Social Employment Fund wins global Prosperity Catalyst Award

SA's Social Employment Fund (SEF) — a programme that addresses unemployment by facilitating part-time work in community projects that promote the common good — has won the Prosperity Catalyst Award at the 2024 Bay Urban Visioning Awards in Bilbao, Spain.

The Bay Awards celebrate pioneering initiatives from across the globe that present solutions to pressing urban challenges. It comprises five awards categories; the Prosperity Catalyst category recognises projects “that have succeeded in generating prosperity in their communities, as well as fostering wealth redistribution and social and territorial cohesion”.

Selected as the winner from more than 100 entries worldwide, the SEF has demonstrated the profound impact of supporting community-based projects that create social value, even in the absence of market value.

With the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) at its helm as fund manager, the SEF has created 140,000 jobs across more than 6,000 sites nationwide since its inception in 2021.

The SEF, part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus programme under the auspices of the department of trade, industry & competition, has partnered with 37 civil society organisations and 1,100 community partners.

These collaborations have spread work opportunities across the country in areas such as urban transformation, placemaking and greening, early childhood development, combating gender-based violence and education, to name a few.

The SEF was one of three finalists in the Prosperity Catalyst Award category, alongside Places for London, UK, and Paths to Prosperity in Buffalo, USA.

“The SEF stood out for us as it supported local actors and organisations to unlock social value while increasing the quality of life, access to work and levels of education for its participants and beneficiaries. It has demonstrated its contribution to addressing inequality, relieving poverty and restoring natural systems to build resilience and sustainability,” says Larry Lye Hock Ng, jury member for The Bay Awards.

"[The SEF] has the capacity to inspire other cities and communities worldwide to serve as prosperity catalysts and has proven through its programme that creating prosperity can also serve the common good.”

Dr Kate Philip, programme lead on the Presidential Employment Stimulus, says: “Unemployment makes people feel as if they have no value to add to society. But even when labour has no market value, it has — and can create — social value. Societies need instruments to unlock that value, to use labour as a resource for development. The SEF is such an instrument.”

The SEF supports “work for the common good” in communities — employing people to address a wide range of locally identified community needs. In the process, participants gain self-esteem, work experience and various skills, and real community development impacts are evident.

The SEF encourages and supports participants to transition from the programme into self-employment, further their studies or use the work experience gained to facilitate their access to employment in the wider labour market.

“[This award] means a lot to everyone who has turned the idea of social employment into reality and has seen the impacts on participants and communities,” says Bhavanesh Parbhoo, SEF programme lead at the IDC.

This article was sponsored by the Industrial Development Corporation.