SA Youth connects young people to work and employers to a pool of entry level talent.
Are you a work-seeker?
OUR IMPACT
Our vision is to enable a growing economy and a society that works, powered by the potential of young people. We measure our success by the impact we make on the lives of the young women and men of South Africa:
4.6 million
work-seekers supported
2 million+
opportunities enabled for work-seekers
3,000+
employer partners
R45.2 billion
income for youth
HARAMBEE RESEARCH PROJECTS
This RCT assesses the impact of signaling information about workseekers’ skills on their beliefs about themselves and the labour market, their job searching behaviour, employer responses to their applications, and ultimately their labour market outcomes.
This study highlights the effects of youth employability programmes on young people struggling to access the labour market.
This study tests the relevance of professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn to work-seekers in emerging economies—specifically, unemployed youth in South Africa
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator : A Model for Reducing Unemployment in South Africa is the first Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Case featuring a South African social enterprise.
This case study highlights how Harambee and the South African government created SA Youth, a national platform linking millions of young people to jobs. It showcases how data-driven, inclusive, and collaborative reforms are transforming youth employment systems.
RESEARCH PARTNERS
SHIFTING THE NEEDLE OF SOUTH AFRICA’S
SYSTEMIC YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
Despite South Africa’s economy growing over the past 17 years, and the youth population growing too, Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) data shows there are fewer young people employed now than there were in 2008. While employment for older cohorts of workers has risen with GDP, the same has not been true for youth, who require a more facilitated transition.
Source: QLFS 2008Q1-2025Q1, Nova analysis
In addition to GDP growth, a bold system-wide approach is needed to shift the needle on youth unemployment, in which all actors work together in a coordinated and urgent manner.
Harambee has identified five strategic levers which – if applied at scale – could reverse the youth unemployment crisis:
- Accelerate inclusive hiring of youth in the private sector which entails leveraging proven work readiness programmes, inclusive hiring solutions, and incentives to further break down barriers such as transport and data costs.
- Unlock youth jobs in ‘sunrise sectors’ which maximises the opportunity for youth in sectors with the highest potential for both growth and youth labour absorption. These include global business services (GBS), digital, tourism and the green economy.
- Unlock self-employment and enterprise because we know self-employment can be a viable long-term earnings model for youth to keep them active in the labour market. South Africa’s informal economy is under-developed relative to its economic profile and size, so we need strategies that legitimise informal entrepreneurship and make it safer and more accessible to increase young people’s earnings.
4. Sustain public employment programmes that keep youth engaged. We need to manage these programmes more equitably to reduce the number of youth unemployed and decrease the number of young people that have never worked.
5. Continue to improve pathway management and demand-led skilling, which ensures that young people can actively engage in the labour market, and have visibility of and access to the skills, experience and opportunities to benefit meaningfully from economic activity and growth. This is enabled through the SA Youth Platform, a multi-sided, multi-channel network platform that helps keep young people engaged during long unemployment periods, reduces their costs of work-seeking (by making opportunities accessible digitally on a zero-rated platform) and uses geospatial matching to recommend jobs based on skills, experience, and location.
Each of these strategies is vital and leverages a decade of impact and evidence. By utilising them collectively, we can begin shifting the dial on the crisis of youth unemployment in South Africa.
STORIES OF IMPACT
We partnered with the Department of Basic Education to help over 1.3 million young people to apply (data-free) for positions as school and general assistants at more than 23,000 schools across South Africa – in just 21 days!
Harambee is supporting the automotive industry, a significant contributor to the economy in South Africa, to double employment by 2035 – unlocking potential through multi-stakeholder collaborations.
Less than 5% of plumbers in South Africa are women. We are working to change that. Harambee is partnering with the Institute of Plumbers South Africa (IOPSA), BluLever Education and National Business Initiative (NBI) to unlock opportunities in the plumbing trade and pilot programmes with a focus on young women.