Effectiveness of nonprofit organisations in the City of Tshwane: an evaluation of the poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods

Abstract

The roles of non-profit organisations in South Africa have evolved, leaving these organisations with an increased role to play in service delivery and community development. The purpose of the current research was to assess the effectiveness of non-profit organisations in the City of Tshwane to render services to communities by evaluating the Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Livelihood Programme for the period of 2015 to 2018. This research adopted a qualitative approach. Purposive sampling was used to identify participants in the study according to time in the programme and the number of years non-profit organisations have been receiving funding from government. Using semistructured interviews and document analysis, this study found that, despite the efforts of the Gauteng Department of Social Development to decentralise services, poverty levels in South African communities remain high. This study further found that, although national, provincial and local poverty alleviation or sustainable livelihood programmes have been established, these programmes have been insufficient in making an impact in job placements and poorly reflect poverty reduction challenging communities. While non-profit organisations still face a plethora of challenges with regard to limited funding, capacity challenges and a lack of meaningful training and support, these organisations have however shown to be effective in achieving poverty alleviation in terms of the Sustainable Livelihood Programme outcomes in addition to meeting the needs of the poor. This success has been achieved through the offering of skills development programmes to the youth, implementing government food security interventions, fostering entrepreneurship skills, and promoting access to information on social development opportunities in communities. This study recommends that, for government to see considerable results and a change in the fight against poverty alleviation, there is a need to establish one national and uniform poverty alleviation programme that could be implemented across all spheres of government. In addition, this study concluded that, in strengthening the usefulness of non-profit organisations, there is a need to extend the current role played by the NPO Directorate, not only where staff capacity is concerned but also to introduce a functional model for managing the funding of all NPOs in South Africa.