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In conversation with Harambee’s Sharmi Surianarain, the Brenthurst Foundation talks through the development challenges facing Africa and some of the solutions on offer for economic growth and prosperity.

For many social enterprises, partnering with government in some way is an essential strategy for achieving impact, especially when seeking systems-level change. This study focuses on why government partnerships matter for scaled impact.

This learning brief highlights the ways in which Harambee has evolved and the extent to which it has contributed to systems change.

This learning brief provides an overview of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator’s learnings on gender inequality from nine years of work in the South African labour market.

With the mobile phone at the centre of Africa’s digital connectivity, creative entrepreneurs are leveraging technology to build the continent’s digital future.

South Africa, after three consecutive years in a humbling second place, has emerged as the number one global preferred front office CX offshore location.

Collaboration between industry stakeholders proves it’s ability to unlock jobs.

Why economic growth plans should focus on sector-level solutions.

In partnership with the private sector, national government through the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), and youth employment accelerator Harambee the BPO sector has seen growth over the past year, with a growing pipeline of interested investors.

A toolkit and case study for growing sectors inclusively.

Stop asking us to follow in the footsteps of private sector unicorns. For us, impact at scale looks very different, write two non-profit CEOs.

“What is necessary is to figure out what is effective, scaling up what works and taking a long and serious look at the interventions that aren’t working,” Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator CEO, Maryana Iskander, told Fin24 this week.

Maryana Iskander, CEO of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, participates in the Sankalp Africa Summit on Our Shared Impact Future.

The impact of COVID-19 on the South African economy is hard to overstate.

Insights > Impact is a monthly digest of the most insightful articles we’re reading. Time is scarce, so we’ve summarised the articles for you and shared our key takeaways – focussing on the pieces we found to be most relevant and actionable.

This study explores the running of the first randomised evaluation of training work-seekers to join and use online professional networking platforms.

This study seeks to build evidence, based on what is already being implemented to address the challenge of what works in fostering better employment outcomes for young people who struggle to navigate labour market pathways.

In the fight for greater gender equality and inclusion, governments, NGOs and other stakeholders are increasingly recognising the power of nudges to change human behaviour. The results are promising.

This study shows that assessing work-seekers’ skills in multiple domains, giving them the assessment results, and helping them to credibly share the results with firms increases their employment and earnings.

Maryana Iskander, CEO of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, shares her perspective around adapting to new ways of work in Episode 3 of Echo Radio’s “Where is the office?”.

As thousands of South Africans return to work from the far reaches of the country and beyond, workplace safety takes the spotlight. Anticipating this need, the Return2Work Initiative has launched a range of punchy and accessible safe back2work videos.

Harambee’s Marzanne Collins believes technology can play a significant part in solving youth unemployment.

At Harambee we are committed to keeping you safe, smart and kind. We’re producing a monthly digest of the most insightful articles on youth employment we’re reading, and have focused on the pieces we found to be most relevant and actionable. Time is scarce, so we’ve summarised the articles for you and shared our key takeaways.

Job creation at scale is best achieved in growth sectors. The digital economy continues to grow despite the current global recession, and we need to find ways to harness the opportunities this presents.

At least 3 million jobs have been lost this year and labour market participation by young adults has dropped a staggering 12 percentage points to just below 16%. If job losses persist, we will have lost a decade’s worth of job growth in only six months.

Take a deep dive into the critical roles to support growth in the digital economy, as well as the size and nature of offshoring of digital demand outside of South Africa.

At Harambee we are committed to keeping you safe, smart and kind. We’re producing a monthly digest of the most insightful articles on youth employment we’re reading, and have focused on the pieces we found to be most relevant and actionable. Time is scarce, so we’ve summarised the articles for you and shared our key takeaways.

In this edition of Breaking Barriers, we explore opportunities for digital and ICT work that are accessible to unemployed youth, and what barriers must be removed for this to be a viable solution at scale.

Across the African continent, the concept of a “side hustle” is not new. This article explores the informal ‘side’ work that young people engage in to make ends meet. Ir advocates that side hustles, given their increasing presence in lives (and economies) across the world, can no longer be relegated to the margins of institutional and regulatory systems.

Stanford Social Innovation Review includes Harambee as they share battle-tested insights that can help social enterprises increase their impact as they navigate severe crises like COVID-19.

The World Bank’s Solutions4Youth Employment (S4YE) publication featured Harambee in their recent Knowledge Brief; highlight different ways in which youth employment projects, like Harambee, are adapting their strategies and delivery models in response to COVID‒19.

At Harambee we are committed to keeping you safe, smart and kind. We’re producing a monthly digest of the most insightful articles on youth employment we’re reading, and have focused on the pieces we found to be most relevant and actionable. Time is scarce, so we’ve summarised the articles for you and shared our key takeaways.

In the COVID-19 crisis, social innovators and entrepreneurs, like Harambee, have once again shown their capacity to act as first responders, bringing affordable healthcare to those in need, protecting jobs and providing emergency relief swiftly.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with face-to-face services largely suspended, there was an unanticipated need to amplify government infrastructure through alternative channels that were accessible and affordable to its youth and other vulnerable citizens.

At Harambee we are committed to keeping you safe, smart and kind. We’re producing a monthly digest of the most insightful articles on youth employment we’re reading, and have focused on the pieces we found to be most relevant and actionable. Time is scarce, so we’ve summarised the articles for you and shared our key takeaways.

Of the three million job losses in South Africa as a result of Covid-19, two million were held by women. While the deck has always been stacked against women, Covid-19 exposes the staggering inequalities and barriers that women face in finding, and keeping, work.

Marzanne Collins is the chief information officer of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, here she talks about her love for analytics and her desire to see more women in technology.

Harambee’s Lebo Nke is featured alongside voices from leading social enterprises on how to navigate times of mass disruption.

The case for investing in women has never been more urgent. Of the 3 million job losses as a result of COVID-19 in South Africa, two-thirds are women.

At Harambee we are committed to keeping you safe, smart and kind. We’re producing a monthly digest of the most insightful articles on youth employment we’re reading, and have focused on the pieces we found to be most relevant and actionable. Time is scarce, so we’ve summarised the articles for you and shared our key takeaways.

UNICEF, UNDP, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, Future Africa at University of Pretoria, SuperSport Let’s Play, Afrika Tikkun join forces with young people to reimagine a better future post COVID-19.

Accelerated by a global health pandemic, the “future of work” has arrived unannounced and before many were ready. To the paralysis of fear, these lessons offer the balm of action backed by evidence.

Harambee recognised for embracing big data, small data, lean data, data privacy and machine learning trends to evolve around them at a rapid pace.

Harambee has partnered with the Solidarity fund on the “Citizens in Solidarity” campaign. Aimed at board-based behaviour change across all sectors of society, the campaign encourages South Africans to unite and do their part to overcome the pandemic we’re facing.

Sometimes you set your own audacious goal and sometimes your hand is forced by a once-in-a-100-year pandemic.

USAID Development Innovation Ventures showcase Harambee’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown alongside other organisations from across the world who are working hard to pivot and create impact during this global crisis.

At Harambee we are committed to keeping you safe, smart and kind. We’re producing a monthly digest of the most insightful articles on youth employment we’re reading, and have focused on the pieces we found to be most relevant and actionable. Time is scarce, so we’ve summarised the articles for you and shared our key takeaways.

Harambee Rwanda, in partnership with the Ministry of Youth and Culture, Rwanda Development Board and Kigali Employment Service Centre, launched the youth-focused Tuzatsinda campaign in April 2020.

We must act to keep young people from falling further into poverty and being permanently locked out of the economy.

South Africa’s 58% youth unemployment rate was already a crisis, even before the arrival of COVID-19.

Return2Work.co.za is an online tool to help businesses of all sizes re-open safely and legally, and to stay open.

We explore platform use in developing economies and present new data on a low-cost, successful way to teach youth how to use these platforms.

Youth on the world’s youngest continent have something to say during the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis: “Don’t just talk at us, talk with us and listen to what we need.”

A case study on Harambee’s collaboration with Funzi, mentioning the partnership as one of the success factors in giving South Africa a head start on addressing misinformation at a community level.

Fast Company cites innovation of Harambee’s free platform for youth, which is now also supporting response efforts for COVID-19.

COVID-19: Adapt and Thrive, a data-lite, mobile education program that launched this week in South Africa will be scaled across the continent by the United Nations.

What does the COVID-19 lockdown mean for social enterprises that usually work directly with vulnerable people and rely on face-to-face communication?

Last week, Harambee launched our top 10 actions in response to COVID-19 guided by three simple rules to Be Safe, Be Smart, Be Kind. In 5 days, we learned from 5 surprises:

As the global response to COVID-19 accelerates, Harambee is being guided by the simple rules of Be Safe, Be Smart, Be Kind and here are 10 actions we are taking.

Even with an increased focus on legislation and diversity in the workplace, there are still significant differences in women’s and men’s ability to access economic opportunities.

The government is listening to the experts on how to better prepare young people for the job market.

Tracey Swart, highly respected business leader with more than 20 years of experience, has joined Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator to assume leadership of the KZN business development team.

We urgently need new ways of moving young people along non-linear, zig-zagging and increasingly short-term journeys from school to work. 

The familiar promise of more – more schooling, more skills, more training – no longer leads to more opportunity for South Africa’s youth.

South Africa has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world.

Conventional wisdom assumes that if a young person can just get a first job, they will stay in work. Recent research shows this…
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‘If you can just get more skills, you’ll have a leg up on opportunity.’ This familiar promise is not holding true for a…
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The employment conditions in South Africa are bleak. So bleak, in fact, that there’s an overall unemployment rate of 27%. That rate hits…
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In 2016, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner shot videos like this to present his company’s ambitious vision for a global “Economic Graph” mapping every worker, company,…
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The road to impact at scale is a nonlinear, complicated one! This just released report from Scaling Pathways, a partnership between the Skoll Foundation, USAID,…
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National Women’s Day (9 August) celebrates the courageous women of 1956 who fought for equality and freedom in South Africa. While progress has …

Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and LGT Venture Philanthropy have entered into a partnership that will support Harambee’s …

In the nascent impact bonds market, employment is one of the most popular sectors, representing nearly a third of the deals contracted globally. After…
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Unemployment has been declared a national crisis in South Africa. Half of the countries youth are unemployed. Can entrepreneurship provide the answer? The…
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The numbers released last month by Stats SA remind us that we have an unemployment crisis in South Africa, especially among youngsters. More…
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In celebrating South Africa’s visionary companies and leaders committed to business as a force for good, Harambee received the 2019 Conscious Companies award…
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It’s the same story time after time. Employers report not being able to find the right talent because of a lack of skills…
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At 54%, South Africa has the highest youth unemployment rate in the world. At the forefront of this battle is Harambee Youth Employment…
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After leaving school in 2006 Delvia Mbalati spent the next 12 years looking for a job. Her search took her from her village in…
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“One language is poverty,” Annah told us. “Two languages is wealth,” she said, breaking into a smile. For a young woman who has…
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The Skoll Foundation announced today that Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator has received the 2019 Skoll Award…

Becoming an employer of choice is not only for large companies and corporations, nor is it as unattainable as you might…

The Premier’s Service Excellence Awards that took place on 28 February 2019 recognise dynamic, high impact, responsive…

We took a peek at the ITU’s (International Telecommunication Union – an agency of the UN) comparative price basket for a…

Strange but true; there’s a demand in South African for butchers. This scarcity is in part driven by the high cost of a year-long…

Momentum around South Africa’s outsourcing sector continues in 2019, with that country’s BPO stakeholders charging…

It’s an overcast winter morning in Amsterdam and journalists from around the world are being herded into the Google…

Happy New Year from Harambee! As we gear up for the year ahead, we thank you for being on the journey of scale-up with us…

Key stakeholders in SA’s digital industries have partnered to create employment for youths. The organisations include…

The summit, Accelerating Inclusive Youth Employment, which was hosted by Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator at…

In a special message delivered on his behalf at the Accelerating Inclusive Youth Employment conference in Cape Town on…

These seven insights are drawn from Breaking Barriers, a quarterly analysis that draws on data gained from our engagement…

In April, the annual Skoll World Forum brought together social entrepreneurs from around the world to discuss topics…

On 25 July, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator was one of only two organisations featured on stage at the Google…

“We shifted our processes to focus on assessments that include – not exclude – and worked with employers to change their…