PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMMES

Regional Programmes (PP-RP) Department

The PP-RP Department Supporting Inclusive Development through the Social Economy

The PP-RP Department of the IDC supports initiatives that grow and support the development of the social economy to enhance, broaden and deepen IDC’s impact in an integrated and sustainable way. In its efforts to do so, the PP-PR department manages two specific grant funding programmes, namely:

• Social Enterprises apply business solutions to social and environmental challenges. The ultimate goal is to achieve sustainability by enabling them to support themselves financially in innovative ways, instead of relying solely on grants and donations. The majority of any surpluses generated through such initiatives are reinvested in the work and mission they pursue.
• Special interventions are similarly mission and solution driven in respect of social and environmental outcomes, but rather seek to facilitate through building partnerships (public, private, community and civil society) and an enabling eco-system, that brings disadvantaged and marginalised groups and communities into the centre of the economy.

The IDC sees the importance and use of these funding programmes to play the following roles:

• Facilitating, catalyzing and preparation role – for communities/marginalized groups to participate meaningfully in the economy
• Sustaining role – where market failure is endemic
• Seeding role – first mover/investor to crowd in others
• Risk reduction/mitigating role – address aspects that reduce specific risks for partner co-funding opportunities
• Signaling – addressing aspects of perception, credibility and visibility

The main objective of these programmes (and funds) are to support innovative and effective activities that focus strategically on resolving social market failures and creating new opportunities to add social value systematically, to maximize social impact and bring about positive, lasting (sustainable) change, through promoting entrepreneurial endeavor and sustainable livelihoods to address inequality, spatially (rural, townships) and human (race, gender etc.).

SOCIAL ENTERPRISES

In 2012, the IDC introduced the Social Enterprise Programme to support those enterprises that focus on “doing good” rather than maximising profit. Social enterprises are businesses with social missions and trade to tackle social and environmental problems, and improve lives of people and communities, often the most vulnerable.

The SEF ascribes to the 6 core elements in defining a social enterprise for funding:

• It has a primary social or environmental benefit or purpose – a clearly stated purpose as its core objective
• It operates as a business and trades
• The surpluses are reinvested in the enterprise’s mission and no funds are paid out to the promoters as dividends
• It uses a financially sustainable business model – has a realistic prospect of generating sufficient income to exceed costs
• It is democratic, accountable and transparent – has a mechanism for ensuring accountability to its beneficiaries; and
• It operates in a socially and environmentally responsible manner (including not impacting negatively on communities, their health and social well-being, their food security, the environment etc.).

Through the Social Enterprise Programme the IDC has supported various social enterprises throughout the country. Social enterprises are businesses with social missions and trade to tackle social and environmental problems, and improve lives of people and communities, often the most vulnerable.

Since inception of this Programme, the IDC has supported 57 projects to the value of R187 million, creating 3 105 jobs and supporting 26 000 beneficiaries.

The IDC is partnered in this programme by the Government of Flanders who have provided funding (€7 million) to assist, grow and support the social economy as a sector.

SPECIAL INTERVENTION PROGRAMME

The Special Intervention Programme aims to address the socio-economic and developmental needs of targeted areas. This programme is flexible and has resulted in many innovative and impactful initiatives in marginalised areas including townships and rural areas.

The programme seeks to assist and facilitate development in various ways. The focus of the programme is to:

• Build partnerships between public, private, civil society and community structures;
• Crowd-in cofounding and leverage these partnerships;
• Build institutional and project management capabilities to implement initiatives;
• Seek to align and coordinate strategic plans and resources;

• Build a robust, enabling, supportive and inclusive ecosystem in support of the social economy;
• Promote collaboration and development of trust (social capital); and,
• Ensures that plans are implemented and benefit marginalised groups and communities.

The Special Intervention Programme aims to address the socio-economic and developmental needs of targeted areas through public, private and community partnerships. This has resulted in many innovative and impactful initiatives in marginalised areas including townships and rural areas.

Since the conception of this programme in 2012, the IDC has approved 90 projects to the value of R321 million. The projects have created 3 545 direct jobs and supported 35 000 beneficiaries.

The utilisation of the SIF programme includes funding for the following initiatives/strategies:

• Place-Based: A multi-faceted approach to planning, design and management of spaces, capitalising on local communities’ assets, inspirations and potential to create a better environment for investment.
• People-Centred: An approach to development that focuses on improving local communities’ self-reliance, social justice, and participatory decision-making. It recognizes that economic growth does not inherently contribute to human development and calls for changes in social, political, and environmental values and practices.
• Inclusive Business: Inclusive business is an approach that benefits poor communities through the inclusion of low income communities into supply and value chains.
• Early Realisation: Fast-track the realisation of benefits to the intended worker beneficiaries and communities by providing grant support to respective trusts to establish trust-owned companies that will deliver services to investee companies that they are linked to in order to realise profits and cash flows from the outset.
• Circular Economy: An approach that seeks to keep resources in use as long as possible and extracts value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.
• Incubators/Accelerators: Institutional arrangements and sometimes physical structures that seek to assist start-ups and new businesses to take their enterprises to the next level.
• Strategic Interventions: Relates to quick interventions in times of crisis, special need or opportunity.
• Project Development and Support: Providing support for capacity and management to bring initiatives into full realization.
• Pilots and Proof of Concepts: Piloting social innovation initiatives that may not yet be proven, including new technologies, means of production or crops etc (with relevant SBUs) but show high development impact potential.
• Supporting Worker’s and Community Ownership: empowering ownership opportunities for communities and workers.
• Business Retention and Expansion –an approach that focuses on supporting existing businesses, supporting them to expand and thereby retain and create new jobs and opportunities.

THIRD PARTY FUND MANAGEMENT

The IDC’s PP-PR Department manages and supports 3^rd party funds from the public and donor community, amongst others.

CONCLUSION

The IDC, through the PP – RP sees itself as an important driver of transformation and a more inclusive economy and has the potential to contribute significantly to our country’s “new dawn”, and in so doing, ensure a vibrant, inclusive and responsive economy that seeks to grow, transform and respond to the needs, hopes and aspirations of all our people.