Themes
Ancient History
20th Century
Recent sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Ghana
What is a job?
What is a decent job?
There are many misconceptions surrounding public works programmes. Recently in South Africa they have generally been referred to pejoratively; viewed as only short-term relief. PWPs must be regarded as investment not social-welfare.
Not short term, pilot projects.
Labour-intensity should be measured in relation to direct site construction costs.
In the field of construction and maintenance sustainability is dependent upon investment.
To state the obvious: it is easier to generate more employment per unit of expenditure in some sectors than in others; equally, within sectors there may be more options. Different levels of opportunity exist within the civil and building industries.
There is great scope for employment generation in maintenance.
Employment opportunities must be found for young people. This is a social necessity. The completely unskilled are prepared to work with their hands.
Education, Training & Skills Development
Education, training and skills development should be regarded as development investments not as costs.
Educocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of the formal education and skills development systems of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group.
Construction and maintenace work can be performed by both males and females.The poor are generally not just willing to work but eager to do so.
Economic growth is seen as the major way to generate employment. We need to find ways to increase the labour-intensity per unit of expenditure / investment.
What does it cost to generate a job in different industries?
In sub-Saharan Africa there have been at least 5 large-scale, long-term employment generation programmes linked to the provision of infrastructure: Kenya, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi and Ghana.
There is no need to re-invent the wheel for every project. Tried and tested standards and designs already exist.
Philosophy is too strong a word, 'approach' would be more appropriate.
Public policy is necessary , indeed it is essential. However, much more than grand gestures are required before long-term effects will become perceptible at the level of national statistics.
Fast tracking is the kiss of death for development endeavours. It is guaranteed to result in emegency relief at best.
The First International Conference on Employment and Development was held at the University of the Witwatersrand in April 2001. The Conference website contains all the papers and details.
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