Umsobomvu Youth Fund: briefing

Meeting report

JOINT MONITORING COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN, YOUTH AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
28 February 2003
UMSOBOMVU YOUTH FUND: BRIEFING

Chairperson: Ms H Bogopane (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Umsobomvu Youth Fund Detailed Project Report (February 2003)
Presentation by Umsobomvu

SUMMARY
Umsobomvu Youth Fund briefed the Committee on its background, main activities and location, the Fund's capacity and their plans for the future. Their target group was largely the unemployed, with a focus on the rural areas. Members were concerned that the Fund appeared to concentrate on the development of youth who had completed their tertiary education and then to a lesser extent those who had completed their twelve years of schooling. Another concern was whether there was a duplication of functions between the UYF and the National Youth Commission.

MINUTES
Umsobomvu Youth Fund presentation
Mr Malose Kekana: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF) touched on the UYF's historical background and the challenges facing the youth of South Africa. In the presentation Mr Kekana pointed out that their target group was largely the unemployed and they focused on the rural areas. This was particularly in line with the statistics household survey that reflected a large percentage of the unemployed in South Africa as being the youth. He added that unemployed youth was made up of a majority of Africans, mostly women.

Skills Development and Transfer Projects
Mr Kekana said most of these projects entailed youth service and "school to work" projects which included bridging programmes and internship services.

Access to information and counselling
Mr Kekana referred to UYF activities to enable youth to gain access to information and counselling:
UYF had established youth lines and a youth portal (website). The latter was not a priority because less than 4% of the youth are able to make use of it. Twelve of the target amount of fifteen youth advisory centres are operational. The Port Shepstone and Empangeni youth advisory centre has satellite offices and community youth service projects which focus on youth around the community and identifies bridging programmes for unemployed youth graduates.

Mr Kekana highlighted the Youth Card initiative. He explained that this card was not going to create jobs but it would enable youth to receive discounts and enable UYF to keep track of the youth, where they were living, what they were doing, and how to contact them. Youth could give the Fund their details if they wanted to obtain the card.

Youth Entrepreneurship
Mr Kekana explained that the youth entrepreneurship involved enterprise funding, business development services and support for micro finance projects facilitated by UYF. The UYF contract the implementation of projects to service providers (Organisation Development Providers). He notes that the UYF are bound by the Public Finance Management Act.

UYF needed to have creative ideas about how NGOs and CBOs could bolster the project. He then delved into the strategic plans and mechanisms they had developed and put in place to meet the challenge.

Three Phases of the UYF
The first phase was necessary to put in place the necessary infrastructure, risk management policy, to undertake the implementation of a project tracking system, using case management systems and by recruiting the necessary management.

He said the second phase involved fostering the necessary integration in the period of the years 2003 - 2005. He explained that UYF would cease to exist if they did not link up with all projects and activities taking place. Tapping into interrelated development plans was their way of laying a meaningful foundation and entering the economic mainstream. It was imperative to forge an integration strategy with local government. This did not mean that they would subject themselves to local government and provincial government bureaucracy but UYF could rely on public works, for example, to give them tenders.

The third phase had to do with scale. Mr Kekana said that for UYF to make a meaningful change they needed to talk about bold figures. He felt that the fund would be irrelevant unless it could grow on a larger scale. What concerned him was that 50% of employed youth were earning less than R500 per month, hence the challenge for them was vast. He was concerned how the UYF would grow to scale.

In closing Mr Kekana highlighted the challenges UYF faced. He was concerned about communication, capacity on the ground and capacity to make meaningful results. Mr Kekana pointed out that the initiatives were not labour substitution but needed projects to protect the youth. By participating in some of these projects young people earned only R20 a day to cover their basic needs and transport. The challenge for UYF was how they could create hope without becoming unrealistic. UYF could only refer young people to service providers. They did, however, have the right to an audit at any point to verify what the application of the fund, as part of their risk management and monitoring.

Discussion
A Member asked if the UYF was not a duplication of the National Youth Commission (NYC) in terms of is functions.

Mr Kekana said they had an agreement with the NYC with respect to their functions. The NYC would engage in policy development and the UYF in its facilitation and monitoring implementation. They would then feed their experience to the NYC in order to influence further policy development. This way you would not have the NYC and the UYF being both the player and the referee.

Ms Rajbally (Minority Front) asked if UYF had considered training youth in taking care of the community against violence.

A Member asked if the UYF worked with youth with disabilities.

Mr Kekana said they had an inclusive approach when dealing with young people with disabilities. The approach included a minimum of 4% disabled persons in their projects. Effective practices for including young people with disabilities were still being researched.

Mr S Dithebe (ANC) pointed out that in view of the level of education in South Africa, and in terms of the demographics, the UYF should not work alone. Rather, they should work with other organisations to ensure that the overall population index is line with the United Nations recommendations and their own internal targets. He asked what the UYF was doing to ensure that South African youth eventually got twelve years of schooling, and if there were any specific projects to bridge that gap.

Mr Kekana acknowledged that the majority of young people were unemployed and that there was a need to deal with issues of education in order to deal conclusively with unemployment. There was a correlation between the two issues. He explained that their youth services programme covered life skills and that included education, learning and social skills. He further explained that due to the low level of comprehension even at matriculation level, the UYF had contributed to SAQA life skills and were currently involved in public service internship programs.

Mr L Ndzimande (ANC) said he was stuck in understanding the Funds mandate. He wanted to know whether the Fund regarded itself as a grant maker or a funder.

Mr Kekana in response said that their business strategy was to conceptualise and design, then to outsource to a service provider. They were able to provide the capacity in line with effective practices.

In closing, Mr Kekana said it was critical for this country to have a multicultural, multi-political lobby front for young people.

The meeting was adjourned.