Question NW3861 to the Minister of Social Development

Reply:

a) The opportunities that the Department will roll out include investing in the capacities of our people and the support of the sustainable livelihood’s interventions in all nine provinces. In celebrating social development Month in October, the department promote procurement from community-based entities especially from women and youth that can participate in the value chain of delivering social development services, e.g. SRD uniforms for kids are sourced from the local cooperatives) These are used as part of empowerment and providing them with opportunities to ensure that they access economic empowerment. All these creates a market for the local producing cooperatives and SMMEs, thereby fostering local economic development through the income generated from the departmental funding.

The department also create opportunities through developing appropriate interventions at Individual, Household and Community level, as support for them through

• • Further education and training particularly for youth and women
  • Linkage with Public employment programs (CWP/EPWP)/Private.

• • Facilitating the establishment of Co-operatives and SMME (small &medium enterprises).

b) The department through provinces partners with several stakeholders and NPOs to provide sustainable livelihoods to vulnerable and poor individuals and households.

Over the next 3 years the social development portfolio, DSD, SASSA and NDA will be partnering with local NPOs, FINMARK Trust, that has received donor funds from one of the world largest development agencies, BRAC, to pilot the linking of child support grant caregivers to sustainable livelihoods.

The pilots will be conducted in three provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Free State. This will give a good break down of rural, peri-urban and urban sites.

The pilot phase is lengthy, however the goal is to not only determine feasibility of the project, but to attempt to produce a sustainable programme that is adequately quantified and that can be considered for scaling up.

Two sites have been identified in each province, with a SASSA local office being the focal point. Engagements were held with the local leadership in most of the provinces and the project has been well received. Project managers have been appointed and are expected to assume duty soon. The appointment of firms to do market and livelihood assessments are also in an advance stage.

In addition, the Department is entering into a partnership with the UNDP on the following:

• • To establish, support and strengthen an integrated Social Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in South Africa
  • To support government to provide a robust, coherent and harmonised enabling environment for social enterprises to thrive, including strengthening coordination, partnership, policy, research, advocacy and resource mobilization; and
  • To promote a culture of social entrepreneurship through capacity development

It is planned that through this partnership we will further the objective of linking beneficiaries of grants with sustainable opportunities to sustain their livelihoods.