The South African government's Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) has its origins in the Growth and Development Summit of 2003 where it was agreed that so-called public works programmes could provide poverty and income relief through temporary work for the unemployed to carry out socially and environmentally useful activities. The EPWP is a key government initiative with the priorities being decent work and sustainable livelihoods, education, health; rural development; food security and land reform as well as the fight against crime and corruption.

The EPWP is of direct relevance to improved local environmental governance although it is not driven by municipalities themselves. The EPWP involves community members (as envisaged in the Constitution and several pieces of local government and environmental legislation) for improved local environments. Several of the sub-programmes bear relevance to the environment, including:

• Working for Water (focused on the reduction of invasive plant species to help improve water security and prevent soil erosion)
• Working on Fire (focused on the prevention and control of wildfires)
• Working for Wetlands (focused on effective and sustainable wetland rehabilitation)
• Working for the Forest (focused on sustainable development and management of new afforestation and sustainable forest resource use)
• Working for the Coast (focused on the overall healthy and sustainable development of South Africa's coastal environments)

Nothing prevents municipalities from becoming directly involved in the roll-out and implementation of these EPWP sub-programmes in the name of cooperative (environmental) governance as called for in chapter 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.