Request for Proposals for the Appointment of a Service Provider to Conduct an Impact Evaluation Study of the Labour Activation Programme (lap) and Covid19ters Programme to the Unemployment Insurance Fund for a Period of Twelve (12) Months.

1.1 Overview

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) provides temporary financial relief to

qualifying contributors. This is in the form of Unemployment benefits and a range of in-

service benefits. However, the Fund gets requested to intervene whenever the country

is facing massive challenges that may result in the loss of jobs and income for workers.

As a result, the UIF has had to adopt and implement interventions worth Billions of

Rands to avoid income loss and preserve thousands of jobs.

Two such interventions include the introduction of the Labour Activation Programme

(LAP) after the Global Economic Crisis of 2008; and the Covid19TERS during the global

pandemic that resulted in the declaration of the National State of Disaster and National

lockdown in March 2020.

1.2 Purpose

The National Evaluation Policy Framework (NEPF) states that its purpose is to promote

quality evaluations which can be used for learning to improve the effectiveness and impact

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of government programmes, by reflecting on what is working and what is not working and

revising interventions accordingly. Therefore, the purpose of this evaluation is to;

• To assess whether LAP has impacted the lives of its intended beneficiaries.

• To assess whether the COVID-19TERS impact on the South African economy and

financial well-being of targeted population.

1.2.1 Labour Activation Programme (LAP)

The fund took a decision 2010 to introduce the active labour market interventions due to the

loss of jobs by UIF contributors, many of whom had little hope of being re-integrated into the

labour market. LAP was initially introduced on a small scale and massified in 2017 following

a decision by the Executive Committee of the Department after considering the high levels

of unemployment.

LAP’s legislative mandate is outlined below:

• Section 48(1) of the Unemployment Insurance Act (“UI Act”) - the UIF

Board may advise the Minister of Employment and Labour on policies for

minimising unemployment and the creation of schemes to alleviate the effects of

unemployment;

• Section 18 of the UI Act - Director General may refer UIF beneficiaries for

vocational training as a pre-condition to qualify for unemployment benefits.

• Section 5(d) of the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Act, No. –

employment and the re-entry of contributors into the labour market and any other

scheme aimed at vulnerable workers’’.

The fund’s primary objective in issuing this RFP is to enter into an agreement with the

a) Undertake an evaluation to determine how the fund LAP has impacted the lives of its

intended beneficiaries. In the LAP context, this includes beneficiaries of the following

sub-programmes:

1. Training Layoff Scheme, which was later renamed to Temporary Employer Employee

Relief Scheme (TERS);

2. Training of the Unemployed, which was later renamed to Employability;

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3. Turnaround Solutions, which was renamed to Business Turnaround and Recovery

Programme (BT&R).

b) Recommend any policy or implementation mechanism or method or any other idea

that can inform the Fund’s decision-making process with regard to the future of LAP.

1.2.2 Covid19TERS

The UIF has disbursed R64 billion bringing relief to about 5,4 million workers since the start

of the lockdown, thus ensuring that the South African economy does not collapse and that

workers are not left destitute. The figure is the biggest amount that has been paid by the

government to help workers, businesses and the economy to mitigate the impact of the

lockdowns. The COVID-19TERS payments were made possible by the Fund’s investments

with the Public Investment Corporation. This relief assisted in preventing permanent

shutdown of many businesses that couldn’t pay salaries and wages to their workers, and

helped to preserve jobs.

The fund’s primary objective in issuing this Request for proposals (RFP) is to enter into an

agreement with a success bidder(s) who will achieve the following:

a) Undertake an evaluation to determine the economic and financial Impact of the funds

COVID19TERS in the South African economy, and on both employers and

employees that benefited from the scheme; and

b) Recommend any policy or implementation mechanism or method or any other idea

that can inform the Fund’s future responses to similar situations or maximise the

benefit of the relief scheme.

1.3 Service Requirements

the following phases:

1.3.1 Project Plans with timeframes.

what was agreed at the start of contracting). The plan should also incorporate Research and

Evaluations Skills Transfer.

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