Community Constituency

Policy

• An honest examination of the growth, employment and redistribution strategy (Gear) is needed. The government must be willing to enter into discussion on the macroeconomic framework
• The Community Constituency (CC) must have a direct say in policies because it represents the prime sufferers of the "working poor" and unemployment and the central beneficiaries of whatever policies and strategies are agreed on
• Commitment to building the capacity of the CC, with special focus on women, is necessary for it to take its place at Nedlac, with equal status and bargaining power to the "big three"
• Business, government and labour all have gaps in their submissions with regard to the informal sector, which remains on the margins of economic activity
• The government's support programme for small, medium and micro enterprises including finance, marketing and technical advice, needs to be improved to reach the survivalist sector
• The government should actively invest in the economy, public works programmes and housing, as an agreed approach to the elimination of social backlogs, job creation and economic growth
• Job-creation opportunities in rural areas must be prioritised
• A quota of 2% of the public and private sector workforce should be made up of disabled people
• Legislation should recognise and protect casual, informal and socially invisible workers
• Tripartite boards should regulate informal-sector working conditions, with both workers and employers involved in formulating regulations
• A checklist of critical success factors should be developed, against which the success of particular interventions can be evaluated
• An implementing authority, in collaboration with all stakeholders, should be responsible for implementing and evaluating job creation
• All recommendations should be evaluated to assess their effectiveness and sustainability
• The Jobs Summit must be seen as a first step in a longer process of appraisal of the policies, strategies and programmes to best resolve the unemployment crisis

Programmes

• Micro-credit needs to be made available to members of the "survivalist" sector, particularly in rural areas
• An informal sector training board should be set up to provide training to enable those in this sector to compete in the labour market
• The social security system must be transformed to provide benefits for both the formal and informal sectors and grants should include work incentives
• Targeted skills training is needed to enable women to move to higher-income, non-traditionaf~ jobs, for example, construction work
• A national system of workplace childcare provision must be set up
• The tax base must be widened by including the informal sector on an equal basis of progressive taxation
• The youth must be included in all government employment programmes
• The possibility of establishing a youth unemployment fund should be explored
• Mechanisms need to be developed to assist the youth in overcoming entry barriers into the labour market
• Placement centres must be properly geared to youth
• Business training is needed to encourage youth to participate in the informal and formal sectors
• A national youth service initiative could serve as the administrative vehicle to co-ordinate youth employment programmes
• The employment rights and a code of minimum standards need to be extended to temporary, seasonal and part-time rural workers and these workers should be helped to become aware of and assert these rights
• Assistance should be given to the poorest households experiencing problems with their pensions and social grants

Financing

• Macro-economic policy (fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policy) must complement other parts of the job creation strategy. It must be moderately expansionary, not restrictive, to'. make room for reforms to take effect. An agreement between the government and its social partners on broad fiscal policy is necessary
• The public sector pension system should be funded on a pay-as-you-go basis which will free up significant resources for job creation and poverty alleviation
• Decreasing interest rates and allowing the rend to drop further will encourage investment and exports, thus supporting job creation
• Informal-sector employers and workers should be registered and drawn into the tax net
• The CC represents the unemployed, the "working poor" and survivalist sector and are the benefactors of job creation strategies. As such, its contribution is non-financial

The Community Constituency represents marginalised sectors—rural people, youth, women and people with disabilities. They participate in Nedlac through organisations such as the South African National Civic Organisation, Disabled People of South Africa, South African Youth Congress. Women's National Coalition and the National Rural Development Forum.