Local Economic Development Community Unrest
- A Client’s projects and staff were being impacted by community unrest.
- The projects formed part of a Public Private Partnership – and elements of Local Economic Development (including Socio-Economic Development and Enterprise Development, among other components) were embedded in the Client’s contractual obligations.
- We were appointed as local economic development advisors, our project included:
- Community-based research
- Stakeholder communications and engagement
- Design of community-level interventions utilising our adapted-ABCD methodologies
- We designed and executed several Community-level interventions. These interventions were co-created with the communities and demonstrated alignment with the Community’s priorities.
Community 1 Support Initiative:
Unemployment, poverty, food insecurity and general lack of access are challenges that plague the community. Priorities identified by the community included employment opportunities for the youth and care for the elderly.
- Internship programme recruiting matriculants from the communities – providing essential opportunity for further education and workplace learning while earning a basic living. Successful interns are placed at subsidiaries within the client’s group of companies.
- “Adopt the Aged” Programme – adopting the elderly within the community by providing support to the elderly care facilities – providing daily meals, as well as other any support as and when needed.
- Business incubator to support local businesses within the community.
- Community garden to address food security.
Community 2 Support Initiative:
This community is highly politicised with a history of service delivery issues and general dissatisfaction – the general community unrest significantly affected the client’s worksite both directly and indirectly, resulting in very tense and volatile situations.
Initial engagement and negotiation with the community, resulted in the following commitments:
- Training and development opportunities for the local community.
- Formalisation of an ECD facility for the care and wellbeing of young children.
With endorsement from the provincial Department of Education and Department of Social Development – Upgrading of the school infrastructure, including the building, ablutions, and equipment.
Community Business incubation facility (in collaboration with the Department of Trade, Industry and Economic Development; and YES) for the training and development of local entrepreneurs.
Outcomes
- Community engagement strategy – including local social-investment and enterprise development initiatives.
- Integrated transformation strategy including ED and SED projects that directly influence the value chain.
- Deployment of PPP strategy ensuring compliance with agreement.
- Open and transparent communications strategy – ensuring the evasion of community unrest/protest.