500 Days of Economic Policy Action: A Short-Term Policy Action Agenda for South Africa
A CBPEP colloquium 2-4 June 2021
This action-focused policy colloquium will bring together top decision-makers in government and leading thinkers in academia, the private sector and beyond to outline a range of interventions that can place South Africa on a new growth trajectory.
The webinar on 6 October offered insights on End to End Payment Solutions, Onboarding, Payment Disbursement & Payout Options. The event included case studies on the SRD 350 Grant, the payments voucher for the Agricultural Grant to Small Scale Farmers an outline of BankservAfrica’s Rapid Payments Programme and an overview of SARS journey to its current P2G system.
The second event of the series contained presentations on next generation G2P architecture, how digital payments can accelerate the achievement of development outcomes, modern G2P design principles, enablers of accessible and choice based G2P payments and a summary of learnings from COVID-19 response. Country case studies included an overview of the Direct-to-Citizens Payments system in Bangladesh and a powerful vision for G2P transformation in Indonesia.
The Future of Payments Systems: An 8-Part Capacity Building Webinar Series
September 8, 2021
This eight-part webinar series explores the future of government-to-person (G2P) and person-to-government (P2G) payments in a post-Covid digital world. The webinar series aims to build capacity by learning from other countries and government departments on G2P and P2G solutions and develop a high-level road map for the South African government.
A webinar was held to reflect on the lessons learned by trainers, employers and workers from the participating firms and the supporting institutions. It also explored the potential for rolling out SCORE to additional manufacturing sectors and industries.
Decisive action required for SA’s electricity policy
June 3, 2021
Kenneth Creamer, economics lecturer at WITs University, has identified a number of short-term actionable interventions for South Africa’s electricity policy. At CBPEP’s Colloquium on 500 Days of Economic Policy Action, he addressed ways to improve energy security, reduce the costly resort to load-shedding, stabilise and restructure Eskom and secure longer run employment, industrialisation and decarbonisation objectives.
“The energy sector needs to set South Africa up to leverage the large benefits that will come from being an emerging market leader in the climate agenda, rather than making it bear the costs of lagging behind.” This is the advice from Meridian Economics, who list five steps the energy sector can take in the next 500 days to future-proof the energy sector.
Charley Lewis, Independent Analyst, says that in the short term ICT is unlikely to create many jobs and may even destroy certain jobs. However, intensifying the role of ICT in the economy is essential to underpin economic growth over the medium to longer term, leading to employment creation across a wide range of the economy where ICT is deployed or underpins business processes. His views, shared during the latest CBPEP Colloquium on 500 Days of Economic Policy Action, were recently published in the Business Day.
Latest updates on the Basic Package of Support for Youth project
June 16, 2021
Find out more about: how the project is part of the national Pathway Management Networks, what tools have been developed to support data collection and management systems, the plans for the pilot in Atlantis, and upcoming events where the project will be presented.
Follow updates from a CBPEP-supported pilot land reform project
June 14, 2021
This collaborative pilot project, built on research findings, aims to help realise potential job-creation in agriculture, through the optimisation of land use and farming systems. The project blog will document the process from beginning to end, as collaborators work on developing a methodology for employment intensive land reform at municipality level.
The findings from this research were launched in June 2020 and include policy recommendations that explore appropriate institutional capacity building within Government, its partners and beneficiaries. Learn more about the project and the next steps from this video.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the South African economy hard, with over two million jobs lost. CBPEP has responded to COVID-19 by speeding up innovation and breaking down barriers to change. Watch a film on the About page to learn more.
We are excited to share the lessons learned from the implementation of the Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) programme through a webinar with trainers, employers and workers from the participating firms and by the supporting institutions.
Watch how SCORE has been applied in a case study in South Africa
Ciovita is one of the participating factories in the ILO SCORE project. Watch the video below to see how the implementation of this support programme has positively impacted productivity with its people-centric approach.
A dialogue between youth representatives and stakeholders highlighting the importance of a project like the BPSY
February 1, 2021
Find out more about what the youth and stakeholders have to say about challenges of, and support needed for, the transition from education into employment.
The innovative and adaptive methods of SCORE can be applied to any sector to bring about long-lasting improvements in supplier practices. The hands-on consultancy will provide companies with robust processes to improve business.
Watch how ILO SCORE in SA has adapted to COVID and occupational issues
December 2, 2020
Since March 2020 South Africa has been in lockdown. One of SCORE’s strengths lie in its emphasis on safe workplaces in an inclusive way, watch how this has helped the project adapt to the current global COVID-19 crisis.
New research: A Baseline Study on the Destination of TVET College Graduates
The research described in this report is based a tracer study which sampled completers from all 50 public TVET colleges in South Africa. The survey of 4581 TVET College graduates with a response rate of 35.2 % has revealed important insights for decision and policy makers within DHET.
See what was said at the EU Investment Month webinar which discussed results of a CBPEP-funded destination survey on TVET colleges; EU and international experiences in skills development; and post COVID-19 plans for economic and employment growth in SA.
Watch the Launch Film for SCORE in the South African Clothing Manufacturing Sector
December 1, 2019
A film capturing the launch of the SCORE programme’s as well as the partners involved, demonstrates the importance of government, employer, and employee, including unions, stakeholders in driving sustainable changes in industry.
Thought leadership: Employment growth in South Africa
March 10, 2020
Top decision-makers in government and leading thinkers in academic and NGOs gathered at a colloquium in March to debate key issues and cross-sectoral interventions to retain and grow employment in South Africa.
New research: The contribution of redistributive land reform to employment creation
June 4, 2020
Professor Ben Cousins joined other authors in a webinar on 4 June to launch and discuss new ground-breaking research on the potential of small-scale farming to promote employment generation.
New research: SALDRU-UNICEF survey results on state of SA youth well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic
June 5, 2020
Key findings are now available from a survey of South Africa’s youth that was conducted during the COVID-19 lockdown. A total of 13 282 young people aged 18 to 35 from all provinces participated.
The CBPEP supported project on the basic package of support for youth is being extended for the coming months.
The policy brief for the CBPEP supported project on the basic package of support for youth outlines a proposed programmatic approach based on research evidence and international best practice.
CBPEP, the EU-funded Capacity Building Programme for Employment Promotion, is assisting the government of South Africa to meet the key national objective of reducing unemployment, by building institutional and organisational capacity for employment promotion.
With a focus on:
Youth transitions from school to work
Support for small- and medium-size enterprises and informal sector employment
Enhancing the responsiveness of further education and skills development programmes to the needs of the labour market
