MEDIA RELEASEWednesday, 20 June, 2001
Jobless in Bizana
Wild Coast , South Africa, 20 June, 2001 - "I don't have work and I don't have money." In 1997, this was the most common response to a survey that asked WildCoast residents about their main problems. In that year, the government announced a high profile spatial development initiative that would kick-start development in the WildCoast. Three years later, when the question was repeated by a follow up survey, the answer was the same; "I don't have work and I don't have money."
Implemented through the Southern African Development Bank, the Wild Coast SDI set out to kick start local economic growth through massive investment in the region. The objective was to increase employment, particularly of women, through creating new small businesses in agriculture and tourism.
CIETafrica (Community Information Empowerment and Transparency) evaluated the impact of the first three years of the SDI on local economic development in the WildCoast. Their report, released in East London this week, found that 66% of the people in the 2000 survey considered money and unemployment their biggest concerns, compared with 58% in the CIET baseline in 1997.
The residents' concerns are well founded. The report shows retrenchment of migrant labour and decreased migration of men from the region. This means more men in the local labour market, competing for very few jobs: the proportion of adults looking for employment increased from 48% in 1997 to 54% in 2000.
Yet fewer jobs were available for this increased workforce. Actual employment rates dropped from 23% in 1997 to 15% 2000.
There was also a downward shift of available employment, with a smaller proportion of the formally employed working in government, professional, teachers, taxis, sales, administration and a larger proportion working as labourers, gardeners and domestic servants. In addition to the increased pressure for jobs, the jobs that are available pay less than they did in 1997. In five of the seven formal employment categories examined, average earnings dropped between 1997 to 2000.
All this has affected women disproportionately: male formal employment dropped from 29% to 19%, whereas female formal employment dropped from 20% to 11%. This means an increasing employment gap in the first three years of an initiative designed to empower women and to close the gender gap.
In the informal sector, things are not much better. Only one in every 20 adults owns a business and most people say they have never even considered owning one.
CIET, together with the Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council (Ecsecc), established a baseline in 1997 to measure the impact of investment in the Wild Coast SDI. The impact assessment at the end of 2000 evaluated local economic development since the SDI project began.
CIET executive director, Prof. Neil Andersson, said the deterioration of employment options is accentuated by a dramatic increase in cost of living over the same period. The report showed that living costs - measured by a basket of 15 commonly purchased commodities -- had increased by 17.5% in the SDI area from 1997 to 2000.
Andersson concluded with a positive spin on the otherwise alarming facts: "The really optimistic part of this story is that the government actually had the forthrightness to support a CIET impact assessment. A government less concerned with accountability would not have done so, and these truths about the Wild Coast SDI would not have come out. The interim impact assessment puts the government in a position, fairly early in the game, to make decisive changes."
The report recommended a radical shift to change the SDI from an investment-driven initiative to one with a focus on large-scale local skills building and incentives for development within the community. One part of a solution was piloted in 28 schools across the SDI by CIET and the Department of Education, in 1999. This was a mapping exercise that documented every known small business in the area, testing the need for changes in curriculum, and the possible role of senior secondary schools as nodes of skill development for small businesses.
Around 2500 households took part in the CIET 1997 baseline and 2000 impact assessment in the Wild Coast SDI. The Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) funded the surveys and Ecsecc was the CIETafrica counterpart for the first two surveys.
The CIET report was released in East London to key players in the SDI including community leaders, the departments of environmental affairs, trade and industry, land affairs and agriculture, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, non-governmental organisations and organised business. The full report and comprehensive reports of the first two surveys are available on the South African page.
Released by CIETafrica
For more information contact Marietjie Myburg,
Tel: 082 773 0879
e-mail:
CIETafrica
johannesburg
tel: 27 11 403 4067 fax: 27 11 403 4069
east london
tel / fax: 27 43 721 1190
mobile: 082 773 0879