Newsletters
Mandela Initiative newsletter (Issue 4, Dec 2017)
2017 was a busy year as the Mandela Initiative moved into the final phase of starting to consolidate the past five years’ work for discussion at a multisectoral gathering in February 2018. In this newsletter, we bring you some highlights of the past few months, including exciting progress in the development of a proposed Basic Package of Support for Youth, led by our partners at the Poverty and Inequality Initiative, University of Cape Town; the potential of section 27 of the Equal Employment Act to address the large pay gap between the highest and the lowest income earners in companies in South Africa as was discussed on the first day of our action dialogue on proportional income differentials; and growing global concerns over new forms of labour that are emerging in the “gig economy”, and the consequences for workers’ rights and pay structures, which were also foci of the proportional income differentials dialogue.
Mandela Initiative newsletter (Issue 3, Aug 2017)
We are pleased to present our third newsletter, which focuses on labour and employment-related topics. In particular, we present the preliminary findings of three Initiative-supported studies that resonate with this theme: on rural employment creation in selected agricultural commodities; labour law noncompliance in South Africa; and strike activity in the national economy. Read also about a systematic overview of the country’s youth unemployment and an action dialogue on youth skills development for job creation. More generally, we report on recent child-focused action dialogues – on stunting in children, and on violence against children – as well as an interactive online tool that presents data on young people; our online collection of short videos on people’s experiences of living in poverty in South Africa; and online summaries of research completed for the Initiative and presentations from a recent engagement on strategies to overcome inequality in South Africa.
Mandela Initiative newsletter (Issue 2, Mar 2017)
We are pleased to present the second newsletter of the Mandela Initiative, a multi-sectoral platform to investigate and develop strategies to overcome poverty and inequality. In this issue, we focus on the role of research in contributing to policies that aim to address poverty and inequality in South Africa. We reflect on several collaborations within and across universities that work towards this goal, and present in more detail the contributions of various universities to our processes, such as the action dialogues. Looking ahead, we introduce a busy 2017 agenda of planned events – two of which have already taken place: an action dialogue on the historical legacies and contemporary realities of migrant labour, and the first in a series of conversations on comprehensive support for South Africa’s youth which was initiated by our partners at the Poverty and Inequality Initiative of the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Mandela Initiative newsletter (Issue 1, Nov 2016)
Welcome to the first newsletter of the Mandela Initiative, a multi-sectoral platform to investigate and develop strategies to overcome poverty and inequality. With this newsletter we aim to introduce the initiative, its key partners and collaborators, and various work streams since the process started in 2012 with the “Towards Carnegie3” conference on strategies to overcome poverty and inequality in South Africa. We in particular reflect on the role of the Nelson Mandela Foundation as a strategic partner, and foreground an innovation of the Poverty and Inequality Initiative of the University of Cape Town which can help inform comprehensive policies and interventions to support youth development and social inclusion.
