| A key component of Korea's new "Productive Welfare" approach is a social assistance program known as the National Basic Livelihood Security System or NBLSS. In addition to providing cash benefits, the NBLSS operates a welfare-to-work program known as the Self-Support Program which promotes job training and placement and microenterprise development.;The research reported in this dissertation assesses the effects of the Self-Support Program on a group of program participants. Three research questions were asked: first, what are the characteristics of people participating in the Self-Support Program; second, to what extent does the Self-Support Program function as a poverty alleviation program; and finally, to what extent does the Self-Support Program function as a social investment program enhancing the capacity of recipients to experience sustained improvements in their living standards and to attain self-sufficiency?;Semi-standardized interviews with twenty-two Self-Support Program clients and three expert informants were conducted to answer these questions. The study provides insights into the lives, aspirations and experiences of the program's clients and their perceptions of its effectiveness with regard to poverty alleviation and social investment.;In addition, the dissertation describes the history and characteristics of the NBLSS and the Self-Support program and provides a statistical profile of its recipients. This is linked to an account of the history and features of poverty and social policy in Korea and of the country's Productive Welfare model. This, in turn, is linked to a wider analysis of social assistance policies and programs around the world.;The findings of the research, based on the perceptions of the interviewees, reveal that the Self-Support Program does to some extent function to alleviate poverty. Despite its intention to function as a social investment program, the interviewees report that it does not really achieve this goal. This study concludes by showing that the program can be strengthened by addressing its deficiencies and by more explicitly adopting some key social investment principles. |
