DAFF News

African Agricultural Development Programme (AADP)

South Africa experienced an increased demand by African countries for technical assistance support in the field of agriculture. A technical assistance programme (TAP) called the African Agricultural Development Programme (AADP) was established as a contribution towards regional stability and the sustainable development of the economies of African countries. The TAP is considered to be an important enabler for Southern African Development Countries’ (SADC) regional development with potential long-term benefits for South Africa.

A report on intra-African agricultural trade to promote trade as part of the AADP is being finalised. The department has completed desktop studies for selected countries, which will be visited in order to supplement the information for compiling the report. Negotiation positions for ongoing negotiations within the SADC, World Trade Organisation (WTO), Southern African Customs Union (SACU), Mercosur and the TDCA review are being developed as the negotiations proceed.

Through the assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) technical co-operation support, the department has co-ordinated the development of a national medium-term investment programme (NMTIP) as a framework for implementation of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) at national level. Bankable investment project profiles have been developed to focus national efforts and actions onto specific areas of project development and funding.

During 2007 we will continue our close relationship with the FAO and the FAO Africa Regional Office to ensure our contribution to a prosperous Africa and a better world.

DAFF Youth News

Plenty of opportunities for young people

There is a critical need to support young people in disadvantaged rural areas, and LandCare provides such opportunities.

Youth in South Africa are the most targeted generation since the future of the country relies on them. LandCare as a programme has realized the need for capacitating and involving youth in the activities since the future of the natural resources lies in their capable hands. The programme has initiated the sub programmes such as the junior LandCare in and out of school and also the involvement of the young adults in the implementation of the projects in the rural communities. Training is also offered that are accredited and non accredited to the youth and those training also improved the knowledge and the ability to work as young people and also to encourage youth to take part in agriculture as a whole. The main aim of involving young people in the projects is to encourage them to be young agricultural entrepreneurs since they have a raw deal in the labour market and the financial crisis and it’s under math has unusual big effects on their livelihood.

Junior LandCare is part of the LandCare programme themes designed to empower the South African youth particularly disadvantaged youth in rural areas. Junior LandCare seeks to address issues of youth unemployment, skills development, school nutrition and environmental Education. It is divided in to two legs which are Junior LandCare in-school and Junior LandCare out of school.

HOW JUNIOR LANDCARE CAN HELP OUT OF SCHOOL SOUTH AFRICAN YOUTH?

In the financial year 2012/13 the LandCare Programme through junior LandCare has managed to create 1211 number of jobs for the youth of South Africa especially in rural areas trough the implementation of different labour intensive LandCare Projects such as gabion construction, wetland rehabilitation, Fencing construction, invasive alien species removal and construction of water reticulation points in the Provinces. Junior LandCare also managed to transfer skills to 12280 number of youth through different trainings such as chain saw operation, gabion structure construction, project management, financial management , health and safety and many others conducted by credible service providers in a project level. These trainings have help a number of young people to secure jobs and some of them have become services providers in different departments.

HOW JUNIOR LANDCARE CAN HELP IN- SCHOOL SOUTH AFRICAN YOUTH?

Junior LandCare has managed to create 100 number of school gardens and provide jojo tanks and water reticulation points in South African school, to help school to deal with problems of kind’s malnutrition and to assist the school feeding scheem. Most of school particularly in rural areas have managed to assist poor kids by providing them with vegetable to cook at home and buy school uniform for poor kids by money acquired through the sale of vegetable to the community. Junior LandCare also contributes to youth in-school by taking them to different camps to learn about environmental issues and how they can change or contribute positively to their own environment. This also encourages young people to take initiatives about issues that affect and to take a lead.

HOW CAN I BE PART OF JUNIOR LANDCARE?

Junior LandCare it based on volunteerism, where youth can come together and identify project need in their community that is based on natural resource management and through the help of the provincial LandCare coordinators develop a business plan, requesting financial assistant from the LandCare secretariat in the Department Of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

CONTACT DETAILS:

Director: Land use and Soil management

Tell: 012 319 7685

E-maiL:DLUSM@daff.gov.za

SA News

Doctor Khumalo Youth Upliftment Through Sports

DOCTOR KHUMALO YOUTH UPLIFTMENT ACADEMY will recruit and train players from disadvantaged backgrounds but also develop the players other skills through education and a variety of training and community initiatives. The provision of proper resources for children to play is essential in creating opportunities for children’s holistic development. Coupled with training programmes for educators and community members who help to teach and support the development of children through play, we can immediately start to minimize the vulnerability of children.

Providing the basis of sports for development, and examining how the introduction of extensive community development in the rural and previously disadvantage communities can positively affect the development of sports, and help establish more poverty alleviation programs. Examine how the introduction of sports development and awareness, preservation and education and established partnerships amongst; communities, NGO’s, Government, Schools, Traditional Leaders, Businesses, Institutions and Individual on grassroots level, can bring sustainability to platforms for information sharing, exchange programs, ongoing youth development projects and partnership campaigns, can assist in the sustainable community and economic development for our continent Africa through the development of sports.

OUR MAIN OBJECTIVE is to use sport as a vehicle for the development of social skills, academic support, building self-esteem and a sense of teaming amongst high school learners from marginalised communities in South Africa.

Sports development officers aim to provide opportunities for participation in sport for all sections of the community. They distribute information and organise sport-related projects, classes, programmes, coaching, club development and training. They target those who want to take part for fun as well as those who are interested in competing at all levels, from local to national and international.

For more information you contact  MARKETING MANAGER / COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Lisa Viola - +27 84 571 7141  OR e-mail: lisa@healingafricafoundation.org

SA News

 National Youth Development Agency

The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) is a South African-based agency established primarily to tackle challenges that the nation’s youth are faced with. 

The NYDA was established by an Act of parliament, Act no 54 of 2008. The institution was established to be a single, unitary structure, established to address youth development issues at National, Provincial and Local government level. 

The existence of the NYDA should be located within the broad context of South Africa’s development dynamics. Similar to many developing countries, South Africa has a large population of youth, those between the ages 14-35 represent 42% of the total population. Given the youthful nature of the South African population much of the socio-economic challenges faced by the nation, i.e. poverty, inequality and joblessness, poor health, etc, are borne by the youth. The gravity of challenges South Africa is faced with, require multi-pronged efforts, that simultaneously promote the development of sustainable livelihoods, reduce poverty, inequality and prioritise the development of policies which create an enabling environment for youth development.

The NYDA plays a leading role in ensuring that all major stakeholder’s, i.e government, the private sector and civil society, prioritise youth development and contribute towards identifying and implementing lasting solutions which address youth development challenges.

 

Furthermore, the NYDA designs and implements programmes aimed at improving the lives and opportunities available to youth. These programmes could be clustered as follows:

At an individual level (Micro level), the NYDA provides direct services to youth in the form of information-provision, career guidance services, mentorship, skills development and training, entrepreneurial development and support, health awareness programmes and involvement in sport.

At a Community level (Meso Level), the NYDA encourages young people to be catalysts for change in their communities through involvement in community development activities, social cohesion activities, national youth service programmes and dialogues.

At a Provincial and National level (Macro Level), through its policy development, partnerships and research programmes, the NYDA facilitates the participation of youth in developing key policy inputs which shape the socio-economic landscape of South Africa.

 

The National Youth Development Agency derives its mandate from legislative frameworks such as the NYDA Act (54 of 2008), the National Youth Policy (2009-2014) and the draft Integrated Youth Development Strategy as adopted by the Youth Convention of 2006. The NYDA activities could be summarised as follows:

a) Lobby and advocate for integration and mainstreaming of youth development in all spheres of government, private sector and civil society

b) Initiate, implement, facilitate and co-ordinate youth development programmes

c) Monitor and evaluate youth development interventions across the board and Mobilise youth for active participation in civil society engagements

 

VISION

 

To be a Credible and Capable Development Agency for South Africa's Youth

 

MISSION

• To Mainstream youth issues into society and
• To facilitate youth development with all sectors of society

VALUES

• Excellence
• Respect
• Integrity and Honesty
• Care
• Punctuality and timeliness

 

NYDA’s New Focus

The National Youth Development Agency has shifted its core business primarily away from Enterprise Finance towards Education and Skills Development. The fundamental change in this area of development is the change from loan provision to grant provision for young entrepreneurs. The NYDA no longer offers loan finance to young entrepreneurs, but instead grant finance in the form of micro-finance grants for survivalist youth entrepreneurship and co-operative grants for greater participation of youth in the co-operatives sector.

 

The objective of the Grant Programme is to provide young entrepreneurs an opportunity to access both the financial and non-financial business development support to establish their survivalist businesses. The programme focusses on youth entrepreneurs who are just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential but are not yet fully developed. The grant finance starts from R1 000 to a maximum of R100 000 for any individual or youth co-operative. For more information on this click here.

 

The new plan of the NYDA therefore focusses on tailor-made interventions for job preparedness and placement, a focus on scholarship provision for those who excel in schools, the scaling up of the YouthBuild Programme for out-of-school youth, the increase of second chance opportunities for matriculants and the intensification of our highly successful career guidance programme. The NYDA continues with efforts directed at economic participation offering a range of products, programmes and services to young entrepreneurs in need, albeit as a secondary focus.

SA News

Isivande Women’s Fund (IWF)

Isivande Women's Fund is an exclusive fund that aims to accelerate women's economic empowerment by providing more affordable, usable and responsive finance than is currently available. 

The IWF assists with support services to enhance the success of businesses. 

It pursues deals involving start-up funding, business expansion, business rehabilitation, franchising and bridging finance.

The Fund is managed by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) on behalf of the dti through a development fund manager.

IDF Managers is an SME financier aimed at supporting the creation of self-sustaining black and women owned businesses in South Africa by providing primarily financial and non-financial support to our investee companies.

Fund Criteria

The women enterprises have to meet the following criteria:

• At least 6 months in operation;
• Requires early stage, expansions and growth capital;
• 50% plus one share owned and managed by women;
• Have potential for growth and commercial sustainability; and
• Improved social impact in the form of job creation.

Eligible business plans requiring funding of R30,000 to R2 million are invited to submit their applications for review by the IDF Managers.

Applications to the Isivande Women's Fund should be made through http://www.idf.co.za or call +27 (11) 772 7910.

Application forms can be downloaded from www.idf.co.za

SA News

National Rural Youth Service Corps programme

The National Rural Youth Service Corps (Narysec) is a youth skills development and employment programme.  It is the  youth fagship programme of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform which also forms part of the CRDP.

It also provides character building programmes, soft and hard skills training and dispatch the youth to rural areas to undertake various rural infrastructure and other development projects. It transforms youth from rural areas, from being job seekers to become job creators in their own right, breaking the vicious cycle of social grants dependency.

In May 2013 some 13 000 participants in the Narysec programme were at various stages of their training as development agents. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) has partnered with the Agricultural Research Council to train 900 agri-paraprofessionals in smallholder livestock and dairy production, and 750 more in vegetable gardening and soil sampling. The Department has invested over R631 million in programmes to train and deploy rural youth.

A further 400 youth have received practical training in construction by Murray and Roberts. This is part of the collaboration with the private sector. Youth have also participated in construction projects in Worcester (housing construction), Beaufort-West (constructing a youth hub), and Limpopo (brick making and paving).

Source: Minister Gugile Nkwinti: Rural Development and Land Reform Dept Budget Vote 2013/14

Background

The objectives of Narysec are to:

• train youth through specifically developed programmes linked to community needs in rural areas
• develop youth with multidisciplinary skills through civic education
• capacitate youth in retaining knowledge and technical skills acquired during training
• increase the number of rural communities receiving support in their self-development through the CRDP.

The programme has been specifically designed as part of the National Youth Service and focuses on aspects of discipline, patriotism and service delivery in rural communities.

Recruitment is done through advertisements and selection by community structures.  Narysec participants are expected to stay in the programme for 48 months following their recruitment from rural communities. The frst two years of the programme is focusing on skills development while the latter two years focus on incubation of enterprises.

National Defence Force training

A total of 1 047 youth graduated at 3 South African Infantry Battalion in Kimberley on 29 May 2013.

The Department of Defence has successfully instituted a National Youth Service (NYS) training programme since January 2011 in collaboration with participating state departments.

A total of more than 5 000 youth from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR), and 500 from the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government have participated in the DOD NYS programmes up to May 2013.

The curriculum of the DOD NYS programme provides subjects such as drill, physical training, leadership, civic education, life skills, youth regeneration, diversity management, environmental management, public service induction, communication and social responsibility.

The programme is focused on character building in order to deliver youth who have developed self-discipline, are proud South Africans and can take the lead in their communities. No combat skills are developed and the DOD NYS programme is thus non-military training.

Given the limited spare capacity of the SA Army, SA Navy and the SA Military Health Service to present and support the broader NYS programme, only a small number of youth may have been reached, but significant citizen building is offered. Each of these youths will have a significant impact on the socio-economical upliftment of their communities.

On conclusion of the DOD NYS programme, the participants return to their own departments to continue with their youth service programme.

Rural Development and Land Reform training

The skills development provided by DRDLR's National Youth Service Corps (NARYSEC) is in the domains of construction, agriculture, disaster mitigation, office management,
basic administrative skills, project administration and enterprise development. Construction in rural areas has been identified as an immediate focus area of skills development.

The skills-development phase will be followed by the community-service phase, where the youth will apply their newly acquired skills in rural communities under the leadership/mentorship of the responsible department.

The final phase or exit strategy of the Narysec will be linked to the maintenance and operations activities of local and district municipalities. The strategic outcomes of the programme in the long term are expected to be:

• a decline in the level of youth unemployment in rural areas
• an increase in literacy and skills
• an increase in disposable income of youth in rural areas as a result of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities
• decreased dependence on transfers from family members working in urban areas.

On conclusion of the four year NARYSEC programme, the participants are in positions to be employed, or to contribute to the economies of their respective communities through building enterprises.

In its initial phase, it enlisted 7 958 young people between 18 and 35 years of age, with a minimum educational standard of Grade 10. They were drawn from rural wards across the country, including farms, small rural towns and some peri-urban areas.

Application forms are avialable from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR)

SA News

Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP)

Cabinet approved the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP) on 12 August 2009.

The CRDP is premised on three phases:

• Phase One, which has meeting basic human needs as its driver
• Phase Two, which has large-scale infrastructure development as its driver
• Phase Three, with the emergence of rural industrial and credit financial sectors, which is driven by small, micro and medium enterprises and village markets.

The creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods lies at the heart of the CRDP. The programme commits itself to ensuring that at least one person in each rural household is employed for a minimum period of two years.

To ensure sustainability, communal owner- ship, and effective contribution towards the overall objectives of developing rural areas, the department entered into social compacts with communities, as well as contractual relation- ships with unemployed community members.

The strategic objective of the CRDP is to facilitate integrated development and social cohesion through participatory approaches in partnership with all sectors of society.

This is done by:

1. contributing to the redistribution of 30% of the country’s agricultural land
2. improving food security of the rural poor
3. creating business opportunities
4. decongesting and rehabilitating over- crowded former homeland areas
5. expanding opportunities for rural women, youth, people with disabilities and older people.

Under the CRDP, 2 447 household food gardens have been established in the CRDP sites during 2012.

By January 2013, CRDP 2 656 beneficiaries were skilled and capacitated in technical enterprise development trade;  52  councils of stakeholders have been established as representative community forums; CRDP has been rolled out to 157 rural wards; 143 698 poor households were profiled to assess their needs; 692 km of fencing was erected in the CRDP wards; and 96 km of roads were upgraded.

The department contributed to the increased number of households with access to sanitation by 10%, 10,45%  access to electricity, 4% accesses to clean water, distributed 39 331 rainwater harvesting tanks and constructed 37 km of water pipeline in North West.

Bulk water and sanitation infrastructure have been constructed in KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape  and North West. Rain water harvesting tanks have been distributed throughout CRDP sites.

Earlier achievements

The community of Muyexe, an impoverished rural township in the Giyani District of Limpopo, reaped several benefits through the programme:

• 330 houses have been built
• boreholes have been equipped
• a water purification plant has been set up, underwritten by the Development Bank of Southern Africa
• internal water reticulation has been established
• 275 sanitation units have been provided
• a community centre with a post office, clinic, satellite police  station, drop-in centre and sports stadium have been built
• the local school was renovated and more classrooms and ablution facilities were added
• a new early childhood development centre with solar lighting was also constructed
• two village viewing areas enable the community to view major sporting events
• an I-school Africa Rural Development Programme at the secondary and primary school offers learners an opportunity to interact and forge skills in the use of new technology
• solar powered street lights are to be provided in Muyexe, Gonono and Dingamanzi.

Other communities also benefited under the programme:

• In Mkhondo in Mpumalanga,100 households were assisted with solar units. The local school was also renovated and boarding facilities were built.
• In Riemvasmaak, in the Northern Cape, 100 household gardens were established.
• In Vredesvallei in the Northern Cape, a one-hectare community garden was established; 22 livestock farmers were provided with grazing camps; a 37-km water pipeline was completed and solar lighting was provided to 100 households; two clinics have been constructed and are operational; and cattle- handling facilities and fencing have been completed.

The CRDP was extended to other communities including Schmidtsdrift in the Siyanda District, Heuningvlei in the John Taolo Gaetsewe District and Renosterberg in the Pixley Ka Seme District.
In the Ngaka Modiri Molema District, in the North West, a community of 800 people benefitted from a project in which they received 40 pregnant Bonsmara heifers to improve the quality of livestock for an enterprise development project and 12 Bonsmara bulls for breeding purposes. In addition, nine cooperatives in the district received 200 goats and seven rams. In KwaZulu-Natal, 780 households in Msinga received electricity. Bulk water infrastructure is also benefitting 720 households under the Ndaya Water Scheme.

The Malenge Irrigation Scheme in KwaZulu-Natal, consisting of 199 beneficiaries, received assistance in resuscitating production. They are producing vegetables and grain crops on 280 ha of land.

A total of 50 ha of dry beans have been planted at Nhlahleni in KwaZulu-Natal, while 200 ha of maize and sunflower production was established for 120 beneficiaries.

In the Free State, crèches, a school and clinics were built in Diyatalawa and Makholokoeng. Three hydroponic  tunnels  were  erected  for intensive tomato production in Makholokoeng. Another  success of  the  CRDP  was  the 258 vegetable gardens constructed in Mhlonto in the Eastern Cape. At least 15 of these gardens are selling to local retail shops. In Idutywa and Alice, 600 ha of maize were planted and two agri-parks were established.

The department contributed to the increased number of households with access to sanitation by 10%, 10,45% access to electricity, 4% accesses to clean water, distributed 39 331 rainwater harvesting tanks and  constructed 37 km of water pipeline in North West. Bulk water and sanitation infrastructure have been constructed in KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape and North West. Rain-water harvesting tanks have been distributed throughout CRDP sites.