How do you create mass employment for youth in the middle of a crisis? The case of South Africa’s employment stimulus
How do you go about generating half a million jobs in the middle of a crisis, going beyond the big cities and reaching out to rural areas? Dr. Kate Philip, Programme Lead on the Presidential Employment Stimulus in South Africa shared about their experience in doing just that - tackling mass unemployment amidst the Covid-19 pandemic with an innovative program that puts market shaping and creating public value at its core.
The Presidential Employment Stimulus was established in response to the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on jobs and livelihoods. The Stimulus program includes a strong focus on youth and on generating social employment by unlocking the creative potential of local communities. Core to the social employment approach is the recognition that unemployed people in communities are a powerful resource for development, and that even where labor might not have a market value, it has - and can create - social value.
Beyond providing relief to those who have been most affected by the economic consequences of the pandemic, the program recognizes that this is a moment of opportunity for change - for new ways of working and value creation in response to an unprecedented crisis. It enabled the most rapid expansion of public employment in South Africa’s history. The team behind the program believes the program has high replicability potential in other contexts.
Though still work in progress, the story of this Program is one of intentional transformation in face of multiple crises and one that illustrates how bringing a system’s lens to ‘seeing’ and tackling underlying dynamics can lead to transformative outcomes.
20 сен 2024
