The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Productivity SA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on productivity and employment promotion in South Africa.
With South Africa’s unemployment rate sitting perilously at 29%, the MOU is a partnership to support the 2018 Presidential Job Summit commitment to build more inclusive and cooperative workplace engagements between workers and management to solve workplace problems.
Productivity SA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mothunye Mothiba, in a statement said the goal of the partnership is to promote a productivity and entrepreneurship culture and consciousness to create decent employment and sustainable enterprises.
“The MOU will result in interventions within a host of South African companies. The programmes will be implemented in these companies to enhance productivity and operational efficiency of enterprises, with a focus on Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) and Cooperatives to adopt world-class productivity enhancement practices,” reads the statement.
Mothiba said SMMEs are targeted because of their tremendous potential to make an impact on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through job creation, their business practices and the sectors in which they operate.
“The ILO’s global Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) programme will be implemented in the companies. Through the signing of this MOU, workers who have been retrenched will be assisted to transit into other occupations and/or self-employment through re-skilling and up-skilling training,” it reads.
The programmes will be implemented in key sectors that need productivity and competitiveness enhancement assistance and the Industrial, Agriculture and Oceans Economy sectors.
ILO Director Joni Musabayana says the ILO-Productivity SA partnership hinges on the support provided to the Bargaining Council on Textile and Manufacturing, under the auspices of the Pan African Productivity Association (PAPA), of which Productivity SA is the secretariat.
The collaboration is expected to build on South Africa’s experiences in relation to the commitments made in the 2015 African Union Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Development (Ouagadougou + 10) and African Union Agenda 2063.
The partnership will further provide support to the African Union and the Regional Economic Commissions (RECs) in promoting a culture of productivity; developing a productivity and competitiveness index for Africa or for selected RECs, based on their interests, and strengthening the institutional capacity of PAPA to assist national productivity organisations.
A mapping exercise of productivity initiatives and institutions across Africa to better understand the productivity movement across Africa is also a key aspect of this partnership.