The Project has been operative since late 2004 in in townships and impoverished urban communities as well as poor rural communities in almost all provinces of SA but concentrating to Western Cape.

Though black people make up over 75 percent of the country's population, they hold only 17 percent of the skilled jobs in the country and just 5 percent of the management positions, according to the South African Labor Department. Black people also account for about 90 percent of South Africa's unemployed workers.

Basic business skills are lacking in the townships and rural areas. Yet the government policy is to lift the second economy to link with the first. The government approach is a top-to-bottom-one. The civil society is present in all townships, the governments presence is weak. In local development programmes civil society and the public sector should be connected. Accordingly, there is a need for enhanced entrepreneurial training especially among the black and coloured South Africans. The issue of Black economic empowerment (BEE) in social development holds a promise.

In South African society women are the main providers of household needs. Women are involved in survivalist enterprises and the everyday stress of putting food on the table seriously impacts on them being able to create what we in the development industry call a profitable business. It is therefore proposed that this programme creates new and alternate models of economic empowerment in the context of the plight of the poorest communities.

Impact Assessment on the Project