STAKEHOLDERS COMMIT TO LIVELIHOOD REFORM

By Nonhlakanipho Masola.

• ⁠The Department of Social Development has proactively taken steps to identify sustainable strategies to help social grant beneficiaries and vulnerable communities move onto the path of sustainable livelihoods.
• A three-day strategic engagement saw stakeholders from government, civil society, and development partners explore how best to move the department’s Generating Better Livelihoods project to a national scale.
• At the end of the process, the participants set out a comprehensive roadmap to move from planning to execution.

The Department of Social Development’s three-day strategic engagement on the Generating Better Livelihoods project concluded today with powerful insights, practical recommendations, and a clear roadmap for implementation.

Held in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, the session brought together key stakeholders from government, civil society, and development partners to reflect on sustainable strategies to tackle poverty, unemployment, and economic exclusion, particularly among grant recipients and vulnerable communities.

Today, 31 July 2025, marked a pivotal moment. Four commissions presented their findings after two days of field visits and intense strategic discussions. Their proposals, grounded in community realities and institutional experience, aim to shift the livelihoods agenda from pilot projects to embedded, scalable solutions.

The Generating Better Livelihoods project seeks to help social grant beneficiaries move out of dependency into a position where they have sustainable livelihoods.

The message driving the strategic engagement was that in the areas where they had been piloted, the projects had shown potential in solving the poverty eradication puzzle for South Africans.

The basis of the project was to identify ways to generate better livelihoods, not just in creating jobs but in creating sustainable, dignified, and empowering ways of living, particularly in a world that is undergoing rapid change technologically, environmentally, and economically.

The four commissions looked at project targets and scaling; partnerships and stakeholder mobilisation, aligning policy and funding; and monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

The first commission report, presented by the National Development Agency’s Lesedi Piki, emphasised the need to scale up the Generating Better Livelihoods project nationally within the next three to five years.

The commission identified bottlenecks such as limited staffing, disjointed tools, and poor coordination.

Proposed solutions include hiring additional linkage facilitators, standardising operational templates, involving community development practitioners, and activating local structures like War on Poverty committees.

Commission 2, presented by the Department of Social Development’s Gerald Mahlangu, recognised the importance of collaboration.

This commission advocated for stronger intergovernmental and civil society partnerships, with recommendations including the formalising of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), establishing joint planning forums, and enhancing communication to improve accountability and ownership at the community level.

The third commission, presented by the department’s Lydia Maredi, tackled the urgent need for policy and funding alignment.

They called for the fast-tracking of the National Community Development Policy, integration of digital platforms, mobilising technical support, and defining a clear and costed service package to support livelihoods at scale.

Commission 4, presented by Mondli Mbhele, Director: Food & Nutrition Security Coordination at the Department of Social Development, proposed the finalisation of the Generating Better Livelihoods project’s Theory of Change, the rollout of a unified management information system, and an improved integration of government data platforms to enable real-time tracking and adaptive management.

Charting the way forward, the Director for Sustainable Livelihoods in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Development, Zamo Mchunu, outlined a comprehensive roadmap to move from planning to execution.

The plan, anchored in coordination, digital integration, and long-term sustainability, includes:

•⁠ ⁠Clarifying roles across all levels of government to avoid duplication and improve coordination starting in August 2025.
•⁠ ⁠Institutionalising the Generating Better Livelihoods project within government systems to ensure it is not treated as a temporary intervention.
•⁠ ⁠Mobilising resources, including a costed funding and staffing plan, by Q3 2025.
•⁠ ⁠Building human resource capacity through targeted training and deployment of community development practitioners and facilitators from Q4 2025.
•⁠ ⁠Activating local structures such as community work programmes and ward committees for community-led implementation starting September 2025.
•⁠ ⁠Standardising tools and templates for consistent delivery across all partners by October 2025.
•⁠ ⁠Strengthening community engagement through enhanced project socialisation using the District Development and War on Poverty models.
•⁠ ⁠Finalising a shared Theory of Change to guide implementation, as well as monitoring and evaluation by October 2025.
•⁠ ⁠Embedding digital transformation into all future interventions.
•⁠ ⁠Establishing a national steering committee by October 2025 to ensure strategic alignment and oversight.
•⁠ ⁠Drafting a sustainability roadmap to secure the future of the Generating Better Livelihoods project by December 2025.
•⁠ ⁠Fast-tracking policy approvals, particularly the long-awaited National Community Development Policy, by January 2026.
•⁠ ⁠Integrating data systems with a central management information system framework to be completed by January 2026.
•⁠ ⁠Facilitating learning and replication of successful models across provinces, with a national learning agenda in place by Q1 2026.

As the session concluded, it was clear that all involved in the strategic engagement are not only aligned in vision but in commitment to ensuring that South Africa’s poor and vulnerable are equipped with the tools, support, and opportunities to build sustainable livelihoods.