Leveraging public employment programmes for an inclusive just transition: Connecting youth to the green economy through city-led partnerships in South Africa

This article was published in the Journal of Inclusive cities and Built environment on 1 February 2026.

South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis presents both an urgent challenge and an opportunity for the country’s just transition. This paper examines how seven South African cities are using the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to connect young people to green-economy opportunities. While the EPWP provides important short-term employment, its longer-term developmental impact is constrained by low-skilled and temporary jobs, weak career pathways, limited accredited training, fragmented institutional arrangements and uneven recruitment practices.

The paper argues that cities can reposition public employment programmes as platforms for long-term skills development and labour-market integration, rather than simply mechanisms for temporary job creation. This requires stronger partnerships between municipalities, Sector Education and Training Authorities, Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges, universities, private-sector actors and civil society, alongside better alignment between green projects and emerging labour-market opportunities.

As one EPWP official put it:

“The youth associate green economy projects with dirt and unfavourable working conditions with limited prospects for professionalisation.”

This perception captures a central challenge: if green employment continues to be associated with low-skilled, short-term and physically demanding work, it is unlikely to attract or retain young people. The paper therefore calls for a reimagined EPWP that provides meaningful work, accredited and market-relevant training, clear exit pathways and stronger connections to the expanding green economy.

Key points:

• The EPWP has significant potential to simultaneously address unemployment, social protection and environmental challenges, but its contribution to long-term youth employment remains uneven.
• Many EPWP green-economy opportunities remain short-term, low-paying and focused on manual work such as cleaning, park maintenance and invasive-plant removal. This limits their attractiveness to young people and their potential for career development.
• Training is often project-specific, informal and unaccredited, making it difficult for participants to translate their EPWP experience into future employment. Accredited, market-relevant training aligned with emerging green sectors is therefore critical.
• EPWP units within cities are often brought in only after line departments have designed projects, leaving them responsible mainly for supplying labour. Earlier involvement would allow employment, skills development and environmental objectives to be integrated from the outset.
• Partnerships beyond the state can create stronger pathways into the green economy. Cities need to leverage existing instruments, including the Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant, while building sustained partnerships Without these systemic changes, green EPWP projects risk reproducing the “low-skill, short-term character of traditional public works.”

Recommended citation:

Modiba., M, Koma, O. and Parkerson, C. (2026). Leveraging Public Employment Programmes for an Inclusive Just Transition: Connecting Youth to the Green Economy through city-led Partnerships in South Africa. Journal of Inclusive cities and Built environment, 4(5), 49-63.

For further details, please contact Dr Mamokete Modiba [Mamokete.modiba@gcro.ac.za]