Introduction
It is appropriate for me to begin this briefing with a comment on the recent events in the Western Cape following Sunday's tragic tornado. The people of Guguletu, Manenberg and Surrey Estate were struck by a freak accident of nature. In response the people of the Western Cape rallied in support of them, providing material and moral support. This wonderful example of co-operation and partnership should be emulated. I would like to salute the people of the Western Cape and extend my gratitude and that of the government to them.

The declaration of a disaster means that government will be able to assist the affected families directly. Where there is no insurance or related cover, financial assistance will be given for damage or loss with regard to the following: Buildings (houses or outbuildings), possessions (furniture, equipment and personal effects), motor vehicles and medical expenses.

Following the June elections, the new Government committed itself to land running. In other words, service delivery should continue without interruption and indeed be accelerated. This will be my mission. I will strive for proactive engagement with the sector - service providers, NGOs voluntary welfare sector, CBOs, religious community, training institutions, and others.

This must form the basis of our welfare partnership a partnership for accelerated delivery. As stated by President Thabo Mbeki, we must become a nation working together to build a better life for all our people. Welfare touches the lives of millions of South Africans in the normal human life-cycle, and we need to ensure that our people are served humanely and that their rights are upheld, whether young or old. I would like to discuss a few areas where I would like to see welfare focus its attention so that the developmental impact of welfare can be felt and measured.

Our approach will be guided by translating policy into integrated social development action. Our operations will be governed by principles of efficiency, transparency and responsiveness. We will strive to create a process and environment for active partnerships. Building a people-centred social welfare system is our goal. Let me first focus on children, youth and families.

HIV / AIDS has a major impact on children, youth and families and therefore we are addressing this impact in the fields of social security, poverty relief and welfare services.

CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES
Programmes and services for children, youth and families are based on the assumption that families and communities should be strengthened. They should be enabled to provide an environment where the developmental needs of children and youth can be met. To achieve this, one of the challenges facing the Department is the persistent and widespread impact of poverty. It is having a devastating impact on children in the poorest households. The Child Support Grant has been one of our responses to this challenge.

Child Support Grant
The child support grant (CSG) was introduced in April 1998. It extends government's social assistance to children living in poor households. To overcome the initial low take-up rate, we have simplified application procedures. In the past few months we have seen a significant increase in the number of applications for the CSG, with close to I 50 000 children under seven benefiting from the grant. The intention is to achieve our goal of reaching 3 million children by the year 2003. By the end of the year 2000 I would like to see the grant reaching 500 000 children. The national department will monitor the implementation of this goal at provincial level.

Child and Youth Care System
The safety net provided by the child support grant and other social assistance programmes must be delivered with services that build the capacity of children and families to become self-reliant. The child and youth care services provided by government and other welfare partners are being transformed to achieve this. The best practice models of the pilot projects of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Young People at Risk will be replicated. Examples are family group conferencing and one stop youth justice centres. Thousands of children and youth have already benefited from such projects throughout the country. Let me now turn to an issue that is especially close to my heart, the rights of children.

Child Protection
The unacceptable level of violence against children, including rape and sexual abuse, cannot be tolerated. The national department, provincial departments and private welfare service providers have finalised protocols on how to deal with cases of child abuse and neglect. The protocols are linked to other programmes. These include the Victim Empowerment Programme of the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) and the overall transformation of the child and youth care system.

The protocols need to be strengthened by partnerships to protect vulnerable children. My ministry will actively work with other government and non-government agencies to ensure implementation of such programmes.

Child Care Legislation
We have also tightened up the child care legislation so as to make the commercial sexual exploitation of children a crime. Adults who exploit young children in this way or those who make their premises available for such commercial sexual exploitation of children can now be charged in a court of law. Other issues in the field of child care legislation will also receive attention. This includes youth justice and probation issues.

Project Starfish
A challenge for government and society as a whole is the high rate of unemployment, especially as it affects young school leavers and youth with tertiary qualifications. The vicious circle that needs to be broken is one where they cannot find jobs because they have no experience and cannot gain experience because they cannot find jobs. The Department is supporting the Cape Argus and the Careers and Information Centre (CRIC) on such a mentorship programme for youth within the private sector. This will be used as a model to be replicated in the future. Currently this programme is only operating in the Western Cape and has been allocated R2-million. A second major component of the Department's work is focused on women.

WOMEN
The fact that poverty affects more women than men, and that it affects women more severely, is well documented. Effectively women have no access to resources and skills to break out of their poverty. This is compounded by violence against women in the home and outside of it. The Department will work with other government agencies such as Justice, SAPS and Health to ensure the effective and speedy implementation of the Domestic Violence Act.

While the department aims to mainstream gender into all its programmes because of the specific needs of women, priority attention will be provided in the following ways:

Flagship Programme for Unemployed Women with Children
Under Five
It is this feminisation of poverty which the Department is addressing through its Flagship Programme for Unemployed. These projects combine income-generation opportunities with skills training and early childhood development programmes on the site of the projects. We will build on the successes of this programme and use the experience to improve our responsiveness. Key to this is the development of an overarching poverty alleviation strategy.

Microsave Programme
Another initiative is the Microsave Programme. This programme aims to support and promote stokvel-type savings collectives. There are many such collectives operating throughout the country, with mainly women as participants. The resources of such collectives have successfully been mobilised for development purposes. An amount of RI 8-million has been allocated for this programme on a pilot basis in the Northern Cape, Northern Province, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal - the poorest provinces. The programme is supported by the UNDP and the ILO.

Poverty Relief Programme
One of the major criteria of our poverty relief projects is that participants should be mainly women. The Department is supporting 1 933 projects countrywide as part of its poverty relief programme, funded directly by central government. This amounts to more than R110-million. These projects form the beginning of a sustainable strategy to build capacity for income generation and human development.

OLDER PERSONS
This government is committed to providing social protection for older persons. This will include the payment of old age pensions as well as other services designed to ensure the integration of older persons into active community life. The principle is to promote active ageing.

Status of Older Persons Bill
Other measures to enhance the quality of life of older persons will also be implemented. The Status of Older Persons Act, will be tabled during this parliamentary session to ensure the proper management and accountability in service provision for older persons.

Ombuds system
The Department will also be piloting an ombuds system as a means of ensuring that older persons are not abused, but valued, respected and treasured as a resource to communities. It is they who care for the young, the sick and even provide financial assistance from their pensions.

Old age pensions
Old age is a time in the life-cycle when there is often poverty. Government's old age pensions have been shown to be a well-targeted poverty alleviation measure, reaching close to 1,8 million older persons - over half of the total number of social security beneficiaries.

These are some of the programmes and services which have a direct bearing on the lives of millions of South Africans. In this second term of our democratic government I will strive to ensure that service delivery is improved.

WELFARE PAYMENT AND INFORMATION SERVICE
One initiative to improve operational efficiency in the payment of social grants - and ensuring a customer focus - is the establishment of the Welfare Payment and Information Service (WPIS). Every month about 3 million South Africans receive pensions or grants, totaling more than RI 6-billion for the past financial year. This is a major poverty alleviation programme of government. The Department of Welfare will publish a tender to find a business partner or partners to completely re-engineer the payment of social grants and establish a new Welfare Payment and Information Service (WPIS).

COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED SOCIAL PROTECTION
A critical challenge for government is to provide a comprehensive, integrated safety net for citizens against old age, unemployment, disability, ill-health and other social risks. The present system is inadequate in that there is no proper coverage of some of these risks. There is also a need to ensure that systems such as UIF and our social grants system are aligned and working in tandem. We also need to improve the interface between public and private schemes.

An inter-departmental task team led by the Department of Welfare has been established. It is expected that their report will be tabled in Cabinet within two months will include a set of recommendations covering the risks related to unemployment, disability, medical insurance, accident cover, lack of retirement provision and other identified risks.

WELFARE FINANCING POLICY
The delivery of welfare services needs to be transformed. The objective is to transform welfare services from paternalistic and/or specialist services to developmental and holistic services that lead to people being self-reliant where:

This transformation process is supported by the new welfare financing policy which is being phased in over five years as from 1 April 1999. Through the welfare financing policy we will begin a gradual shift away from the present subsidy system to a system where the Department will support particular services or packages of services in areas where they are needed the most.

Creating a welfare services environment that supports poverty reduction initiatives, human capacity development and social integration of the excluded and vulnerable will be a major objective of the current five-year term. To do this we will need to ensure that the morale of the social service professions is improved. Workers in the sector need to be recognised for their invaluable role.

POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Our objective of sustainable development can only be achieved if we integrate population concerns into development planning. On the eve of the new millennium there are a number of population challenges facing us:

The National Population Unit is developing a population information system that will serve as a backbone to assist all three spheres of government to integrate population variables in their development planning.

HIV I AIDS
The rapid spread of the HIV / AIDS epidemic poses serious challenges for welfare. Thousands of children will be orphaned. placing a heavy burden on the state and communities. This is also one of the reasons why I'm determined to ensure that the child support grant is implemented successfully. Apart from this, Welfare needs to develop child-friendly community responses, incorporating the principles of ubuntu, and which build on the extended family and community involvement.

The Department is part of the Inter-Ministerial (Committee on HIV / AIDS which has been tasked by President Mbeki to come up with a plan integrating HIV / AIDS to the governments rural development strategy. This will be done with other key sectors of society.

CONCLUSION
Welfare services are critical to ensuring that our people can play meaningful and productive roles in society, in the economy and political life of the country. I would like to see all South Africans working together to ensure that the ethics of care and human development are integral to the transformation of our society.

The Department of Welfare is committed to the goal of reaching 3 million children by the year 2003 through the child support grant. The current figures show that close to 150 000 children are receiving the grant.

The New Child Support Grant regulations were gazetted on 25 June 1999. The requirements for child support grant have been relaxed to encourage applications. The Child Support Grant is a grant of R100 a month per child paid to the caregiver of a child.

The child support grant is aimed at helping poor families to look after their children. It can be paid to a mother, father, grandparent or any one else who looks after the child on a day to day basis.

The Department of Welfare needs to improve the operational efficiency of its social grant payments. Every month about 3 million South Africans receive pensions or grants, totaling more than R16-billion for the past financial year. This is a major poverty alleviation programme of government.

The Department of Welfare will publish a tender to find a business partner to completely re-engineer the payment of social grants and establish a new Welfare Payment and Information Service (WPIS).

The objective of the WPIS is to design a service that will offer citizens who qualify at least the following:

The objective is also to offer government at least the following:

These stated objectives will also improve medium to long term budgetary planning. The current cost of disbursing social grants is estimated at around R5OOm per annum.

The Department of Welfare and Population Development administers the Disaster Relief Fund as established in terms of section 16 of the Fund-raising Act, 1978 (Act 107 of 1978).

This fund is managed by the board appointed by the minister and the board may appoint the committee to carry its objectives as prescribed and according to the needs of the situation.

The State President may, by proclamation in the government gazette, declare an event to be a disaster, as outlined by the Act_, if in his opinion this event has or is likely to have disastrous consequences.

Financial assistance is given on an ex-gratia basis for damage or loss with regard to the following:

The New Welfare Financing Policy aims to:
-Meet government's agenda to address and eliminate the current

imbalances in services to citizens.

-Include service organisations previously excluded from receiving

financial assistance from the state.

- Target financing to the highest strategic priorities (poverty, rural areas,

women and children)

-Promote the equitable distribution of finances, services and

infrastructure.

-Include flexible and varied financing options

-Facilitate the emergence of a network of accessible services for all in

need.

-Promote the capacity and sustainability of organisations

Partnerships
Partnerships refer to a mutual commitment and reciprocal relationships to advance a common vision. Government and social welfare sector need partnership to ensure and sustain effective and efficient service delivery. Government is moving from being a funder of welfare services to being a purchaser of services. Therefore the government sets its own developmental priorities and looks for and purchases the services it needs to meet these priorities.

Principles
Applicability to all service providers both government and the non-governmental sector.

Maximising the potential for services at prevention and early intervention levels. Maximising human resource development through out the system as well as ensuring sufficient human capacity. Promoting effective and efficient service delivery and supporting differentiated programmes.

Allocation of resources sensitive to the transition phase of transformation or development.

Promoting differentiated financing models.

Identified Levels of Service Delivery
Prevention - Service delivered at this level is aimed at strengthening and building the capacity and self-reliance of the focus groups. Early intervention - service delivered at this level make use of developmental and therapeutic programmes to ensure that those who have identified as being at risk, are assisted before they become involved with the law.

Statutory process - At this level an individual has become involved in some form of court case and will be a statutory process until the case is over.

Continuum of care services such as foster care, probation supervision, prisons and home visitors, are provided at this Ievel.

All the four levels function as a continuum, from the least restrictive, least intrusive, and most empowering, to the most intrusive, most restrictive and most empowering for the particular individual.

Financing Services
The Department of Welfare will take into consideration the:
-Effectiveness and relevance of an organisation or programme,

-The extent to which social integration, diversity and equity are supported.

-Organisations that offer one or more of the service levels with the integration of special development areas,

-Services that help in the re-allocation of resources to ensure more equality between and within provinces,

-Whether an organisation has networks with other organisations and communities,

-Whether there is a link between social service and social assistance.

Categories of Service Delivery
Direct service - they are delivered at one or more of the four delivery levels and also integrate special development areas. These services are delivered by NGOs, CBOs, local and provincial governments.

Policy Management, co-ordination and monitoring of services (support services)
This offer policy monitoring and advisory services. These services assist in the transformation process of the welfare departments and organisations. They are delivered by the national and provincial head offices of the Department of Welfare and by NGOs or by partnerships between government and non- governmental organisations.

Capacity building research and advocacy (building and an enabling environment.)
Each category will have generic plus special financing criteria and minimum standards applied to it, and will be subject to service level agreements and to developmental quality management assessments.

Finance Administration
The administration of welfare financing is based on the principles of efficiency and transparency. Service providers will have to submit their service plans, An assessment team reviews these plans to make sure that the financing criteria and principles are met, the plans have a developmental framework, the organisation has the capacity to meet its plans are in line with the budget.