there are existing markets, but for the reasons stated above, it is often difficult to access these. The MDA does provide technical support in identifying and accessing markets.

1. South Africa is the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
2. Of the big 4 pandemics in history, HIV is the worst.
3. Modellers are being too cautious. The knowledge of AIDS is not being translated into a responsible change of behaviour. We need a two-generation focus to change behaviour.
4. AIDS is a national public health disaster.
5. On average, 1 in 5 sexually active people are HIV positive.
6. There is a high number of HIV positive children between the ages of 5-14, despite the fact that most babies born with AIDS will die before their 5^th birthday, and most sexually active children are found in the 14 year and older category. It has been discovered that most of the 5-14 age group are females whom have been abused or raped. The reason for targeting this age group is the belief that intercourse with a virgin cures one of AIDS – the ‘Virgin Cure Myth’.
7. A State of Emergency should be declared.

1. Lobbying for prevention needs more departmental support
2. Department of Welfare should consider providing pensions for AIDS sufferers – this will be a profound way of alerting the nation of the severity of the problem.
3. Just talking about the pandemic will alert people about the seriousness of it: that in the year 2009, 6 million will die in SA and the imbalances in sex ratio as more women will die.
4. Maybe AIDS must become notifiable?
5. An inter-sectoral agency (such as welfare) is needed to focus on AIDS prevention

Minister Skweyiya:

• We must keep focus on poverty
• Must be cautious of focusing on race lines
• The lack of power for women is a problem
• How much has Rhodes University worked with the government in the Eastern Cape? Answer: We have spoken to the Premier and the MEC for Health extensively. We’ve also worked closely with the town council, and held seminars with town planners and the TLC in Port Elizabeth.
• What is the effect on food production (bearing in mind the impact on Zimbabwe where workers were dying without sharing their knowledge and skills with others)? Is knowledge disappearing? Answer: South Africa is at a different stage of the pandemic than Zimbabwe, so it is difficult to say.

1. On the issue of demography, research and data, there is need for centralised information that is easily accessible. A point was made that there is a SA Data Archive that is kept by National Research Foundation. This is an inter-sectoral initiative and the data is provided freely.
2. Considering the function of the National Population Unit, does it not belong more in the President’s or the Premier’s Office, rather than with one line department? Answer: the location of the NPU is not necessarily linked to easy access to information.
3. Can other kinds of research be also made available to practitioners?
4. Data needs to be looked at on two levels:

• Access to data sets
• Ability to access information in formats that are easy to understand and use

1. Migration to South Africa is not as chaotic and disorderly, as we may believe. It is a highly regularised process, with the majority of people entering at designated ports of entry; with appropriate travel documents and permits, and for legitimate purposes. Our migration policy is therefore inappropriate.
2. Migration is not just about borders but has cultural implications. It also redefines the interests of nation states.
3. In terms of economic integration and growth within SADC some allowance must be made for the movement of persons.
4. Migrants have an impact – negatively and positively – on the economic, social, cultural and political spheres of the country to which they choose to migrate.

1. Our migration policy and legislation must recognise and accept the inevitability of migration and must set in place a regime that is capable of managing and regulating it at the level of border entries and exits.
2. Within our borders, there is a need for our social welfare and population policies to also reflect the reality of migration and answer questions such as – what rights of access do migrants have to the social welfare and other services provided by the South African government? These must, however, not be limited to policy decisions, but must also be reflected in our implementation plans and budgets.
3. We need reliable and accurate data to address the impact of migration on population and services.
4. Data does not allow general and sweeping conclusions, but gives some useful indicators for policy.
5. The need for accurate and reliable data is obviously one of the key factors if the above are to be achieved, and the requirement for this is effective communication among researchers, policy-makers and decision-makers. This communication should result in the ability to:

• Identify and clearly structure policy issues;
• Develop an assessment of the research needs associated with various policy issues;
• Communicate research findings to policy-makers in a useful and effective manner; and
• To use research to make decisions, to inform policy and to identify emerging issues.

4. This also points to the need for effective co-operation and co-ordination between government departments to circumvent the emergence of contradictory and conflicting policies.

1. Rising expectations among the young unemployed between the ages of 20 – 35
2. Population ageing
3. Internal migration and management of urban areas
4. The decline of fertility across the world and in SA, especially under the cloud of AIDS
5. Rise of big metropolitan areas led to move to urban areas
6. Productive population is not in the rural areas but in the urban areas – urbanisation is close to 65% hence the urban environment must be managed

1. Fewer young and increasing elderly people, especially in the black population is a growing concern. This calls for the revision of the pension system and a lifting of the pension ceiling.
2. High unemployment of young people will affect the Department of Welfare. Employment needs to be created for this age group or they will become involved in crime.
3. Old people, especially in rural areas spend pensions on grand children and other family commitments. They are also responsible for rearing the young.
4. This needs to be considered and appropriate interventions developed to ensure that the aged could use their pensions to improve their quality of life.
5. Services for informal settlements in urban environments need to be provided. The focus needs to shift to urban development and management.
6. Look into moving informal settlements from townships
7. We need to focus on urban development, not rural development and perhaps focus service in urban areas.

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1. Children in Distress (CINDI)
2. Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA)
3. Women’s Health Project
4. Mohau Centre, University of Pretoria
5. SA National Council for Child and Family Welfare

1. Poverty – HIV/AIDS will exacerbate the poor economic circumstances that already exist within most communities and much of the burden of survival will be borne by women, especially the elderly and in some cases, by children. There will be an increased need for Welfare support if families and communities are to look after orphaned children. Is the foster care grant at R400 per month sustainable?

1. The processing of child support grants should be streamlined. The excessive red tape impinges on the uptake.
2. There should be a major effort to secure social grants for those who are entitled to receive them.
3. The child support grant needs to be payable until a minimum of 15 years (preferably 18 years) and needs to be rethought.
4. In the context of AIDS there is a need to model the lowering of the pension age.
5. There needs to be support for the development of micro survivalist enterprises by way of loan banks to create seed capital necessary in order to kick-start such enterprises (done in partnership with reputable NGOs)
6. Government needs to identify its role as enabler and channel funding through an ‘independent’ body (TNDT/NDA) to provincial governments. Provinces should monitor and evaluate projects implemented by NGOs, CBOs, religious community etc.
7. Alternatively, an AIDS Commission needs to adopt Policy Plans, identify implementers and co-ordinate activities between Governments and implementers
8. NGOs need to register with a Government Department.

1. Staffing levels/volunteerism – there are not enough service providers, social workers, auxiliaries and volunteers to respond to the numbers of terminally ill patients and children in distress. The spirit of volunteerism has diminished due to unemployment and poverty.

1. Home Based Care

• The State will need to draw up a standard policy on HBC, and training
• Situation analyses would be helpful to establish needs and gaps in all the regions in the country. This should be in collaboration with the Department of Health.
• Given the demands and stress involved, it is important that carers receive ongoing supervision to prevent burnout.
• There needs to be clear understanding of cultural perceptions and attitudes towards the presence of strangers in the home.

1. Audit current service delivery and clamp down on phantom social workers
2. There needs to be an acceptance that volunteers should receive basic training and a basic honorarium that covers costs and gives them a small incentive in order to sustain their activities as employees of recognised NGOs.

1. Material Relief: CINDI has noted a growing need for material aid, as the needs of orphans and their caregivers are often immediate. This is aggravated by the medical costs incurred prior to death, as well as funeral expenses.

1. Provision of milk formula. The "Breast is Best Campaign" does not take into account the reality of orphan hood.
2. Storage and distribution of material aid such as basic foodstuffs, building materials and medical supplies – in consultation with social workers and NGOs.

1. Access to Education – CINDI is concerned that children suffer the withdrawal of the right to education on the death of a caregiver/primary breadwinner. In addition, institutions and foster parents are having difficulty in funding school fees, because of the financial squeeze being experienced by School Management Boards.

1. Information gathering, information sharing and problem solving together with the Department of Education.
2. Targeted funding for school fees.

1. TLC and RSC Response – CINDI believes that the scale of disaster facing children and their caregivers has not received adequate attention, support and planning by local authorities.

1. Consultations with Minister Mufamadi on the need for local authorities to prepare budgets and action plans to deal with the number of orphans in their areas of jurisdiction.
2. The formulation of disaster plans (i.e. current capacity vs. required capacity by TLCs and RSCs)

1. Rural orphans on farms – CINDI is concerned that the plight of orphans on privately owned and tribal trust land is being ignored.

1. Urgent consultations with Agricultural Unions, the Departments of Agriculture and Land Affairs to assess the extent of the problem and devise a course of action.

1. The Funeral Industry and Paupers’ Burials – CINDI is aware of the burgeoning funeral industry that is a direct consequence of increased deaths from AIDS, which also impacts on land use for cemeteries. In addition, institutions and foster parents are encountering uncaring bureaucracy whenever they need to arrange for a child to be buried in a pauper’s grave.

1. Research Project into the Funeral Industry

1. Preparedness for Death and Dying – this resonates with the rising incidence of AIDS-derived deaths and the high incidence of injury and deaths on the roads.

1. Research in this field should generate a strategy for State, NGO and business partnerships.

1. Simple solutions are needed
2. Money should not be spent on expensive plans, but rather on the caregivers themselves, the provision of basic care, education, grants and food.
3. Government needs to account for the millions of rands spent on conferences, fast cars, travel and luxury living.
4. The role of the State needs to be re-conceptualised in the light of international trends.
5. We need different terminology to describe those children who have lost parents to AIDS, but are not infected and those children who have lost parents and are infected.

The presentation focused on the work of CEDPA, its vision of youth development and its role in addressing sexual and reproductive health and education of young people. CEDPA suggested that the following steps should be taken to address the health and developmental needs of South Africa’s youth, particularly in relation to HIV and AIDS.

1. In the past, youth development and community development efforts have operated independently of each other. These efforts must be better integrated, and further, must incorporate sexual and reproductive health education and services for young people.
2. Multi-sectoral and inter-departmental approaches within government health, welfare, education, employment and civic participation programs must be supported to address the health, social and economic development needs of young people.
3. The government and NGOs should move away from fragmented, unco-ordinated and crisis oriented approaches to youth development. Programmes should develop long-term strategies for working with young people over a longer period of time, and should explore underlying root causes of problems such as poverty and low self-esteem.
4. Gender equity must be a key element of all youth programmes, so that all South African youth can become full partners in development. The Department of Welfare can assist in putting this on the national agenda.
5. Government and NGOs must create a more positive perception of youth, one that is based on the assets, talents and gifts of young people and their communities, and less on the problems and high risk behaviours of youth. In particular, young people experience "AIDS fatigue": they are tired of being told of the risks and negative consequences of sexual activity, and increasingly feel powerless and unmotivated to make positive changes in their behaviours.
6. Government and NGOs must focus less on the curative aspects of programmes, and more on the preventative, again building on the assets and talents of young men and women, and their communities.
7. Programmes of information and services must be driven by the demands of youth, and youth must be involved in their design, implementation and evaluation beyond tokenism. Adults in turn must recognise their own biases, and not let those biases impinge on the information and services that are provided to young people.
8. Policies must be translated into programmes

1. What can the Department do about facilitating inter-sectoral programmes? Answer: this happens more at the implementation level than at policy level. It has implications for the budget in that it must be reviewed to facilitate this.

1. Addressing the underlying factors causing the rapid spread of HIV

• ABC (abstain, be faithful or condomise) approach is least effective in protecting those who are most vulnerable to HIV transmission – women, particularly poor and young women.
• In many cases we are giving a message which cannot be implemented because of factors such as poverty, gender inequality and sexual mores – ‘to be a man you need to have many sexual partners and unprotected sex’ and ‘to be a woman you should be sexually available to a man, irrespective of your own choice’.

1. Advocacy by politicians and senior decision-makers need to speak to the real causes of rapid transmission

• Current talks do not recognise up-front women’s subordinate position
• Issues are talked about as if they’re ‘out there’ – not personalised.

1. Integration of prevention into other AIDS-related initiatives – the high numbers of people infected and affected by HIV make it inappropriate to focus on prevention alone in the process of counselling, life-skills education, public messages or peer education.
2. Personalising the issue: how can we provide services when we are in fear and pain?

• No organisation working on any aspect of AIDS will cope unless its own staff is looked after.

1. Duplication balanced against evaluation – there is an enormous amount of existing expertise, tools, manuals, etc. and an overlap between programming in different sectors.
2. Community Care: the role of men
3. Budget requirements – AIDS is like a war in terms of the numbers of people who will die and we need to mobilise our society accordingly. Resources are required to cope.

1. Programmes developed by the Department of Welfare need to address the underlying factors causing the rapid spread of HIV
2. As a first step, a workshop can be held with leadership figures inside of government and beyond to build their ability to speak comfortably and confidently on the issues raised
3. A human rights approach needs to be taken in relation to AIDS prevention. In this regard, government should support and participate in the Sexual Rights Campaign currently being run by the Joint Enrichment Project, NACOSA, NAPWA, the National Network on Violence Against Women, the PPASA and Women’s Health Project.
4. The Department of Welfare has a key role to play in a range of interacting issues such as:

• De-stigmatisation of HIV and AIDS;
• The need for effective prevention strategies as discussed above;
• The need for information and capacity building on how to live positively;
• The need for information and capacity building on how to care for people who are sick; and
• The need for emotional support for those who are HIV positive, their families, colleagues and those responsible for providing services.

1. The Department of Welfare could set the tone for care programmes in the workplace, by implementing such a programme at national and provincial levels, and providing models and inputs to the private sector and NGOs to do the same.
2. All workplaces, religious groups, youth groups, etc should have programmes of this kind in place if we are to maintain any measure of inter-personal and community solidarity as we go through this pandemic.
3. All counsellors need back up of this kind.
4. Assertions on the effectiveness of a specific counselling manual or approach to home-based care must be based on evaluation. This has financial implications.
5. The Ministry, coupled with the expertise from the National Population Unit, is in a perfect position to conduct advocacy at a political level. This should be done so as to recognise in concrete terms the finances required to met the need, and to build understanding of why such commitments are more of a priority than other needs. Such work is required now to influence the budgeting process nationally and provincially.

1. AIDS is clearly a priority – it will bury the country before we can fix poverty. Maybe the Department of Welfare needs to spearhead the shift of focus.
2. National resources will be drained if seen as an answer to the pandemic. More sharing of resources is needed.
3. The TLC needs to be more involved at provincial and national level.
4. There has to be long-term and short-term strategies, it cannot be an option
5. There doesn’t seem to be awareness of the Committee on Life-skills and HIV/AIDS Education. There are representatives of the Department of Health, NGOs and the Department of Education on this committee. The Department of Welfare is not represented.

1. Abandoned children – they do not qualify for government grants and are often left in hospital for a long time: it can take up to a year to find out information
2. The problem of children who are sick, but whose parents are healthy
3. Pre-schools still discriminate against children
4. Rape of pre-pubic children has to be addressed very urgently
5. Global pandemic: women the common denominator
6. Currently housed in government hospitals and places of safety
7. Lack of government facilities and funding
8. Government grant inadequate
9. Children are fast becoming the caretakers of the family
10. Street Children
11. Caring for HIV-infected children with special needs, where parents must work

• Prevention of vertical transmission
• Orphanages
• Foster families
• Partnerships with NGOs
• Quick flexible responses and highly motivated personnel
• Financial support unreliable and difficult to sustain
• Networking with medical fraternity and welfare
• Kerux and the Diana, Princess of Wales Mohau Care Centre

1. The Department of Welfare needs to look into developing a national Policy on Discrimination to address among other things, the problem of HIV infected children being turned away by pre-schools.
2. There is need to reclassify ‘abandoned children’ so as to address the current problem.

• Government will understand that the demand is great, and that government alone cannot fulfil the need but must work with private sector and NGOs
• The issues touch the most vulnerable, especially children
• The ministry won’t be able to fulfil its duty without advice from the welfare sector
• Policy versus the service role of the Department of Welfare – thinking that the pure policy role is changing, provincial department must be involved in feeding into the policy input
• The national Department of Welfare won’t take on a direct service role, except that it will look at implementation strategies and monitor implementation and outputs
• CINDI has drawn up the first protocol of its kind that is about to be implemented at Edendale Hospital in KZN. It has also made submissions to the SA Law Commission.
• The Department is aware of the problems, but there should not be a problem with abandoned children. Protocol is a step in the right direction and must take on concerns in project committee on childcare legislation, which will also be taken up with provinces.

1. Insufficient capacity in the NGO sector to cater for the increased number of children who will require care and support.
2. What is or will be the role of the Department of Welfare – will its traditional role change?
3. The absence of a national policy for the care of children affected by HIV/AIDS
4. The changing shape of our communities, a reduction in available care givers and high levels of poverty are factors which will make it difficult for individuals and communities to care for affected children without some form of assistance.
5. Existing government provisioning for children

• The lack of a safety net for children over the age of 7 years, the ceiling age for the receipt of the CSG.
• Issues related to the foster care grant such as the continued existence of the grant or the criteria for grant allocation
• Unwillingness of some Commissioners to place children in family related foster care with the allocation of the foster care grant
• The implementation or application of the Welfare Financing Policy to NGO requests for programme funding.

1. In July 1999 the National Council submitted a national programme "HIV/AIDS and the Care of Children" to the department, but has not received any official acknowledgement of the correspondence.

1. There will be a need for a tremendous amount of capacity building and skills development in communities that cannot be undertaken within the parameters of existing resources.
2. The government therefore needs to provide information on the additional provisioning measures to be made to the NGO sector to undertake the additional work and for which there is knowledge, skills and capacity.
3. The Department of Welfare needs to indicate whether or not its traditional role will change.
4. Community based care is known to be the preferred model of care in South Africa, but via what means? How will these children be protected? Will the State as the upper guardian of children, be the ultimate provider of care? These are issues that need to be further debated.
5. As a measure to prevent an increase in juvenile related rimes, modifications to the grant system need to be considered to cater for children older than 7 years. Alternatively, government should arrive at other strategies to cover this group.
6. The Department needs to clarify policy on foster care grant. There needs to be clarity, and a policy decision is required on this so that continued placement by NGOs of children in foster care can be supported.
7. Guidelines will need to be determined at the national level on what is or is not an affordable model of care. These should be devolved to provincial level. "Affordability" needs to be defined and criteria established to guide the NGO sector in applications for programme funding.

• The fragmentation of services at local level is a major concern. At local level plans are integrated, but are resourced in a fragmented way at national level.
• The question of information and communication is a core element. The Department of Welfare needs to circulate information on a more regular basis.
• Pensions for people with HIV/AIDS will enable people to die with dignity and allow specific sectors such as truck drivers to be off the roads.
• Some terminology is problematic – such as AIDS orphans as not all orphans have AIDS.
• Programmes are integrated but departments choose what to finance, so should move on budgetary issues to allow funding of integrated services. There is also the need for alternative management structures.
• Welfare financing policy aims to establish mechanism to finance services through different options, and affordability must be linked to other concepts such as service levels, appropriateness and focus groups, how to integrate other developmental areas, etc.
• The Department will be informed by the area in which service is provided and the context, and not a formula
• Cop-out to accept 22% limit on social service spending – cause won’t be a GDP as a result of HIV / AIDS - and this has to be challenged – have to go to the Minister of Finance. Can get money from SASRIA slush fund and must not be fopped off with 22%.
• It is good to have training institutions at the centre of issues, but more must be done. Training institutions should become centres for government information and data collection for planning purposes.
• There is need to circulate information more often, especially development information.
• We need to pool and share information as a project, but not merely theoretical but also local stories of what is happening.
• Local government has the strongest legal mandate to integrate service delivery
• Government is looking into local level integration with no leverage at national level to force integration.
• There is need for single envelope funding from national level down to local level with willing partners
• NPU was correct with HIV/AIDS focus as a priority
• Thorough consultation will identify key deliverables for the NPU
• Consultation gave rise to useful synergies identified for creating thematic approaches.

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Session Three: Poverty Eradication

Submissions were made by:

1. South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO)
2. Centre for Rural Legal Studies (CRLS)
3. People’s Dialogue
4. Human Rights Advocacy Project
5. Trust for Community Outreach and Education
6. Self Employed Women’s Union (SEWU)

1. There is need to create more jobs – this came out of the SANGOCO, CGE, SAHRC poverty hearings
2. A critical issue that needs to be addressed is how to identify and organise the poor
3. Lack of an integrated poverty eradication strategy
4. The poor can and must be involved in poverty eradication initiatives.
5. Partnerships are one way to do this.

1. There is a need for inter-ministerial collaboration, the recruitment of adequately trained personnel and the training thereof if we re to make an impact on the lives of the poor.
2. Poverty eradication efforts need to be evaluated.
3. Accurate data about the conscientisation that has gone into this area of work, and the impact made thus far is needed.
4. To enable effective intervention:

• Data on work done so far needs to be analysed
• The impact of the work needs to be assessed

• The Department agrees in principle with the broad approach
• Co-operation and co-ordination needs input from SANGOCO
• The government approach is not as good as it is supposed to be, but now there is a rural development strategy being implemented through a cabinet committee.

1. Rural people, especially women lack information on socio-economic rights and access to resources.
2. 72% of agricultural workers earn less than the poverty line of R650 per month.
3. Given the pressures of globalisation on agriculture and the perceived threat of a minimum wage for farm workers, it is likely that there will be a loss of permanent jobs in favour of casual, temporary and migrant work.
4. Losing a job on a farm mostly also means losing access to housing. Continued eviction from farms contribute to a growing number of landless poor, with no transferable skills that will enable them to create a better life somewhere else.
5. According to research by the CRLS, women farm workers’ access to socio-economic rights, such as housing and tenure security and employment is mediated through a relationship with a male partner or relative.
6. There are high incidences of domestic violence in rural areas
7. Many farm workers suffer from alcoholism, which exacerbates the levels of poverty.

1. Overall, an integrated development service must be provided to rural people. The Department of Welfare can take the lead to ensure that this happens effectively.
2. The Department of Welfare can get agreements from different departments to align their budgets and work on practical integrated service delivery plans, for example, multi-functional community resource centres that caters for health, education, life-skills and other needs of the community.
3. The Department needs to co-ordinate its efforts at district level. For example:

• Calculate budget allocation for grants on a needs basis and not on population figures
• Continue to target women for skills development and empowerment programmes
• Co-operate with the Department of Education to instigate special programmes aimed at keeping girl children in school for as long as possible.
• Co-operate with local government structures to provide emergency housing for evicted farm workers.
• Foster partnerships with civil society organisations that underwrite the mission of the Department, and out-source service provision to them.

• The Department relies on NGOs to design appropriate strategies and projects
• There is need for co-operation and assistance and suggestions on how to deal with skewed income distribution

The presentation reinforced the need for a paradigm shift in how to deal with poverty eradication. It noted that grassroots organisations need to be at the centre of the process, but these are often seen as disorganised. This then leads back to government and NGO initiatives.

Only the poor can address poverty on scale. At local and community level there are grassroots organisations involved and are making an impact on poverty.

1. People’s Dialogue is encouraged by the partnership with government and feels that it is a step in the right direction
2. The Department needs to be commended for its efforts to embrace grassroots organisation, but it still prescribes how the partnership should develop. This shifts the focus from a community programme to that of a project and affects the organisation’s capacity to deliver on scale.
3. To place people’s organisations at the centre calls for a lot more focus on process. The grassroots organisations need to have investments made in their capacity.
4. The Homeless People’s Federation offers a partnership to the Department so as to engage with civil society.
5. Savings and credit collectives are a good mechanism – the Department’s micro-save programme should be given a boost.
6. A shift is needed from a project to programme basis with partners.

1. 18 000 000 people live in poverty
2. The gap between the poor and the rich continues to widen
3. GEAR has not combated poverty
4. The government’s economic structure needs to be revised
5. Low wages contribute to poverty
6. One third of black women work as domestic workers
7. The increase of casual work mean that most women are unemployed
8. Reduction in public spending needs to be revised
9. Unemployment means no income and leads to poverty

1. Overall, a holistic approach is needed.
2. Economic strategy and job creation – government needs to revise its macro-economic strategy to generate employment and prevent retrenchments.
3. Welfare system. Some concerns about the delivery of grants were:

• They bring fraud and corruption
• Service to beneficiaries is not good
• The long waiting period
• Cuts in the maintenance grant is causing poverty in some areas

1. Living and minimum wage
2. Increased social spending on Welfare, Health, Education and Infrastructure
3. Target women for education, training and empowerment programmes
4. COSATU’s recommendations – government could increase social spending by introducing a wealth tax and cutting down on its debt servicing.

• The department is exploring opportunities to redesign its grant payment system focusing on rural and remote rural areas. The department will be exploring public/private partnerships. Programmes must increase the value for money for government, and the quality of service for constituents.
• Social expenditure – suggestions are welcome on how to improve the strategies so as to better benefit the constituents.
• The department is grappling with partnerships and needs input from civil society organisations and NGOs on this.
• From the Child Welfare Movement, areas of concern are:
• The lack of a clear policy on how to tackle poverty
• The lack of co-ordination between national and provincial departments of Welfare
• That projects formed through partnerships between NGOs and communities have been hijacked by cluster co-ordinators, most of whom do not have the skills or capacity to implement the projects
• The department reiterated its commitment to an inter-sectoral approach to poverty eradication and asked that the speaker from the Child Welfare Movement identify the guilty persons or organisations so that the problem can be addressed.
• The Department’s/Cluster Co-ordinator’s partnership includes institution building. The department plans to work with established organisations as well as emerging organisations.
• The debate with the Department of Finance and provincial treasuries on the question of funding for inter-departmental work has already started. The focus of this is on financial and budgeting systems.
• On the issue of dealing with poverty, where does the Department of
  Welfare fit? Income generation is a key strategy for addressing poverty – does this fall within the department’s capacity or should the department be only one of the role-players addressing poverty? Response: the department is moving away from the traditional approach to a more developmental approach that will incorporate a wide range of additional skills.

1. Unemployment resulting in poverty and social inequality
2. Escalation of crime, gangsterism and violence, especially against women and children
3. Society as a whole has deteriorated
4. The approach to poverty eradication must be central to rebuilding society and restoring the moral fabric of society.
5. In the poverty hearings last year a number of issues and proposals were raised from poor people, e.g. capacity building of communities to survive on their own.

1. Poverty eradication requires an integrated approach to community development. The Department of Welfare should be the co-ordinator of this approach
2. Local government has to receive a greater share of the resources and budget allocation since it is the level of government closest to the community
3. The social worker has to be a community worker. The infrastructure of the local welfare department must facilitate this. The traditional training of social workers does not allow them to undertake the shift easily. The Department must undertake to address this.
4. Existing services such as the Children’s Homes and Homes for the Aged should have greater community involvement and participation.
5. Present poverty eradication projects supported by the Department of Welfare start to experience problems when initial grants are used up. Partnerships with NGOs and CSOs need to be encouraged for ongoing support to the projects.
6. The quality of service needs to be improved. This calls for a joint pooling of resources, but more so the finances of the Department, NGOs, civil society, etc.

   Additional recommendations, emerging through the Poverty Hearings and supported by TCOE:

7. There needs to be a concerted effort to build capacity of communities. An appropriate capacity building programme must be designed.
8. Inclusive, participatory delivery needs to be looked at to change the quality of services
9. There needs to be a shift from isolated income generating projects funded by the Department of Welfare to a situation where people can contribute to local economic development.
10. Endorsement of SANGOCO’s recommendations.

• The department stated that Welfare-NGO partnerships call for better co-ordination within both the NGO sector and government
• Local economic development is important but must extend to rural areas and not just focus on urban economies.
• The need for re-training of social workers has been realised by the Department
• The poor have the power to liberate themselves politically and economically

1. Crutches and wheelchairs not available in the Eastern Cape
2. Women have problems with the R100 child support grant – unpleasant experiences when dealing with corrupt officials
3. Clinics in remote rural areas – short staffed and insufficient medicines.
4. People who qualify for child support grants don’t get them

1. Funding departments need to work together to know who is being funded, and where
2. A feasibility study or needs assessment must be conducted
3. Follow up on loans given must be carried out to ensure that the money was used for the identified purposes.

1. There is gross neglect in terms of research, input, gathering data from the community and feeding information back to the community
2. The department should help financial institutions clarify their role in empowering the community, e.g. in establishing savings accounts.
3. Welfare needs to voice concerns publicly on administrative costs of banks and the poor who need banking services.
4. On the issue of partnership, is there any discussion going on? What are the levels of engagement envisaged by the department? What does the department mean by partnership?
5. There is a need to develop the competencies and skills to manage partnerships.
6. The issues of values in these partnerships must be addressed.
7. Commitment and willingness to a common interest and goal should define partnerships. They should be goal oriented, issue based, time bound and result oriented.
8. What must government do to eradicate poverty and what do you (individual organisations) have to offer to the process?
9. The Minister asked for the names of officials so that he could look into corruption and make an example.
10. There is a need to share information and empower the poor to speak for themselves.
11. There is concern over the fact that language is English and constrains the poor to come forward in hearings such as this
12. Dr Maforah was asked to establish contacts with SEWU
13. The concept of partnerships is becoming much wider. There is a lot of work being done in infrastructure development but we need to look at social partnerships.
14. We need to address value issues – how do we co-operate and how do we deal with advocacy role.
15. The Minister questioned why the law cannot be changed to accommodate what is needed – re: to allow more flexibility to engage organisations to act as implementers on behalf of the government.

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Submissions were made by:

1. Black Sash
2. Anthony Asher (University of the Witwatersrand)
3. Naledi
4. NEDLAC
5. Actuarial Society of SA
6. SA Federation for Mental Health

The Department of Welfare works with the Department of Labour in order to ensure that social security is provided to this marginal sector.

Questions/Comments

1. How does Black Sash work with government? How has the focus changed for Black Sash? How can Black Sash assist in terms of the recommendations made. Is it possible, according to the Law for Black Sash to act as a recipient for the grants and then disseminate them accordingly? Answer: The Law does not allow for this.
2. There is a need to develop a monitoring mechanism where government and civil society work together. Organisations such as the Black Sash can play a role in gathering information on problems and feeding them into the system.
3. The Department of Welfare needs to examine how the grant dissemination process can be decentralised and civil society organisations used to ensure delivery.
4. One way of addressing the problem may be to invite civil society organisations to tender for the distribution of this service.

• As applied to social assistance for the elderly the Means Test is unjust, inefficient and impossible to administer.
• Effects on Retirement Funds – abolishing the means test, and taxing lump sums at marginal rates would encourage members to leave their money in the retirement fund system and draw their own pensions.
• A National Retirement Scheme – the social pension is already paid to some 75% of older people. The financial costs of extending it to 100% would be relatively small, while there would be significant savings in administration.
• There may be a need to consider the general impact of efficiently administered means tested benefits. If you earn less than about R500 per month in South Africa, you might get free medical treatment, free pensions on disability and retirement, free housing, free schooling for your children, free municipal services, a monetary allowance for those of your children under 6 and some free food for those at school. However, if a poor person begins to earn a little more than R500 per month, she or he may lose a package of benefits greater than his or her wage.

1. The elimination of malnutrition amongst young children ought to be a major target.
2. Alcohol abuse is a major factor in road accidents and murders. Apart from this, the impacts on health and hospitals, family structures and welfare, and the economy are many times the impact of smoking.

1. The Means Test should be abolished. This would be costly – about R2 billion to do, but the government would not be out of pocket. It would make things simpler and everyone would be beneficiary of a national social support system.
2. Benefits offered to the poor should not be means tested because of the poverty trap created. This means that basic benefits must be reduced somewhat to be affordable to government. Smaller regular injections of support may be of greater help than bigger injections at irregular intervals.
3. Very few people are permanently without any forms of income. It may be more helpful to aim at supplementing their resources rather than supporting them.
4. Make some basic types of food entirely free such as mealy meal.
5. Provide all adults with monthly cash payment of approximately R50. This could be partly funded by abolishing the income tax rebate and perhaps the BAT exemptions on food. It is not clear how the issue of mothers who may be too young to qualify for the payment will be addressed.
6. Government restricts and manages the advertising and sale of alcohol.

The presentation focused on the need for a comprehensive social security system. It outlined a draft conceptual framework for developing a comprehensive social security system in South Africa, and noted that the components of such a system should be:

1. Social security benefits for loss of income
2. Non-work related benefits for people outside of the labour market
3. Privately provided benefits, eg retirement and health schemes
4. Public service delivery, eg transport, housing, health care.

The presentation further stated that there are 3 key principles to be considered when developing such a system:

• Financial and economic
• Coverage and instruments
• Management and co-ordination

It was stated that NEDLAC needs a final review from the government on the framework, in order to proceed.

The presenter raised one issue, that of the Income Grant and stated that more research needs to be done on this. He also mentioned that there is a need to look at backward linkages and what are the objectives. He stated that experience from elsewhere is needed and that it would take a while to get the income grant operating.

1. The limiting factor on the ministry’s desire to satisfy all needs is financial.
2. Social assistance – issue of sustainability at levels which were originally intended for whites
3. Poverty alleviation – old age pension does successful redistribution scheme
4. Grants for the disabled – the increase in the number of disabled people in SA is a result of the widespread poverty and violent crime that exists. Also linked to high levels of unemployment.
5. Child and family benefits – SA is unable to finance the maintenance grant system that has recently been phased out. The Ministry is to be commended on its courageous steps in this regard.
6. Administrative systems – improvement still required
7. Social Insurance – a finalisation of SA’s Retirement Provision Policy is needed. Support resuscitation of this forum.
8. Impact of HIV/AIDS – will have enormous impact ondemand for services

The Ministry is faced with a difficult choice between two rather unsatisfactory approaches to social security:

• The country can afford an inadequate safety net against all the identified risks, or
• It can afford an adequate safety net against only some of the identified risks

The Ministry needs to spell out a 40 to 50 year goal and accept that only "small wins" are possible in the short to medium term.

1. Who should benefit from public-funded social security systems? These must be targeted at people who need them the most. People who can do otherwise should not depend on the system.
2. What system would be appropriate for South Africa? Government needs to define and commit to a broad direction.
3. Who should contribute to this scheme? A partnership with the State, employer, Trade Unions and individuals must be forged
4. How do private arrangements fit and do they impede on the State’s ability to finance these systems? If government has a clearly defined direction, the private sector should play a role in reducing requirements made on the State.
5. The Department must select a few areas to focus on so that the poor will soon be able to feel the difference in the short term.

1. Barriers that prohibit people with disabilities from participation and integration need to be addressed. These include:

• Illiteracy, low income, underdevelopment and poverty
• Negative attitudes
• Lack of understanding of disability as a human rights and development issue
• Lack of access to information and buildings like schools and places of work
• Lack of specialised services within mainstream education; training and development resource organisations that ensure access, sensitivity and customised programmes of targeted support.

1. Factors hindering the development of people with disabilities. These include:

• South Africa cannot afford the current system of welfare pension and cash grant
• Vast unmet demands – currently 1,9% of people with disabilities receive cash grants from government. The rest, estimated between 5% and 12% of the total population, do not receive them and fall outside of government mainstream services delivery
• Cash creates dependency and is a disincentive for people to look for jobs or start businesses.
• The services provided are process oriented with no improvement in the socio-economic condition of people with disabilities. They are based on a poverty alleviation mindset with no real focus on economic development.

1. The disability cash grant crisis should not be fixed but transformed so that the investment injected yields long-term social, economic and development returns.
2. An enabling environment for people to attend school and to move from school to work, or to start their own business must be created.
3. Young people with disabilities should be diverted from accessing the cash grant. Instead incentives for them to access jobs and SMME support to reasonably accommodate them.
4. The education of disabled people needs to be mainstreamed and integrated. Access to training, both pre-vocational and on-the-job must be ensured.
5. Health, Welfare and Labour investments in workshops and training should be redirected to integrated on-the-job training. The Department of Welfare needs to create incentives for outcomes like rewarding providers and families of people with disabilities so that people with disabilities stay off the cash grant by creating economic independence.

The need for an effective social support system to enable service providers to administer properly to their constituents. Some of the issues mentioned were:

1. Problems at national level

• Payment of arrears
• Means Test is penalising owners of modest homes. The government is perhaps going too far and probably removing incentives towards self-sufficiency.

1. Problems at provincial level

• Grants take up to two years to get approved.
• Receipt of applications not acknowledged, resulting in re-applications with no arrears paid.
• The changing of pay points
• Care dependency grants were cancelled when transferred from the Department of Justice to the department of Welfare.
• Rural offices of the Department of Welfare have no knowledge of care dependency grants and district surgeons often refuse to handle applications, often because they have no knowledge or understanding of intellectual disability
• Logistics in applying for grants are often complicated and applicants are subjected to inhumane circumstances.
• Places of safety do not receive their fees
• Service offices of the Department of Welfare do not have a uniform policy.
• Most service offices have no proper procedure for applications.
• Grants are often terminated without notice.
• Applications invariably take longer than three months.
• Application procedure is complicated and it takes a long time before all the different documents have been obtained.
• All documents must be delivered by hand since they are nearly always lost when posted.
• Applications take between 6 and 8 months before they are granted yet only arrears of 3 months are paid. This causes loss to the welfare organisation.
• Pension officers often withhold amounts from the arrears cheque without specifying the reason.
• There are long queues at applications and pay points.
• There is a logistical problem in transporting of service users between the service offices, district surgeon and psychiatrist.
• Grants are often stopped without a valid reason and without prior notice.
• Some medical staff are rude to clients, especially persons suffering with AIDS. The criteria for grants in the case of HIV/AIDS appear to be vague.
• Most service offices are unaware of the existence of care dependency grants.
• Grants are stopped and refused "because there are no funds"
• Officials often have little or no knowledge of the work they are expected to do.

1. The mistake of the past was to concentrate on severe disabilities. Now we need to concentrate on those who can become productive citizens, but need effective social security system for the severely disabled.

1. Social Security coverage has a large gap – those people of working age (18 – 59f / 64m) only receive 6% of government support
2. Distribution of economic assets
3. The link between social security and SA’s economic transformation process

1. Tackling the unequal distribution of economic assets is an essential component of tackling poverty.
2. Social Security solutions can support wider economic solutions. The Ministry of Welfare needs to focus on restructuring the savings industry to better mobilise and utilise domestic savings.
3. The development of an appropriate childcare programme could contribute to skills development for children.
4. It is unlikely that there will be any job creation in the short term – so we need to have non-contributory grant for the unemployed.
5. Retirement funds are highly inefficient with duplication and need to be changed.
6. We need to look at mobilising private savings – it need not come at the expense of the retirement funds.

1. The difficulty with the means test is deciding which approach is suitable – targeting or universal access.
2. Social Security Funds should be brought under one umbrella body and there should be a centralised database.
3. The Means Test does not allow people to generate income. Revenue departments need to be involved more substantively in this.
4. The current provision is not a pension, but social assistance. South Africa needs a first pillar where each employed person is contributing to a fund.
5. The Department is reviewing the disability grants linked to issues of the national disability strategy and economic empowerment of persons with disabilities.
6. People with disabilities worry that if they earn; they may lose the grant.
7. The Minister will consult with the MEC, portfolio committee, etc. so that they can legislate to meet the demands of the people.

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Submissions were made by:

1. SA Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP)
2. Portfolio Committee
3. National Youth Commission (NYC)

Note: Dr J Lombard made an apology for Dr Seoka of National Interim Consultative Committee. The Department was informed that a comprehensive written submission would be made.

• The need for reliable figures
• The CORE (Code on Remuneration) document – the deficiency in this document will seriously jeopardise the planning of human resources and could lead to the incorrect utilisation of human resources.
• Salaries of social service workers
• Continued education and training of social service workers

1. Facilitation of inter-sectoral collaboration to address the needs of the poor should be improved. The Department should insist that the Department of Education open up its schools for adult education and training, that the DTI simplify and speed up the release of micro-loans for small enterprises and that the Housing and Land Affairs Department speed up the release of land. This inter-departmental partnership needs to be established as a matter of urgency.
2. The Department needs to work more closely with regional councils and NGO provincial coalitions for resource allocation, programming and partnerships.
3. There should be genuine collaboration; consultation and working together based on egalitarian relationships.
4. The allocation of poverty alleviation funds needs to be immediately made more rigorous and transparent. Steps need to be taken to ensure that project proposals are properly assessed and that projects are well monitored.
5. A developmental model of social work must be designed. This should empower communities, especially the poor to become self-reliant.
6. The Department should focus on the need for democratic institutions the full participation of women, respect for human rights, increased economic opportunities as well as a multi-disciplinary approach and a balance between prevention and cure.
7. Many poor people have survival strategies and self-help organisations. The Department of Welfare should support these.
8. The Department needs to attend to the improvement of the remuneration of social service workers as a matter of urgency. It also needs to address the disparity between the State and NGOs salaries of social workers.
9. The Department, in collaboration with SACSSP should attend to the need for ongoing education and training of personnel in the welfare sector.
10. Poor people, especially but not exclusively those in rural areas, must have access to the services on a sustainable basis.
11. Service delivery must build on the established strengths, existing capacity in communities with a view to developing appropriate intervention. Fundamental to the approach has to be the development of the highest degree of independence of communities.
12. Maintenance of quality service delivery by accountable professionals should be ensured.

• How can the existing relationship between the council, the Ministry and the Department be made more effective?
• Capacity needs to be built all over, especially in the provinces
• Services need to be re-directed to poor and rural areas
• The Minister for Welfare will look at a meeting with Minister Trevor Manuel

1. The relationship between the Portfolio Committee (PFC) and civil society – it was stated that this should be a co-operative and mutually empowering relationship. The role of the Committee in channelling issues of public importance and the need for its functions to be more used by civil society were emphasised.
2. The under-utilisation of the Committee in the development of legislation
3. The need for Comprehensive Child Care Legislation

The key focus areas of the Committee would be:

• Welfare Financing Policy
• Social Security
• The Department’s vision for the delivery of welfare services in which special development areas are integrated
• Population and Development
• Child Abuse and Violence against Women
• Status of Older Persons Bill
• Disaster and Relief Funds Bill
• NPO Bill
• Probation Services Amendment Bill

1. The Committee would like to be kept informed about the medium to long-term strategy on holistic and comprehensive legislative reform envisaged by the Department of Welfare.
2. The Committee needs to receive Bills timeously, allowing the Committee ample opportunity to examine proposed Bills very carefully.
3. As some Bills may necessitate public hearings, the Committee would like the full participation of NGOs, CBOs and organs of civil society, which may be impacted by proposed legislation.
4. The link between civil society and the Portfolio Committee needs to be strengthened
5. Child care legislation needs to be drafted before resources are thrown at the problem.

• The PFC receives complaints of delays in social assistance – it wants regular updates from the Department and civil society on this.
• The Department needs to clearly state its vision for special development areas and how this is integrated into other focus areas.
• The impact of HIV/AIDS, especially on orphans is crucial for Welfare.
• The PFC will liase with the NPU with a focus on poverty – the inter-sectoral nature of issues makes NPU an ideal platform to engage with these issues.
• The PFC needs to be more accessible to provinces.
• The Committee should visit disaster areas in other provinces
• The Committee should look at the lack of welfare infrastructure in the provinces, especially rural areas.
• The issue of loan sharks needs to receive urgent attention – perhaps legislative

The presentation focused on poverty and its impact on youth, especially rural youth. It defined the ‘poor’ and looked at the correlation between poverty and human development. It also proposed a National Youth Service Programme as a strategy to address social development.

The presentation further proposed a long-term relationship between the National Youth Commission, the Department of Welfare and the Independent Development Trust on the National Youth Service Programme, and set out some short-term steps that could be followed.

Submissions were made by:

1. Operation Hunger
2. Pinetown-Highway
3. Southern African Student Volunteers (SASVO)
4. Development Workers Association

1. Communication within the Department of Welfare at each sphere of government
2. HIV/AIDS – key questions to ask here are:

• What is the minimum age for a ‘caregiver’
• What if the caregiver dies before the grant recipient
• Who is the caregiver for children with AIDS in institutions and what happens if there are more than 6 at any one time?
• Is AIDS a disability and if so from what stage of the illness
• Has the plan for AIDS orphans been shared with civil society in general, or only with AIDS related NGOs

1. Social Security – the discontinuation of grants and pensions and the subsequent confusion and problems for severely disadvantaged
2. Poverty
3. Partnerships

1. It is important that the safety net for the severely disadvantaged, the really poor and the disabled be maintained
2. Short term funding must be made available for families to ensure that they are assisted during the 4-6 months while projects are starting or skills being taught. NGOs and CBOs in the field can assist the government with this.
3. The Department should set up an inter-departmental and partner/NGO consultative forum
4. Communication and easy access to data must be improved, including access to data on development
5. Financial constraints – short term safety net, feeding fund, direct payments to projects without capacity, funding for meetings with partners/communities – need to be addressed
6. Identify national, regional and local partners to implement departmental policy on poverty and development
7. Standardise definitions such as partnerships, community participation, development and poverty – for use by all government departments and civil society
8. Address the ethos of poor time keeping, disrespect, poor or no listening skills and disregard for the independence of activity and choice of communities and civil society.

1. On the issue of problems with the re-registration process, Operation Hunger and the general body of delegates were asked to furnish the Department of Welfare with the names of those beneficiaries who did not receive their due funds as well as to identify those officials involved in corruption.
2. The Department stated that it would look into the matter and ensure that public servants who are not responsive to beneficiaries are disciplined.

1. HIV/AIDS

• The myth that sleeping with a child will cleanse an infected man is causing havoc, resulting in an increase in rapes of children

1. Orphans – key questions asked here included:

• Do we have the capacity to deal with the anticipated number of AIDS orphans?
• Do we have the resources?
• What are our primary tasks: provision of food, shelter, and education?
• Should we be building orphanages instead of C Max Prisons?
• What is the role of the international NGO community? Will they assist us as they have assisted in Uganda?
• What are the political issues surrounding HIV/AIDS?
• Has an industry not been created around HIV/AIDS in Uganda whilst the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa dies?
• What services are we going to offer child headed families?

1. Poverty – there is increasing unemployment and poverty in our communities, rural and urban. Questions we need to ask are:

• Do we know enough about poverty alleviation?
• Is developmental social work going to be able to target the problem?
• How are we going to form strong inter-sectoral networks so that some communities are not over-serviced while others receive no services?

1. The Child Support Grant

• How much GDP should be spent on children?
• Does the CSG need to be increased?
• Should extended families be paid a foster care grant to care for orphans when they have been caring for the children anyway?
• What is affordable?

1. Child Abuse, Child Labour, Child Prostitution & Child Sacrifice

• Are we doing enough about child labour?
• Do we understand the extent of the problem?
• Do we understand the impact on our economy of child workers?
• If we could outlaw child labour what are the consequences to the child and his family?
• How extensive is child prostitution in SA?
• Do we have a problem in SA where children are killed for human sacrifice (as in Tanzania and Uganda)?
• Are we working closely enough with traditional healers?

1. Partnership between the Department and other Role Players

• What is the Department’s relationship with the international NGO community?
• Concern about the lack of equality in partnership with the State

1. Constraints in Meeting People’s Needs at National, Provincial and Local levels

• Lack of adequate funding
• Poor communication between sectors
• Poor management of existing resources, wastage of resources, insufficient motivation of personnel, lack of commitment by all role players
• Too large a gap between the haves and the have nots
• Social service workers’ salaries not on par with other professions such as teaching, nursing

Recommendations

1. Existing policies must be implemented
2. Retraining and reorientation of personnel, both in the government and private sector should be promoted
3. Existing resources must be better utilised
4. Resources must be redistributed to where they are mostly needed without compromising existing services
5. Communication between the Department and the private welfare sector needs to be improved
6. A better knowledge of the extent of poverty, better understanding of the impact of poverty, a better use of existing resources and creation of new resources is necessary for us all.
7. The myth of the ‘virgin cure’ must be addressed

The following were listed as priorities for the State:

• Department should go to the Districts
• Review the Child Support Grant
• Make documents available for consultation
• Sort out the Social Security System
• Give sufficient notice for things to be done
• Co-operate and recognise the worth of CSOs
• Social workers to be re-trained
• Capacity building in the provinces.

• How can the Department make the best use of the available funding for Poverty Relief?
• Are the funds that are decentralised to IDT reaching the target? How can the Department effect its delivery through this?
• There is need for government and NGO sector to do joint planning and strategizing so as to clarify roles and responsibilities, especially in the area of the Child Support Grant and poverty alleviation.
• There is a major problem with the provincial Department of Welfare (KZN) being in Ulundi.
• The National Department is not easily accessible hence organisations cannot take part in discussions and the decision-making process
• In view of the capacity problem of provinces and the numerous complaints, and the fact that NGOs are closer to the people, how can the Department best work with the NGOs to ensure that services are effectively delivered?
• Is it not possible to work with credible NGOs and CSOs to deliver services to the community, e.g. pensions?
• NGOs have committed to the priorities of the Department, yet there is a major communication breakdown between the two and no clarity on what a partnership should look like.
• The dichotomous relationship between NGOs and government is preventing an integrated, holistic partnership/relationship.
• There is no clarity within the Department on the transformation process that has taken place in the sector, hence the past stigma and prejudices towards the formal welfare sector remains. In response to this the Department stated that there is no prejudice on the formal sector, but a conscious concern that emerging organisations in the informal sector are not left out. This is important since government will have to resource more organisations in order to meet the welfare challenges.
• A request was made for any written material on the Child Support Grant to be made available to organisations so that they could be given to the communities.
• A suggestion was made that the necessary information pertaining to the CSG be made available at places of births and post-natal clinics so that mothers would know what they have to do to access the grant.
• It was stated that people cannot afford access the CSG because by the time they travel and get the necessary documentation, not much of the grant is left. People therefore feel that it is not worth it.
• It is difficult for NGOs to move into provinces and disseminate information without knowing what the Department is doing.
• Traditional partners are not as pro-active as they should be. They need to approach the Department and offer their services, then together they can identify what resources and capacity is needed to enable the partner to deliver.
• No argument can be put for increasing the CSG due to the poor uptake. NGOs and civil society have a major role to play in mobilising communities to access this grant.
• A concern was raised on how to get social service providers, especially social workers to realise that the reason for being is to provide a service, and that they are part of a professional body? How is the Department addressing this? In response it was stated that there is a Social Security Professionals Conference planned for late October as a step towards addressing this.
• Civil society organisations are not sufficiently consulted and the expertise they have is being denied through State and Parliament appointments.
• The Department’s ‘top-down’ approach is a problem – last minute issuing of circulars and Bills – and must be addressed.
• Organisations resent when the State acts as a senior partner
• Everything is Gauteng-based and provinces’ voices are not heard.
• The Department has a responsibility to account to civil society and community organisations and provide them with information
• The volunteer sector needs to be more involved and therefore needs to be trained. This needs urgent attention, even if donors have to be approached for assistance.
• The volunteer sector has a role to play in ensuring that more children access grants.
• If three million are not reached, the money will be taken back by the Treasury
• Not having birth certificates hinders the access to the grants. The Department of Welfare needs to work with the Department of Home Affairs to make the application process for birth certificates easier.
• NGOs need to do more to spread information about the CSG, example pamphlets in all languages, and must link up with health at service points, etc.
• There was initial outrage to the Department’s financing policy because organisations were not consulted, but it will be supported since it grew out of the white paper, which was done through a consultative process.

A position paper on Student Community Service was outlined and submitted. It was noted that SASVO is willing to work with the Department on issues related to implementing the proposed service. A Code of Conduct and responsibility and accountability of students would have to be addressed.

The submission pertained to a proposed framework for partnership between the State, namely the Department of Welfare and communities. The speaker spoke to the proposed model. He highlighted the advantages and benefits of such a partnership and elaborated on the different processes that the DWA is involved in and what it would be bringing to the partnership.

1. That the Department of Welfare replicate the model being used in the Western Cape.
2. That government gives meaning to the plans laid out in the RDP for development workers, mainly in the area of training.
3. Development workers should be trained and employed so that they can make a valuable contribution to their communities.

• It is true that the role of development workers is not clear within government, but there is the belief that they can play a bigger role in capacity building within communities.
• It would be interesting to look at how the DWA can assist with the training of development workers in the various provinces, especially the poorest ones.
• NGOs need information on how to access each other and follow up the networking with each other.
• The Portfolio Committee will make information available to all those who attended the national consultative process.
• The contact made should be maintained so as to strengthen efforts to reach the poorest of the poor.

Submissions were made by:

1. National Co-operative Association of South Africa (NCASA)
2. National Religious Association for Social Development (NRASD)
3. Development Workers Association
4. Afrikaanse Christelike Vroue Vereeniging (ACVV)
5. Land and Agriculture Policy Centre (LAPC)

1. Poverty and growing inequality which has brought about:

• crime
• drug abuse
• gangsterism and many other ills

1. NCASA feels that its skills and resources have been under-utilised.

1. Use of the co-operative model to address ills of society – leads to self-reliance
2. Use of education contents and process, shaped methodically to start where people are
3. Using organisations with the capacity and ability to provide specialised services
4. Utilisation of national organisations which can network nationally and internationally
5. Partnership with communities to ensure that the resources are controlled
6. Department to consider partnerships with national organisations

NCASA would be happy to work with the Department to look at how the already tested and successful co-operatives in the different sectors can be replicated.

1. NRASD supports the developmental approach taken by the Department and appreciates the public and transparent process of consultation
2. Religious identity and social services – if conditions to access public funding for social services inhibit religious networks to be effective deliverers of social services, both Government and the religious networks will loose capacity to implement social programmes.
3. Lack of an effective mechanism of co-operation to access international funds
4. The new financing policy is incomplete as is – there are uncertainties about how it will be implemented
5. Poverty relief programme – there is a concern from the religious networks that no money from the poverty relief fund has been received from government, or any acknowledgement of the proposals submitted for funding.
6. Lack of inter-sectoral co-operation within different levels of Government for effective delivery on the ground.

1. Serious thought and revision of the financing policy needs to be done to make it clearer to provincial departments on how to apply this.
2. That religious networks be given access to government funding for social services.
3. There is need for co-operation between the faith-based community and the State
4. That Minister Skweyiya and senior representatives of the Ministry participate in a consultative forum with the Association – proposed for January or February 2000.

• There is a general lack of capacity and knowledge within the Department on what needs to be done and who our allies are. There is too much concentration on what is happening within the Department. The Department does appreciate the role played by religious organisations in the development of this country. There should be a way that the Department can address the public funding issue, but this will call for further consultation with the religious sector.
• On the financing policy, concern has been raised by a number of organisations and individuals on the lack of consultation in the drawing up of the policy. We will have to review our approach, and through consultation, make the necessary amendments.
• On the issue of poverty eradication we need to further explore the role of the religious bodies and how they can work closely with the Department. The Minister will try to arrange a meeting as soon as possible to look at these issues.

A position paper was submitted on the Personnel Administration Standard (PAS) for Development Workers.

1. Lack of an integrated holistic developmental approach
2. Transformation of welfare services necessitates additional funding for running costs and capital expenditure
3. Volunteers are a valuable but extremely scarce commodity and getting people involved to such an extent that governance structures reflect the population will take time, money, empowerment programmes, etc.
4. The lack of a common working definition of transformation and the unqualified and out of context use of simplified indicators (such as gender and race) create further confusion.
5. Inherent factors such as culture, money, turn over and accessibility have a direct influence on the transformation of certain services, such as homes for the aged.
6. A lack of recognition for the successes of transformation linked with an unrealistic focus on the exceptions and problem areas create uncertainty and is dis-empowering.

1. Overall the Department needs to facilitate a "welfare system which facilitates the development of human capacity and self-reliance within a caring and enabling socio-economic environment".
2. Partnership between Government and stakeholders must be restructured, based on agreed goals, principles, strategies and priorities. Roles and responsibilities must be negotiated and defined on the premise that decisions will be taken democratically and that there will be mechanisms for arbitration.
3. The Department, as facilitator should set about in real earnest to seek consensus between provinces.
4. The financial and human resources in the private welfare sector needs to be looked at.

The presentation focused on policy formulation on issues related to land and agriculture. The priorities were listed as:

1. The competitiveness of South African agriculture on the domestic and exports
2. The process of liberalisation and its impact on agriculture
3. The impact of various trade agreements which are currently negotiated and signed, e.g. EU and SADC
4. The link between the modes of production and employment intensity
5. Policy influences on the flexibility of the farm sector
6. Policies to encourage more labour use in agriculture
7. Assessing the impact of present land reform efforts on agriculture performance
8. Determining the employment, income and livelihood effects of different land reform models
9. Improving market success for smallholders
10. Promotion of smallholders agriculture
11. Promoting the non-farm sector and rural SMMEs
12. Provision and development of rural infrastructure
13. The importance of agriculture from a macro-economic view point
14. Food security issues
15. Farmer support services
16. Rural finance

1. That the Department of Welfare leads in the process of formulating an inter-departmental integrated approach to addressing the issues.
2. That any strategy for rural advancement or development should focus on:

• Building the capacity of rural communities to prioritise and plan development in their communities
• Creating a co-ordinated system of planning that is linked to budget and institutional capacity
• Building on and utilising the local natural resources base and opportunities provided by actual and potential trade links within an area
• Providing monitoring resources by the government departments to monitor the status of programmes and projects
• Providing and setting up logistic and administrative facilities in areas where there is a need
• Ensuring a development path that is sustainable and will also serve the future generation
• Exploring and creating a financial policy environment conducive for rural advancement

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Submissions were made by:

1. RUTEC/AMITEC
2. Development Resources Centre (DRC)
3. Joint University Committee for Schools of Social Work (JUC)
4. Southern African Development, Education and Policy Research Unit (SADEP), University of Cape Town
5. SA Black Social Workers Association (SABSWA)
6. Social Workers in Private Practice
7. Centre for Social Work, University of Natal
8. National Association for Child and Youth Care Workers (NACCW)
9. Centre for Adult and Community Education, University of Natal
10. National Council for Persons with Physical Disabilities
11. UNISA

The presentation highlighted the problem of poverty and unemployment, especially in the rural areas. A model - the Eco-Circle Cultivation Training programme – was proposed. The model is being used to train rural communities, especially subsistence farmers to be sustainable. The Department was invited to visit a project and to explore how this model can be incorporated into its efforts to address unemployment and poverty.

1. The transformation of education within social work schools is taking place and attempting to redesign theory and practical curricula.
2. Problems experienced in attempting to form partnerships between the field and schools of social work with respect to student training include:

• Field work supervisors who are inadequately trained for and not always supported by their seniors in their role of student supervisors
• Ambivalent commitment on the part of the field work supervisors toward the developmental paradigm
• De-motivation, lack of commitment and depression within the social work profession

1. The Department acknowledges and supports the transformation already underway in schools of social work
2. Within it’s own direct service sections, the Department ensures that supervised social work field placements for the different years of study are made available and offered to schools of social work.
3. That social workers allocated to the supervision of students are familiar with, have developed skills in and are committed to developmental social work;
4. The Department addresses the morale of its social work personnel by means of a thorough review of their service and working conditions, including remuneration and benefits such as the availability of bursaries and study leave privileges.

1. Reorientation of existing personnel

1. The Department must establish closer working relationships/partnerships with schools of social work whose expertise could be called upon, on a contractual basis, to assist with both the reorientation/re-training of the Department’s existing social work personnel and their on-going in-service training;
2. Existing and proposed educational programmes in schools of social work must be made use of in order to meet the skill needs of the Department as well as the needs of its own personnel for life-long learning;
3. The Department needs to facilitate the life-long education of its social work personnel, and thereby their continuing professional development, through the provision of bursaries, study leave, etc.

1. The pool of knowledge and skills that exist within schools of social work, with respect to research, programme evaluation and policy formulation, that is under-utilised.

1. Schools of social work must be informed of the outcome of the present review process including the priorities that have been identified and the implementation process and strategies to be employed.
2. The Department should draws upon the JUC and its members to contribute their expertise with respect to establishing structures and processes such as those envisaged in the White Paper on Disaster Management;
3. Schools of social work should be approached in pursuit of specific expertise, which could be made available on a contractual basis with respect to policy formulation, strategic planning, programme evaluation and research.

1. The link between social development and on-going educational opportunities

1. The Department needs to take greater cognisance of the educational levels and needs of people it is attempting to reach and ensure that intervention strategies selected for the dissemination of information, etc. are informed accordingly
2. Inter-sectoral collaboration that facilitates the meeting of the basic education needs of people served must be ensured.

The Department requests that all schools of social work review their curricula so that it is more reflective. Staff needs to be more visible than they are.

1. Government has not created a professional category of social development worker.
2. Training and educating such a new category of social development worker in a professional practice designed to suit South African conditions.
3. Eradication of poverty through social development, economic empowerment or income generation, capacity building and the effective utilisation of government resources such as schools, clinics and civil society organisations.
4. Lack of an integrated policy and strategy for poverty eradication.
5. Lack of a comprehensive social security system
6. Capacity building of public officials
7. Retraining and reorientation of existing social workers and others
8. Lack of an integrated response to HIV/AIDS
9. The focus of the National Department

1. Public officials need to be trained and educated in social development, policy analysis and formulation and the role of civil society organisations in community development
2. Existing social workers and others need to be re-trained and re-oriented to work within a social development framework that puts people first
3. There is an urgent need to develop an integrated approach to the use and mobilisation of resources such as schools with the Departments of Education and local government structures, in order to adequately address poverty
4. An integrated policy and strategy for poverty eradication must be developed. Such a strategy should have clear guidelines for implementation, distribution of resources and monitoring and evaluation of programmes at every level
5. A comprehensive social security system needs to be developed. This should link private and public benefits and ensure that the needs of those people who do not have access to paid work and to other assets are covered.
6. The Department needs to ensure that the administration of such a system is responsive to the needs of users, free of unnecessary bureaucratic red tape and with adequate monitoring mechanisms to prevent corruption and abuse.
7. The Social Welfare Department is not seen to be promoting a coherent strategy on HIV/AIDS and is also not engaging in public education with some of its key stakeholders on the importance of including HIV/AIDS into their programmes. There is a need for integrating a response to HIV/AIDS into policies, programmes and processes at all levels.
8. The national Department needs to strengthen its focus on policy, programmes and processes to address issues of gender equality, the marginalisation of women, the feminisation of poverty and the shocking persistent and increasing levels of violence against women and children.

The presentation highlighted strategies that SABSWA can use to support the Department in its work. It also mentioned the different activities that SABSWA has been involved in across the different areas of social work.

1. A development process that can be sustained by the people who receive it must be put in place.
2. The Department should support the work of SABSWA, specifically the Institute for Social Work and the Management and Leadership projects
3. The department provide communities with project and strategic management skills
4. In co-operation with organisations the department promotes the training of social workers with necessary skills
5. The Department should enter into public/private partnerships

It would be useful for SABSWA to discuss with the Department how they can work together and the conditions of (black) social workers and how these can be addressed.

The key focus of the presentation was that there are a lot of resources in the SASWIPP that could assist the Department in its efforts to address poverty throughout the country.

1. The Department forms partnerships with, or contracts SASWIPP to deliver services
2. Social work should have compulsory community service attached to the Degree of Social Work

• How do we work together?
• What code of ethics should apply in this type of partnership?
• How many social workers are there in private practice?

1. Violence against Women and Children – this has reached epidemic proportions in disadvantaged communities. Allied to this phenomenon are also teenage pregnancies and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
2. Services for Youth – one of the reasons for the upsurge of crime is the lack of employment, recreational and cultural opportunities for the youth
3. Alcoholism and drug abuse – also linked to unemployment, crime, violence against women as well as deaths on the road
4. Constraints in meeting people’s needs

• Lack of accessibility to funds
• Administrative procedures
• Lack of capacity of staff, especially at managerial level
• Budgetary constraints on staff sometimes impact on communities
• The demand that community developers submit programmes before their work can be approved or funding granted

1. Services must be developed on the personal, the group and community level to deal with the problems affecting society
2. The development of recreational and cultural activities for youth would go a long way to providing them with a purpose in life
3. The Department must intervene at all levels of service to combat alcoholism and drug abuse
4. The Department should develop partnerships with NGOs, training institutions and other government departments and communities.
5. The better use of funds, making them more accessible and improving the capacity of personnel to do their jobs properly would go a long way to addressing the constraints listed above

1. Capacity building:

• revive and reconstruct the training of under-graduate students
• training and re-training of experienced social work practitioners

The presentation outlined a new post-graduate Diploma in Arts in Developmental Social Welfare at Wits University to address the issue of capacity building.

1. The course must be implemented in the spirit of true partnership with other stakeholders, including NGOs, government and the private sector.
2. The University needs the endorsement and support of the government on this initiative.

1. Race, culture, class, age and gender intersect in powerful ways to influence people’s vulnerability and access to scarce resources.
2. Policy of massification (to increase student numbers) yet reality is lower enrolments as a result of disarray in seconday schooling, cutbacks in subsidies and stance against non-paying students.
3. Lack of clarity on the roles and responsibilities of each of the Professional Boards in relation to each of the Standards Generating Bodies the SAQA.
4. What is the role of the Department in ensuring that services are more equitably distributed to rural areas, without negatively impacting enrolments for disciplines such as social work and community development?
5. How can we maintain the morale of students and practitioners who are overwhelmed by high work-loads, low pay and lack of validation for their efforts in jobs that are extremely emotionally demanding?
6. What is the place of clinical practice within the developmental welfare paradigm?
7. Given the current low salaries and low status of social workers, is it ethical to impose an ongoing education and development as a pre-requisite for continued registration with the SACSSP?
8. What are the roles of the Department, the Joint University Committee (JUC), the SACSSP and SAQA in ensuring that life-long learning takes place among professionals in the welfare sector?
9. Should the Department of Welfare play a role in transforming professional associations? If so, how does this cohere with notions of professional autonomy?
10. Is there a need for the formation of crisis teams in each of the provinces in periods of disaster?

• Generally of a poor standard around the country
• There are facilities who proactively responded to the transformation process and now, without the effective implementation of the financing policy are experiencing a crisis
• The ineffective administration of subsidies in certain provinces results in backlogs in payment

1. Developmental quality assurance – DQA

• The partnership between the NACCW and the Department of Welfare is proving successful. However, there are some areas that need attention by the Department in order to maintain the integrity of this process:

• The careful selection and capacity building of the Department’s representatives to facilitate long-term, quality involvement in the DQA process
• Effectively facilitate the whole DQA process in planning and administration

1. Training and capacity
2. Poor re-unification processes

1. The implementation of the financing policy for residential care facilities needs to be quick and effective with additional support for facilities that need to understand the policy better in order to benefit more effectively – especially those less resourced facilities and those in rural areas.
2. The transformation of the residential facilities requires the full support and involvement of the Department to ensure that the process of transformation is successful
3. The prioritising of resources to support formal capacity building in residential care facilities is required
4. A follow-up to the recommendations from the Cabinet investigation into Schools of Industry, Reform Schools and Places of Safety is urgently required as serious issues of human rights abuses were indicated.
5. A core of skilled resources in the form of child and youth care workers needs to be developed in response to proactive planning for the impact of the increasing AIDS orphans population.
6. Training of child and youth care workers in non-residential roles to support sibling-headed households, foster care programmes and special skills in trauma work such as grief counselling is required
7. A partnership with the Department and NACCW needs to be forged towards the development and implementation of relevant policy on HIV/AIDS and the growing orphan population
8. Support is required from the Department to:

• ensure that the role effectively demonstrated by the child and youth care workers in non-residential settings is supported, promoted and funded in programmes.
• promote the development of effective programmes at an early intervention level and especially reunification services
• ensure that the existing residential programmes that have been part of the transformation process receive timeous financing so that they do not collapse
• develop creative systems so that children in areas of poverty and rural areas access the resources and support in a quick, efficient and effective way
• provide a service from the Department that demonstrates respect and is accountable, is effective and efficient with a personal touch to service providers and the recipients of services.

1. Capacity building
2. The need to regulate practice and set standards for workers
3. Code of Ethics and guidelines for professional practice

1. The department needs to work more closely with regional councils and NGO provincial coalitions in terms of making available resources for development of offices and employment of qualified personnel
2. There is a need for a better filtering down process so that we can understand what is meant by partnerships
3. More support to group and community approaches to small business development should be given.
4. The Department should support the use of qualified development practitioners in their programmes. This could be ensured by the provincial and national offices offering a fixed number of yearly bursaries to allow for a greater number of persons to be involved in up-grading.

1. No co-ordination between departments
2. Poverty alleviation – the process of funding allocation is one of concern and needs to be looked into
3. The child support grant – the Council was not consulted during this process
4. Inadequate services for persons with disabilities in areas of prevention, accessibility, sport facilities, education, health care, transport, housing, disability grants, institutionalisation, community care, work, rural development.
5. No specialisation – how is any generic organisation going to deal with all these issues?

1. Awareness raising: The State should take action to raise awareness in society about persons with disabilities, their rights, their needs, their potential and their contribution.
2. Medical Care: The State should ensure the provision of effective medical care to persons with disabilities.
3. Rehabilitation: The State should ensure the provision of rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities in order for them to reach and sustain their optimum level of independence and functioning
4. Support Services: The State should ensure the development and supply of support services including assistive devices to persons with disabilities to assist them to increase their level of independence in their rights.
5. Access to the physical environment: The State should introduce programmes of action to make the physical environment accessible for persons with disabilities of any kind.
6. Access to information and communication: The State should undertake measures to provide access to information and communication for people with disabilities.
7. Education: The State should recognise the principle of equal primary, secondary and tertiary educational opportunities for children, youth and adults with disabilities, in integrated settings. They should ensure that the education of persons with disabilities is an integral part of the education system.
8. Employment: The State should recognise the principle that persons with disabilities must be empowered to exercise their human rights particularly in the field of employment. Both in rural and urban areas they must have equal opportunities for productive and gainful employment in the labour market.
9. Income maintenance and social security: The State is responsible for the provision of social security and income maintenance for persons with disabilities.
10. Family life and personal integrity: The State should promote the full participation of persons with disabilities in family life.

    They will promote their right t personal integrity, and ensure that laws do not discriminate against persons with disabilities with respect to sexual relationships, marriage and parenthood.

11. Culture: The State will ensure that persons with disabilities are integrated into and can participate on an equal basis in cultural activities.
12. Recreation and Sports: The State will take measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal opportunities for recreation and sports.
13. The State will encourage measures for equal participation by persons with disabilities in the religious life of their communities.

A list of rules on implementation measures is outlined in the submission paper in terms of:

• Information and research
• Policy-making and planning
• Legislation
• Economic policies
• Co-ordination of work
• Organisations of persons with disabilities
• Personnel training
• National monitoring and evaluation of disability programmes
• Technical and economic co-operation
• International co-operation

The DRC has been working with communities, enabling them to talk directly to government on the issues that affect them. The presentation proposed a people-centred development approach to creating a holistic approach to development.

Submissions were made by:

1. National Council for the Rights of Children
2. People Opposed to Women Abuse
3. Commission on Gender Equality
4. NICRO
5. DEAFSA
6. SA Federation for Mental Health

1. Families/Communities

• Unfulfilled basic needs
• Inadequate knowledge of their human rights
• Inadequate awareness of new development opportunities in SA
• Inadequate knowledge of how to influence and access opportunities presented by new legislation and national policy
• Reluctance to demonstrate social responsibilities
• Lack of income security
• Prone to exploitation by opportunist organisations
• Eager to self help and be self reliant
• Empowerment of women in poor communities tend to significantly benefit families and their communities

1. Community Organisations

• Inadequate project planning and Management skills and confidence
• Inadequate intellectual capacity to influence developments, policy and legislation processes in the country
• Inadequate programme, administration resources (technical, human resources and funds)
• No capacity to document and share best practice traditional and tested models
• No access to international and key national funding resources (including government funding)
• They are traditionally excluded from national and international processes
• Frustrated by the concept of ‘tendering’
• Frustrated by the observation that while led organisations still attract much of the development resources on the market
• Frustrated by the fact that they are still the ‘step-children’ of national service delivery programmes – their work not taken seriously
• They have the energy and passion to make a significant difference in their communities, however they are frustrated by structural incapacity to deliver

1. Children living in poverty are easily susceptible to:

• Ignorance regarding their rights and responsibilities
• Denied childhood
• Missed education opportunities
• Early parental responsibilities
• Anti-social behaviour and practices
• Health risks
• Denied access to new development opportunities in the country
• They all want their survival, protection and development rights to be met by their families and society.

Development (Poverty) Challenges

1. Creation of sustainable job opportunities
2. Life skills transference to families
3. Mobilization of poor communities for self-help
4. Strengthening of community organizations
5. Inculcation of a culture of good citizenship in the child population in this country
6. Strengthening of local government structures
7. To lobby strong stand alone NGOs to adopt and support community organizations and national/international processes led by Black organizations

That the Welfare Department:

1. In partnership with existing job creation programmes, examine the gaps in the job creation initiates – with the intention to identify delivery gaps, to agree remedial action and to maximise the impact of collective application of resources.
2. Through existing community organisations – transfer life skills to families. Facilitate the establishment/strengthening of community structures where this is necessary
3. Work in partnership with national structures to provide performance capacity to community organisations
4. Provide financial support to community organisations – with the intention to hand over this responsibility to local governments when this is possible
5. Put at the forefront of development programmes, those dedicated professionals who come from poor communities themselves. They should be more effective in mobilising these communities because they understand their idiom and way of life
6. Allocate resources and space that will enable umbrella organisations in the country to enable community organisations to collectively interpret and comment on policy papers that aim to enact policy or legislation
7. Facilitate a process that will ensure that local government:

• Establish local child survival protection and development committees
• Mobilise resources to implement agreed initiatives by partner organisations
• Monitor the performance of implemented projects
• Report annually to community and PPASC

1. Violence
2. Lack of empowerment of women
3. Poor access to health care and information
4. Unemployment
5. Literacy
6. Lack of security
7. HIV/AIDS

1. Welfare services need to be re-oriented to become more gender sensitive and promote the dignity, self esteem and well being of women
2. Further training on the management of violence against women must be provided to Police officers, magistrates and criminal justice personnel
3. More focus should be placed on preventative work and childhood interventions, to be able to change the mindset of youth and dispel myths, also remove gender stereotypes that might perpetuate Domestic violence. There is need to channel efforts to help the Department of Education with this.
4. The Department should work jointly with the correctional services in terms of rehabilitation and after care, especially of ex-convicts of violence against women related crimes
5. Relief funds which could be used for allowance such as transport allowance to enable women to go search for jobs or be able to rent accommodation whilst she is busy sorting her life, should be provided
6. Shelters to accommodate battered destitute women and their children should be built
7. Housing for women earning or not having an income at all, needs to be provided
8. The Department has a role to play in influencing employment and services in order to create jobs for women
9. Channel funding towards the kick starting of women skills development and economic empowerment projects
10. Strengthen the initiatives for ABET to address illiteracy among women
11. Provision of a safe and secure environment for women and children by influencing the Safety and Security to beef up in the public transport
12. Strengthens ties and co-ordination towards awareness creation and preventative efforts of HIV/AIDS
13. An inter-departmental approach to the challenges is needed

1. Poverty
2. Violence against Women
3. HIV/AIDS
4. Difficulty in accessing government data
5. The Department’s lack of a coherent policy and strategy to deal with violence against women

1. The Government needs to develop conceptual and practical methodologies for incorporating gender perspectives into all aspects of economic policy-making including structural adjustment planning and programmes
2. There is need for a comprehensive and adequate social security system
3. Government must, at all appropriate levels, formulate and implement plans of action to eliminate violence against women
4. Government and NGOs must provide well funded shelter and relief support for girls and women subjected to violence, as well as medical, psychological and legal aid where needed.
5. Linguistically and culturally accessible series should be established for migrant women and girls, including migrant workers, who are victims of gender-based violence
6. Awareness should be raised of the responsibility of the media in promoting non-stereotyped images of women and men as well as in eliminating patterns of media presentation that generates violence
7. Government should promote research, collect data and compile statistics, especially concerning domestic violence relating to the prevalence of different forms of violence against women
8. Government should support and initiate research on the impact of violence on women and girls, and make the resulting information and statistics available to the public
9. The detailed strategy compiled by the Department of Justice on violence against women could serve as a useful example for the Department of Welfare in formulating its own strategy
10. Government must ensure the involvement of women, especially those infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS and STDs in all decision-making relating to the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes on HIV/AIDS
11. Government should facilitate the development of community strategies that will protect women of all ages from HIV and provide care and support to infected girls, women and their families, and mobilize all parts of community in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic to exert pressure on all responsible authorities to respond in a timely, effective, sustainable and gender-sensitive manner

• The continuity of working around the issues raised through international fora such as the Beijing Conference – how do we address this?
• The Gender Commission is coming as a resource and not as a traffic cop
• NPU must build capacity to use and interpret such data to meet needs and address societal problems such as absence of electricity and incidence of rape
• The Department still needs training of officials – intransigence – none of your business attitude must go, e.g. at pay points and other levels
• Motherhood and maternity must be acknowledged in caring
• The Department needs to play a role in issues of trafficking
• Commercial sex workers should be added to vulnerable group[
• More should be done on childcare policy and services
• There needs to be a review of delivery system of social grants and an exploration of alternative modes, e.g. post offices
• At the pay point in Nkandla women are told that there is no money. They are paid by a contractor with no link to the Department

1. The Department can play a substantially more active and pro-active role with regard to lobbying and advocacy on issues that affect all South Africans.
2. The Department facilitate dialogue with other departments with regard to service design and development
3. Evaluative research must be conducted and a body of research be built
4. Building capacity on community level but also within organisational structures
5. Facilitate policy formulation processes and also facilitate dialogue between key role players.

The presentation then outlined the components of a victim support programme in South Africa. These are:

• Community support
• A community development framework
• Partnerships
• Economic opportunities

Challenges facing the victim empowerment field:

1. Partnerships
2. Quality control and maximising impact
3. Advocacy and lobbying

Integrated rural development strategies

1. Lack of communication
2. Lack of grassroots structures and service-infrastructure in all areas of our country and linked with this, the funding thereof
3. Lack of capacity building, opportunities and empowerment
4. Ignorance and therefore insensitivity towards people’s needs and qualities
5. Lack of partnership agreements
6. Unemployment and basic needs
7. Lack of services in great parts of the country
8. Lack of an integrated data base in terms of resources, services and systems

The Department should focus on:

1. Awareness raising amongst the general public and service providers in terms of sign language and bilingualism
2. Sign language training must be established within the community
3. The Department should promote a general policy on Sign language. This should stipulate that social developmental services to the Deaf should be provided in their first language – sign language
4. The South African Sign Language needs to be considered as a prescribed subject for students in social work, social auxiliary work, counselling and care services who work or intend to work with the Deaf
5. Transformation in the training of service providers at training institutions should be considered for legislation, with specific reference to Deaf students
6. Proper legislation in terms of interpreting services should be published to give protection to Deaf people in terms of confidentiality, decision-making and ethical conduct within the welfare and developmental fields
7. A proper subsidised infrastructure for interpreter services should be established by the Departments of Welfare which includes their training, accreditation, PAS and annual budget
8. A proper welfare referral system and services for Deaf people must be developed and maintained in all provinces

The presentation examined the need for partnership between the government and non-profit organisations and listed the principles needed for an effective partnership.

• There is a weakness in government in not meeting the needs of the Deaf
• The demands of the deaf are reasonable – they are citizens who need to be equally treated by the State and the State needs to be more sensitive
• A new programme is needed before the end of the year

1. Non-ratification of the Declaration of Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons – 1971
2. Non-ratification of the Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care – 1991
3. Ratification of the declaration and principles mentioned
4. That each and every service provider be educated about the various rights of various groups of service users, and sign an undertaking to uphold these rights at all times
5. That rights and declarations be summarised and published in user friendly formats
6. That all service providers are compelled to inform and educate service users they serve about their rights and provide them with a printed copy of their rights
7. That all service centres display publicly the rights they subscribe to
8. That each service centre appoint an "advocate" for service users, and display the person’s name publicly, with procedures to be followed should a person need to report that her/his rights are being ignored
9. That service providers be equipped with skills to develop the self-advocacy skills of service users
10. That all institutions/organisations/Welfare Departments employ persons with disability, including persons living with intellectual disability and mental illness
11. That all programmes that focus on income generation make provision for the inclusion of a range of persons affected by different disabilities, including persons with intellectual disability and persons living with mental illness.
12. Dis-empowerment of people by the terminology we use
13. The lack of programmes focusing on the emotional/psychological healing of men

1. The Minister of Welfare set a process in motion, together with the Minister of Heath, to have them ratified by the government;
2. To set up a monitoring system together with the Federation for Mental Heath and the Department of Health to ensure that rights are respected in all service delivery systems, and that service users are equipped with self-advocacy skills.
3. That the Department and Minister identify and meet with all organisations whose major focus it is to restore the emotional and psychological well-being of individuals/communities and families
4. That the importance and pace of restoring emotional and psychological well-being within the developmental framework, and the need and place for specialisation be defined and clearly specified in the policy
5. That serious attention be given to the emotional empowerment of men
6. That a strategy be developed by this group and other relevant role players for disasters to ensure that emotional trauma is also dealt with at the time

• A cautionary comment was made that service providers coming from poor communities are not always the best providers for that community. It depends on the individual. Some of them have some issues that needs support and help so that they can overcome them and be able to effectively serve the community.
• A concern on the state of older women or widows in the rural community was put forward, namely the issue of the husband’s family seizing his property when he dies. To address this requires an integrated partnership approach so that an understanding of cultural practices and attitudes is attained, and a suitable effective intervention developed. This also happens in peri-urban and urban areas and is high on the agenda of the CGE.
• The Federation has a model for mental handicap care to empower sufferers and are willing to share it with partners.
• RI to come up with human rights charter across the board. There is also a new WHO instrument to assess from strengths based approach.
• Specialist services must be integrated
• NICRO is not aware of the CIU research and would appreciate if this is shared with them
• Is there co-operation between NGOs and CBOs? Yes, there is despite competition for resources.

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Submissions were made by:

1. South African Council for the Aged
2. SA Federal Council on Disabilities
3. National Forum on Street Children
4. Volunteer Centre – Western Cape
5. National Council for Marriage and Family Life
6. Ministry of Caring (Dutch Reformed Church)

1. Transformation
2. Allocation of State funding
3. Discounting of government loans

• Highly discriminatory – allows only white organisations to discount their capital loans
• Black organisations do not have the resources to compete with privileged white organisations

1. Elder abuse
2. Pension pay-out system
3. HIV/AIDS – especially impact on elderly
4. African Aging Renaissance

• Discrimination of black organisations/discounting of loans for white organisations – white organisations had their loans discounted in 1993. They now own their facilities and choose to service who they want. Black organisations have always received less and were not able to put money in reserves, hence their state today.
• Historically there were two sets of funding formula - white organisations were paid based on unit costs whilst black organisations were funded based on what they have spent and had to provide receipts before any funds were released. A new formula is being put in place that 100% subsidy would be paid for frail persons in institutions
• The issue of who owns the property is still unresolved
• Organisations that had loans discounted should make their facilities available for community services – there is no policy that states who owns the property and facilities
• A discussion group was established in 1993 to draft policy framework on ageing.
• There is a tool that will ensure that only frail elderly people are institutionalised.
• Link Council with initiatives being undertaken by the Federal Council on Disability
• Community based care must get the bulk of funding and keep the elderly in the community as long as possible. Not only Welfare, but also all departments should share this responsibility.
• Comprehensive legislation is being prepared which will replace previous amendments and focus on the rights of the elderly and the democratisation of management structures is taking place.
• The Federal Council on Disability has a framework on assistive devices that can be linked to devices for the elderly.

1. Social integration of people with disabilities
2. Social support rather than social security
3. Transformation process
4. Levels of disability
5. The role of Welfare in the context of the Disability sector
6. The Disability Grant – creating a poverty trap for people
7. Reducing the financial implications of institutionalization
8. Addressing the subsidy schemes – structured to reinforce dependency
9. Clarity on the role of the Department of Welfare
10. Inaccessibility of the Welfare offices
11. The existing social security provision is not sufficient for the severely disabled

Recommendations

1. There needs to be a paradigm shift within the Department – it needs to co-ordinate and consult with other Departments to ensure social model is implemented with the ideal of complete social integration.
2. A social support system with individual empowerment - rather than social security - needs to be developed. The disability grant has to be redefined.
3. A review on the new role of the Department of Welfare in conjunction with the disability sector.
4. Transformation of protective workshops – needs to ensure mainstreaming of persons with disabilities into the economy.
5. More effective coordination of disability related policy and processes. There should be an immediate defined consultation process with the disability sector

Questions/Comments

• The challenge is to redefine welfare and empower the disabled
• We must avoid process orientated service provision
• We need to examine how to use the disability grant without creating a poverty trap
• There is need to reduce the financial implications of institutionalization – costly option and from human rights perspective, it has to go.
• Subsidy schemes reinforces dependency – must rather elevate people and not provide a crutch for the rest of their lives
• There needs to be clarity on the roles of Welfare and Labour
• The Department’s building is inaccessible and other premises must consider this.
• The Minister’s commitment is warmly welcome and organizations look forward to partnership and achieving goals together.

1. R4.50 being paid to parents with children in crèches
2. Role of the different departments in supporting street children
3. Diversionary programme – provided to children with guardians only
4. Education – curriculum geared to in-school children, majority of street children are out-of-school
5. Exploitation and abuse of street children – perpetrators often acquitted due to drawn out court cases. Perpetrators are freed and still exploit them sexually and physically.
6. Substance abuse – glue and inhalant abuse
7. Lack of appropriate health services for glue abusers

1. The Department of Welfare should lead the process in setting up an inter-Ministerial partnership with the Departments of Health, Education, Justice, Labour and Home Affairs.
2. The National Plan of Action should have street children as focus group
3. Alternative forums, not National Bodies need to be set up so that service organisations can effectively service street children
4. National Department engages with the NFSC to examine its best practices and explore how the two can work together
5. The government needs to look at protective measures for street children

Discussion/Comments

• How many street children are they in Durban alone? It is difficult to gather a reliable Database.
• Who funds the NFSC? The shelters are funded by the R4.5 from the Welfare department and the rest from private and international contributions. A contributing factor to this is that no one has taken responsibility for street children.
• The Forum has a model of partnerships and linkages in Durban
• The Department should look at HIV/AIDS and impact on street children
• The Department would like a short summary of the main project that the Forum envisages the two can work on
• Who is responsible for street children
• The Department needs to look at budgeting for street children, especially AIDS orphans

1. No general consensus on what volunteerism is – using volunteers as a shortcut to employment and for cheap labour
2. Training and development of volunteers – benefits of service, rights of volunteers
3. Fear that volunteers will take away paying jobs
4. Volunteers involved in risky work – no insurance coverage or compensation
5. Laborious process for volunteers to acquire necessary permit

Recommendations

1. That the Department takes the lead in promoting volunteerism as a key strategy for assisting with strategies developed to address poverty, especially in the rural areas
2. National guidelines for the deployment of volunteers need to be developed
3. The Year 2001 as International year for Volunteers must have a policy in place

1. Lack of an updated national database
2. Un-coordinated provision of services
3. Difficulties in forming effective partnerships
4. Specific issues affecting children, youth, women, families and the elderly –

• Breakdown of relationships
• Community violence and trauma
• Poverty
• HIV/AIDS/, TB and alcohol abuse

1. Officials are unaware of the transformation of FAMSA – not aware of social development programmes so it is not seen as a potential partner of the Department

1. That the department engineers a national survey and designs a co-ordinated strategy with all stakeholders to holistically address the critical welfare needs in the country
2. Eradicate poverty by means of a national strategy and scientific proof of where poverty pockets are and designing an effective programme of intervention
3. Containing the AIDS Pandemic – standardizing all AIDS training in the country and accessing experienced trainers to equip all social service providers in the country to deal with AIDS
4. Advocate and lobby for a larger welfare budget
5. Establish an effective communication forum where sharing of knowledge on activities could take place and lay a base for cooperation and mutual support
6. Pressurize the agency responsible for the development of the NDA
7. Pool resources and develop a standardized, coordinated approach to HIV/AIDS
8. FAMSA has a training manual that can be used and funded by the Department

• In order for the Department to follow up international funding, it needs to be given a list of organizations so that it can be discussed with Trevor
• Pressure should be placed on the ND to ensure funding to NGOs
• The Department will circulate the report for input and needs contribution and assistance to ensure that the programme that emerges is being implemented
• The Department is to facilitate a process of arriving at national guidelines for 2001
• The Department should facilitate the process of discussion between organizations on the issue of street children.

Key Issues

1. Social integration of social services within the community

• Majority of services developed without taking all communities into account
• Many of the service points cannot be physically moved to under-serviced areas.

1. Creating caring communities

• The Church has the responsibility to restore this moral awareness in the hearts and minds of people

Recommendations

1. There is need to create a developmental approach and to care optimally for people

   within the community. We must stop institutionalizing people.

2. The principle of the five concentrical circles should be put in place:

• First individuals take care of her/himself
• The family/extended family is the next point of care

• The congregations is the next line of approach
• The community at large is the next point of care

• The State is the last resort

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Submissions were made by:

1. National Coalition for Social Services (NACOSS)
2. Kagiso Trust
3. COSATU
4. Southern African Grantmakers Association
5. National Welfare, Social Service and Development Forum
6. Council for Child and Family Welfare

1. Partnerships – critical for service delivery
2. Financing of services – pressure to become everything to all people with watered down services
3. Comprehensive database with demographic information and info on services.

1. Engagement in policies from the outset
2. Establishment of date base mentioned above with list of available funders
3. Immediate financing of intervention programmes

1. Poor information flow – affects NGOs that are not subsidised by the Department
2. Decline in the funding base, hence competition between projects and organisations (NGOs and CBOs) for resources
3. Sustainability of NGOs in light of the ‘drying up’ of international funds
4. Bureaucracy makes the disbursement of funds difficult – delays the process
5. Capacity building of communities and community organisations – especially in terms of managing funds

1. Programmes must be designed proactively rather than be on an application basis, as is currently done. This is not solely the responsibility of the government.
2. An introspection by all service providers – government, NGOs, CBOs etc. must be done to assess whether or not the services and capacities needed do exist, and how best to serve the communities.

1. Lack of a comprehensive social security system – as proposed at the Job Summit
2. Basic Income Grant
3. Capacity of the Department of Welfare

1. Resuscitate the task team of the Job Summit
2. There is a need to co-ordinate the efforts within the government Departments – Health, Labour – under the leadership of the Department of Welfare
3. A policy framework needs to be designed for a comprehensive social security system
4. It is important that an assessment of the Department’s resources – human and financial – is done to ensure that it can meet its mandate

1. Partnership
2. Reduced funding of social welfare services
3. Government’s lack of acknowledgement of partnerships
4. Social security
5. Child Support Grant
6. Delays in payment of social security and foster care grants
7. HIV/AIDS and affected children
8. Poverty Eradication – lack of a national welfare policy has contributed to an ineffective ‘Poverty Relief Programme’.

1. A specific implementation strategy for the financing policy is needed
2. Government should start focussing on organisations that actually deliver instead of those organisations that have a ‘politically correct’ history.
3. Government needs to play a facilitating role in securing international funds for welfare service organisations.
4. The Child Support Grant should be expanded or programmes developed to include children in the age group of 7-18.
5. Tax benefits to foster parents need to be provided. The Department of Welfare should address this with the Department of Finance to have a ruling made or for the Income Tax Act to be amended to ensure that the medical expenses of foster children can fall within the ambit of a deductible expense.
6. The Department of Welfare should urgently develop a national policy on HIV/AIDS that clearly indicates the focus of areas of Welfare to prevent overlap with existing processes in the country.
7. The Department should not ‘reinvent the wheel’ but acknowledge the pro-active work being done in the NGO sector. The Department should consider funding the programme developed by the Council as its commitment to the partnership in AIDS.
8. The Welfare Budget should make special provision for the funding of NGO HIV/AIDS programmes, foster care grants, subsidised adoption and/or other kinds of bridging assistance to communities.
9. The Department of Welfare should, within its Poverty Relief Programme promote inter-sectoral collaboration of funds from this programme.
10. Serious attention must be given to the lack of co-ordination between the national department and provincial departments regarding the policy on allocation of funds from this programme.

1. Partnerships
2. Dwindling international and local sources of development funding

1. Alternative and sustainable long-term development funding options need to be explored. The potential contribution that the corporate sector could make in this regard must be considered.
2. The government should promote legislation that encourages giving. There is a need not only to create a new culture of corporate conduct, but also to build in a new culture of corporate community involvement.

• Endowment funds exist and matching funds can be leveraged.
• Is legislation needed to encourage giving?

1. Impact of internal and external forces on South Africa’s plans and policies for service delivery – globalisation
2. Transformation of service delivery with community participation – outcomes based
3. Public-private partnerships
4. Data base for statistics and trends
5. Human resources component of social delivery
6. The Finance Policy
7. Community service for social work students

1. Government and NGOs need to use its indicators and research to predict the demands that will be made, in terms of welfare needs
2. All social welfare services transformed so as to build the capacity of communities to deliver the bulk of services
3. Community volunteers could be involved in the detecting and reporting of child neglect and abuse the skills needed to do this must be provided
4. Services must be designed to meet the needs of the country, and not the service organisations
5. Community mobilisation must take place to prepare communities to deal with the impact of HIV/AIDS
6. Community centres need to ‘open up’ and be one-stop centres for a variety of activities
7. The issue of alcohol and drug dependency among children needs to be addressed
8. Service delivery organisations need to be established at grassroots level, and given financial
9. Public/private partnerships for social delivery needs to be set up at local level
10. There is need for a national database that has common statistics of the poor in SA, trends, debilitating factors, etc.
11. There needs to be a national strategy for the provision of social welfare services in SA
12. There needs to be a skilled personnel, information and communication audit of the Department of Welfare
13. Need for more inter-sectoral and inter-departmental working together
14. Accurate medium-term budgeting
15. Adequately trained and appropriately deployed personnel

1. Information flow – lack of a comprehensive database
2. Poor communication channel between role-players
3. Lack of a national strategy on poverty
4. Partnership

1. A well developed national database of:

• National demographic trends
• Community profiles with their priority needs
• Existing resources, infrastructure and projects

1. A continuous communication channel between all role-players - especially the relevant Departments (at all levels), local authorities, NPOs and NGOs.
2. A national strategy on poverty for all sectors, from local regional, provincial and national level.

Submissions were made by:

1. The Salvation Army
2. South African Red Cross
3. Disaster Mitigation for Sustainable Livelihoods Project (DiMP)

1. Implementation of the White Paper on Disaster Management which is regarded as the most advanced and significant document to be published on the subject.
2. Provincial initiatives must include all stakeholders and especially those who have experience in assisting at disasters.
3. Address the slow response of provinces to disasters and the provision of aid to those who have suffered loss.
4. Keep the public informed of developments with information on contact numbers in the event of disasters.
5. Government to enter into ongoing dialogue with The Salvation Army regarding the unique and specific contribution that The Salvation Army can make, including spiritual counselling.
6. Self-help projects should be encouraged, including:

• Emergency accommodation
• Labour
• Training and skills development
• Counselling
• Equitable distribution of provisions, clothing and medical supplies

1. An audit of social responsibility programmes (corporate involvement) is needed so as to align resources
2. In terms of the financing policy, the services of NGOs need to be mapped out and made available to the Department so that it can finalise its implementation strategy. NGO assistance is needed to carry this out.
3. Co-operation of organisations in Africa – efforts have been made, but none successful. Can the Department and NGOs maybe form such a Coalition? Response: a SADC sub-committee has been created to look at the NGO infrastructure there is before looking at what initiatives can be made.
4. There are also other opportunities that we have to look out for, it cannot always be done in an administrative manner.
5. What does the NGO sector think their role should be in terms of social delivery?
6. A suggestion was made that focus be given to mobilising resources and setting up systems to enable people to access the grants as soon as possible. This means that other things should be put on hold and emphasis given to this process so that it is done over as short a period of time as possible.
7. An issue of concern is how to build social mobilisation around implementation?
8. The services need to be clustered so that local government can play an effective role.
9. We need to look at how we can piggy back social delivery on the Masakhane Campaign.
10. All organisations present will be contacted to find out how they can assist with social delivery, especially in the rural areas. The issue of fraud is one that will have to be carefully and jointly addressed.
11. In terms of mobilising the masses, the Department needs to look at its systems of delivery and ensure that ‘speedy delivery of services’ is possible.
12. NACOSS has formulated a Welfare Consortium that may be used as a base for a framework towards implementing the financing policy.
13. How has the Welfare Forum taken up issues of transformation and changing residential care? Some of the member organisations do not need to transform, but those that need to, have indicated how they intend to do this. Others have already started the process and are frustrated by the Department’s lack of awareness on how much transformation has taken place. The transformation however, is not at the stage that the Forum expects as yet.

The Department in partnership with the Forum and other organisations can make a significant push in the transformation process that is taking place.

1. Capacity building of NGOs and CBOs
2. Community awareness and prevention programmes
3. On-going needs analysis in communities
4. Funding limitations

1. The NGO role, service and experience should form a vital part of disaster management.
2. Volunteers need to be nurtured, trained and focussed so that they can play an effective role.
3. Government and NGOs need to compromise on differences of approach, and focus on areas of similarity.
4. Partnerships and interaction with NGOs and CBOs must be formed at all levels. Communities also need to be engaged in partnerships.
5. Clear guidelines and legislation need to be finalised and put in place so that all role-players can understand their roles.

Some principles for effective partnerships were then given as:

• Transparent and uncomplicated systems and communication
• Clear understanding of roles and limitations
• Understanding of grassroots operations and methods of implementation
• Creation of partnerships at grassroots
• Streamlining of services
• Ongoing development of community volunteers
• Maintaining relevant proactive programmes
• Respect for community dynamics

Throughout the six days of public hearings, all the organisations represented commended the Minister on taking the initiative to hold the national consultative process. They also committed themselves to the Minister’s efforts to address the social issues affecting the poorest of the poor, and expressed a keen interest in meeting with the Minister to forge the necessary partnerships for effective implementation.