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:

3.7 million

work-seekers supported

1.2 million

opportunities enabled for work-seekers

1200

employer partners

R22,3 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.

Barriers and opportunities for the inclusive employment of youth with disabilities

RESEARCH PARTNERS

OUR PLAN FOR SCALE

In recent years, government leaders, business executives and civil society champions have been aligning around common coalitions, evidence-based solutions, and more coordinated plans of action, including South Africa’s Presidential Youth Employment Intervention. In the next decade we will leverage this momentum to achieve a growing economy and a society that works, powered by the potential of young people.

We seek to do this by:

  • Creating industry alliances to generate jobs of the future
  • Supporting businesses to adopt inclusive hiring methods
  • Partnering with business and government to reduce barriers to accessing employment
  • Creating new ways of earning in the informal economy, and
  • Shifting government spend from input-based activities like training, to outcomes-based results like work experiences and job placement.
    • We will do this by designing solutions with youth at the centre and through active leadership coalitions across our society

      The priority is to impact the 3 million engaged youth who will actively seek work over the next 5 years by contributing to the creation of more jobs and income opportunities as well as a transformed work-seeking experience. In this way they continuously build their profile and grow their earning potential – this is what we call “pathway management”. We propose delivering 1 million jobs, work experiences, and income opportunities in the coming five years for this network of 3 million youth. This will lay the building blocks to triple our impact in the following five years.

    WATCH A SHORT VIDEO ABOUT OUR PLAN FOR SCALE!

    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.