Dept of Labour evaluation reports

The Department of Labour today released on its website www.dol.govt.nz two reports on community employment-related capacity-building initiatives.

The first report is an evaluation of the implementation of initiatives in 2000/2001, and the second is an evaluation of the short-term outcomes 2002.

The Government's community employment initiatives target communities and groups that are economically and/or socially disadvantaged. Despite recent strong economic growth, some communities continue to be significantly disadvantaged. Maori and Pacific Island people are over-represented. While the current unemployment rate is 4.3% for the general population, for Maori it is 9.9% and for Pacific people, 7.6%.

The process of building skills and capacity in communities with poor labour market outcomes is challenging - it is a long-term process that can take some years to achieve results. There will always be cases where some initiatives are more successful than others.

Of the 11 groups qualitatively evaluated, six met all their project objectives and four more met most of them. All groups were evaluated as having made some progress towards their goals.

Evaluation by nature takes a critical approach, to find where or if improvements or changes need to be made. This is standard part of the Department's policy development processes.

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