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Accenture & the Global Opportunity Youth Network

To address the exploding youth crisis, Accenture is applying the Global Opportunity Youth Network’s (GOYN’s) radical new approach in South Africa.

The future is young!

The youth crisis is global and the challenge for South Africa is very real. New thinking and frameworks are needed to open sustainable career pathways and scalable economic opportunities for our youth.

Accenture, a founding partner of the GOYN initiative, is launching the initiative’s new approach in South Africa in collaboration with anchor partner Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator.

We bring incisive local research, expert executing partners, a multi-stakeholder platform. The future is young! Join us in this important effort.

GOYN and Accenture, with multi-stakeholder inputs—YOUR INPUTS—aim to find tangible, sustainable and meaningful employment solutions and career paths for South Africa’s youth. No more skill and job traps.

What’s different about GOYN’s approach

GOYN directly addresses what is not working. There’s lots going on, but many youth programs are simply creating skill and job traps. GOYN brings a new approach to helping youths finding sustainable and meaningful livelihoods. It stimulates diverse cross-sector participation through bottom-up discovery, planning and co-design, and engages directly with youth to understand their ambitions, aspirations and challenges.

To identify drivers of youth unemployment within communities and foster solution design focusing on equity, systems-level change, and amplifying the voices of youth.

The youth challenge is significant and growing

With national unemployment rising, traditional employment alone won’t solve the problem. There is a need to embrace job creation through entrepreneurship and via the informal sector.

1.8B

Of a 1.8 billion global youth population, 90 percent live in developing economies, with huge concentrations in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

267M

267 million, approximately 1/5 of the world’s population are Opportunity Youth—young people aged 15-29 who are out of school, unemployed, or working in informal jobs.

29%

In South Africa, unemployment is at 29 percent. Youth aged 16 to 24 make up 57 percent of the unemployed.

50%

The prospect of a lost generation looms large, with unemployment in South Africa projected to reach 50% as a result of COVID-19, which will have knock-on effects on youth unemployment.

Creating opportunities for the youth

Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator is the implementation partner for GOYN eThekwini, and is partnering with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and Youth Build International (YBI) to deliver a multi-channel platform called SA Youth.

SA Youth is a free national network of networks which aims to ensure that all learning, earning and support opportunities are visible to all young people in South Africa. Young people can access the network for free through the zero-rated mobi-site on sayouth.mobi.

SA Youth is a key action under the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI), and is supported by the South African government, a diverse array of private sector stakeholders and a growing number of civil society partners.

Employers and partners looking for engaged, entry level talent can also register and load opportunities on the SA Youth Partner Network at partners.sayouth.org.za. The platform remains free for all.

Data-led demand driven solutions to unemployment

The following reports look at the issues experienced by eThekwini’s youths; and employment opportunities in allied healthcare in South Africa that opportunity youth could be eligible for.

The Big Read

45 minute read

GOYN market intelligence report on eThekwini

Read about the challenges & opportunities in eThekwini.

VIEW FULL REPORT

30 minute read

GOYN learning report

Read about GOYN accomplishments & learnings.

VIEW

Short on time

30 minute read

GOYN health pathways and healthcare assessment

SA’s employment opportunities in allied healthcare.

VIEW

Global success brought to South Africa

Accenture has been working with GOYN since 2019. GOYN is housed at the Aspen Institute and is co-led by partners Prudential Financial, Global Development Incubator, Youth Build International, Accenture and Catholic Relief Services.

GOYN is a multi-stakeholder initiative committed to creating place-based systems shifts for youth economic opportunity. Working with Anchor Partners situated in communities around the world.

GOYN works to create economic mobility for “Opportunity Youth” — young people aged 15-29 who are out of school, unemployed, or working in informal jobs.

GOYN contribution started with local, place-based Accenture expertise in Bogota and Pune where we worked to create a solid replicable methodology to drive GOYN’s approach forward rapidly.

Our approach has proven successful and are now moving into new locations: Sao Paulo, Jharkhand, eThekwini and, most recently, Mexico and Senegal.

Through ecosystem analysis and engagement with youth and stakeholders, we created an ecosystem map to identify and prioritise possible interventions across pathways for youth.

An Intervention Design followed. This is a rapid design sprint to identify interventions to co-design and co-fundraise for through a prioritisation workshop with the local Anchor Partner.

Let’s collaborate for exponential success

Through engagement with youth, industry, government, and business—ENGAGEMENT WITH YOU—GOYN can deliver a new level of success for youth, supporting the growth of the South African economy. Together, we can amplify benefits.

OUR VISION:

Greater collaboration through locally-led coordinating infrastructure.

Data-driven strategies to support long term youth success.

Increased youth involvement using leading practice design approaches.

Funding directed to address the most important gaps and scale what works.

Advocacy, public policy engagement, influencing employer practices and priorities.

Join us and get involved

This is your invitation to join our effort to drive success for our youth, for your business, and the future of the South African economy.

Let’s address the systemic barriers and underlying drivers of youth unemployment—working together, with the right data and insights, our collective experience, funding and will to succeed—we can make a difference to our youth, communities, business future and national economy.

Help us spread the word about SA Youth, SA’s national network for all young people to access learning and earning opportunities in their area - for free! Young people can register on sayouth.mobi today. No data required! Need support? Call SA Youth toll free on 0800 72 72 72, Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm.

Employers and partners looking for engaged, entry level talent can register and load opportunities on the SA Youth Partner Network at partners.sayouth.org.za. By providing quick and easy updates on hiring outcomes the platform remains free for all. Email info@sayouth.org.za for support.

Meet the team

Khethiwe Nkuna

Responsible Business Executive
LinkedIn

Shiksha Benimadho

Talent and Organization Lead
LinkedIn
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