Who are we?
The NYDA is a South African-based agency established
primarily to address challenges faced by the nation’s youth. The Agency was
established by an Act of Parliament (Act 54 of 2008). The institution was
established to be a single, unitary structure addressing youth development
issues at National, Provincial and Local Government level. The Agency should be
seen within the broad context of South Africa’s development dynamics.
The Agency derives its mandate from the
legislative frameworks, including the National Youth Development Agency Act,
2008 (Act 54 of 2008) (NYDA Act), the National Development Plan 2030, the
National Youth Policy 2030 and the draft Integrated Youth Development Strategy
(IYDS). The Agency assumed and improved the operational platform developed by the
merger of the National Youth Commission and the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, which
rendered the Agency operational with immediate effect. In addition, the staff
component of its predecessors was also incorporated into the NYDA. The strategy
of the NYDA can be summarized as follows:
- The NYDA Act no 54 of 2008 further
mandates the NYDA to develop an Integrated Youth Development Strategy (IYDS)
for South Africa and initiate, design, coordinate, evaluate and monitor all
programmes that aim to integrate the youth into the economy and society in
general. These initiated programmes aim to alleviate poverty, urban and rural
development, combating of crime and substance abuse as well as social decay
amongst youth. The NYDA lobbied other organs of state to consider national
priorities in respect of youth development when planning their activities
regarding their implementation of youth development priorities. The NYDA will continue to monitor and
evaluate youth development interventions across the board and mobilize youth
for active participation in civil society engagements.
The IYDS has been designed as a strategy
that any role-player could get involved in at any point in time. The primary
role within this strategy is for the NYDA to act as a catalyst.
The NYDA with the support of the Office
of the Presidency, can create the political will and momentum within
Government, to allow the Integrated Youth Development Strategy to gain the
traction that is required for successful implementation. The opportunity to
influence what other Departments are doing in the youth development space, must
be driven quite strongly by both the NYDA and the Presidency.
The main aim is to make youth
development part and parcel of what other line departments are delivering, to
the point where organizational and individual performance agreements include
youth development as a clear area of focus. The role is, therefore, to remove
barriers to success and to assist with the development and delivery of critical
success factors. Our role can broadly be described as to:
- Provide planning and decision-making
information for projects.
- Coordinate key engagements.
- Facilitate
critical discussions and to ease projects through conceptualization into design
and ultimately implementation.
- Establish key partnerships with private
sector organizations at national, provincial and local levels.
- Monitoring, evaluation and reporting
requirements of the liaison function.
What do we do?
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 coordinate youth development programmes,
c)
Monitor and evaluate youth development interventions across-the-board
and, mobilise youth for active participation in civil society engagements.
NYDA'S New Focus
The National Youth Development
Agency has shifted its primary core business 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; the agency provides financial support in the form of micro-finance grants to young entrepreneurs and youth cooperatives.
The
objective of the NYDA Grant Funding is to provide young entrepreneurs with an
opportunity to access both the financial and non-financial business
development support to establish their survivalist businesses.
The
programme focuses 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 Funding starts from R1 000 to a maximum
of R200 000 for any individual or youth cooperative. For agriculture and technology-related projects, the maximum threshold is R250 000. 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.
The
new plan of the NYDA therefore focuses on tailor-made interventions
for job preparedness and placement, a focus on scholarship provision for youth 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.
Key Performance Areas
KEY PERFORMANCE AREA 1: Economic Participation
The
main goal of the Economic Participation focus is to enhance the contribution of young people in the economy through targeted and integrated
programmes. Programmes implemented by the NYDA aim to facilitate and
provide employment opportunities for youth in order to improve the inclusion of young people in the economy, through increased job creation, entrepreneurship and business support, as well as skills development.
Implementation is at the following strategic objectives:
- To provide socio-economic empowerment interventions and support for young people in South Africa
- To provide increased universal access to young people
KEY PERFORMANCE AREA 2: Education and Skills Development
The
main goal of the Education and Skills Development programme is to
promote, facilitate and provide education and skills development
opportunities that enhance the socio-economic well-being of young people through facilitating education opportunities, community participation and service activities geared towards fostering patriotism.
The aim is to improve
access to quality education, facilitate and implement skills
development programmes, offer scholarships assistance and encourage young people to participate in social cohesion and nation building activities.
Implementation is at the following strategic objectives:
- To facilitate and implement skills programmes
- To facilitate and implement education opportunities in order to improve the quality education attainment for the youth
- To engage young people in service activities geared towards fostering patriotism, social cohesion and nation building.
KEY PERFORMANCE AREA 3: Research and Policy
The
main goal of this key peformance area is to create a body of knowledge
and best practice in the youth development sectors and to inform and
influence policy development planning and implementation. The
fundamental aim of this area is to ensure that knowledge that inform and
drive youth development is developed based on facts that are relevant
to the developmental needs of the South African youth, as well as giving
South Africa a competitive edge.
Implementation is at the following strategic objectives:
- To create and produce information and knowledge for better development planning and decision making
- To lobby key stakeholders to support and implement youth development programmes
- To mobilise and leverage financial resources from key stakeholders.