Building Resilient Rural Enterprises for Sustainable Livelihoods
Overall, our project is about improving the livelihoods of the people who are living the urban and rural areas of South Africa. We wanted to support the communities because many of them are actually affected by mining and not really benefiting much. We're looking at working with them to identify some of the economic opportunities that they could be able to take up. The project will focus on the following activities:
Campaign to advocate for radical transformation of the structures and patterns of ownership of the economy. This will become a larger campaign which will mobilize potential partners and with other institutions to provide opportunities for historically excluded and vulnerable groups, such as women and people with disabilities. It will include awareness raising, training, dialogues, seminars, exhibitions, study tours, learning exchanges.
Inspire, promote and support black women and youth-owned small enterprises, cooperatives and social entrepreneurs. This will target smallholder farmers and business owners with the power to change entire communities. Ensuring that this target group has a secure source of income can be truly transformational for families and their communities.
Lobby and advocate for an increased employee and community share ownership, through the implementation of various government policies and programmes. There are a number of economic transformation policies and programmes that are targeting corporates to ensure broad based ownership by the employees and communities where the companies operate. The project will work in partnership with the communities and employees in the various companies to ensure that these policies are enforced. This will include information sessions, awareness-raising workshops, seminars, etc. This will be implemented in partnership with legal institutions, community-based organizations, NGOs, academic institutions, etc.
PROBLEM ANALYSIS:
·Despite a strong commercial market in South Africa, the rural black small-scale farmers especially women face challenges in accessing inputs, infrastructure and training necessary to improve their yields due to constraints in access to affordable finance, limited technical and business capacity and scanty support from government agencies. To promote racial equity in farming and the entire value chain we need to intensify support to black entrepreneurs and small-scale farmers.
At the same time, it will be very important to look at how production models that depend highly on intensive agricultural systems largely contributed to climate change. Climate change affected change in plant growth and in production by promoting the spread of pests and diseases, increased exposure to heat stress, changes in rainfall patterns etc.
Considering the environmental degradation and social disintegration faced by indigenous rural communities, the effects of climate change cannot be addressed solely by their reliance on indigenous knowledge. Adequate policies on land reform and dynamics which promote comprehensive rural development in favor of small-scale farmers are needed to successfully address climate change. However, this demand calls for fundamental changes in both economic and environmental development policies.
Climate change also aggravates already existing problems faced by men and women whose livelihood depends on agriculture and access to natural resources. It aggravates the tendency of the feminization of agriculture while men are pushed into migration. Also, in many parts of South Africa, women form the majority of rural producers, yet they are the most marginalized. Stakeholders like NGOs, government and the private sector often overlook gender impacts of agricultural production. As the caretakers of children, the elderly and of natural resources, this marginalization of women has serious on-going impacts on the communities and their livelihoods.
In South Africa, the eco-system of the many rural areas is like no other. Statistics do not portray the reality, rather it is the individual lives of its residents who give it definition. More than half of SA’s population is living in poverty, data from Statistics South Africa revealed. The rural unemployment rates are higher than urban rates are a typical among countries and is explained by historical policies restricting mobility. According to Statistics South Africa, in general, children, black Africans, females, people from rural areas, those living in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, and those with little or no education are the main victims in the ongoing struggle against poverty.
Impact
The project aims to encourage Agricultural industrial companies especially food and beverage companies to address social issues in their production by supporting initiatives from black marginalized groups.
We hope to achieve the following results:
Informed enterprises that are able to hold Government and Corporates to account, navigate and bridge for funding towards specific food security and livelihood projects.
Partnerships with progressive companies on sustainable farming methods to ensure an increase in yields of food while ensuring ecological integrity of natural resources
Improved livelihoods through appropriate digital technology, increased household incomes, improved business and commercial understanding, improved health and education
Broadened knowledge of the targeted groups and the local partners and valued for its uniqueness and innovation.
Long term goals:
To advocate for radical transformation of the structures and patterns of ownership of the economy. This will form a central component of this project. This project aims to partner with other institutions to provide opportunities for historically excluded and vulnerable groups, such as women and people with disabilities.
To inspire, promote and support small enterprises, cooperatives and social entrepreneurs.
To lobby and advocate for an increased employee and community share ownership, through the implementation of various government policies and programmes.
