Genesis in the community

As a firm with its roots in South Africa, we have an important role to play in building our country as well as in redress. We believe that our work itself is a contribution to that process.

In addition, we have a commitment to growing and developing the corps of black South African economists both inside and outside the firm. The principal channels for doing this are the Genesis Educational Foundation and the firm’s ongoing commitment to employment equity and empowerment in its South African operations.

The Genesis Educational Foundation is a trust that was formed in 2006 and which owns 20% of Genesis Analytics. It is dedicated to producing high-calibre South African economists and provides final-year and postgraduate bursaries to previously disadvantaged students who wish to pursue a career in economics. Many bursary recipients are offered employment at Genesis after successful completion of their studies. To date the trust awarded more than R4,3-million in bursaries to 89 students.

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Genesis in Society (G:Soc) is a company-wide initiative that strives to build our presence in society through corporate social responsibility (CSR) and enterprise and supplier development (ESD) initiatives.

Every year, each practice contributes funds to the G:Soc pot, equivalent of two working days per employee. These funds are available to all Genesis employees to use to sponsor resourcing (time & materials) for CSR projects. The G:Soc also co-ordinates the firm-wide charitable activities.

Helping a maths tutoring NGO with improving attendance and results attainment using behavioural economics

Fun Learning for Youth (FLY) is a non-profit organisation run by young black professionals working across the private sector. The organisation seeks to instill educational curiosity among disadvantaged youth through tutoring and life-skills training.

ABE worked with FLY (Fun Learning for Youth) to improve attendance and attainment rates of the tutoring programme. Our work introduced two behavioural interventions: a values affirmation exercise and three weekly SMSes sent to parents. Over five weeks, student attendance increased by 14%, making a strong case to implement both interventions when tutoring resumes.

From the beneficiaries: “The interventions have improved the efficacy of our administration, our rapport with parents and the continued values affirmation have allowed us to sow lifelong principles of goal setting and awareness of self in the [150] learners that we tutor. Thank you!”

The Genesis team also facilitated the Conditioning of the Mind workshop, where the team introduced the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), explained where in society this was happening and provided learners with a better understanding to equip them for careers in the 4IR.

The second phase of the project, to equip learners with the foundational Microsoft Excel, was postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Genesis in Society hosted a financial education workshop for youth in KZN in 2017. The key messages included Needs & Wants, Budgeting, and Savings.

G:Soc project was motivated to run the project because South Africa has some of the worst statistics of both individual and household saving. Many people depend on debt to meet their needs (and wants!). With the country’s debt/GDP almost at 50%, individual decisions about finances is one of the first steps that needs to be taken.

OLICO is a mathematics-tutoring NGO that blends tutoring with technology, creating a path into high school mathematics and beyond. Genesis provided monitoring and evaluation (M&E) support to help OLICO improve its facilitator recruitment and Grade 9 & 11 psychometric testing. This assisted learners with subject choice and career guidance. Findings revealed that learners improved mathematics grades and OLICO had changed the negative perceptions/attitudes learners had towards mathematics.

Our Competition and Regulation practice provided independent inputs to the Proposed Buyer Power and Price Discrimination Regulation and Enforcement guidelines. These highlighted potential issues in the regulation and enforcement guidelines and provided key economic analysis, improving the interpretation and use of documents. Our suggestions have been incorporated in the guidelines, resulting in an economic environment that is more equitable for SME/HDI firms and preventing abusive practices against such firms.

The Youth Leadership and Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YLED) is an NGO that provides leadership and entrepreneurship training for school learners. Genesis provides M&E support by designing a monitoring and results measurement framework and developing beneficiary impact case studies. The objective is to enable effective monitoring of programme performance, assist in fundraising, and guide in tracking and assessing the implementation and impact of the programme.

Olico provides young people in one of the most impoverished parts of Johannesburg, Diepsloot, with mathematics and language tutoring so that they can gain the skills and qualifications to join the formal economy.

To enhance Corruption Watch's effectiveness and accountability, Genesis and CW developed a new monitoring and evaluation framework. The framework enables CW to measure the change brought about by its interventions, assess whether it is achieving its objectives and promote a learning culture within the organisation.

Genesis provides free expert economic advice to the Xolobeni community, via the Legal Resources Centre, in their battle to prevent titanium dune mining in their area. The issue has received a lot of media attention after the chairman of the Amadiba Crisis Committee, Sikhosiphi Bazooka Rhadebe, was assassinated outside his house early in 2016.

Genesis is working to help set up an information and monitoring system for the HCET. The trust helps children of mainly farm workers in the Colesberg district of the Northern Cape in attaining education and a higher quality of life. This exercise will be used to inform the design of a simple monitoring and evaluation framework which the HCET puts in place to simply and routinely monitor its progress.

SaveAct helps informal savings and credit groups to run better while at the same time provide members with life skills and enterprise training. A Genesis team worked with SaveAct to help savings groups reduce liquidity risk, collated and analysed SaveAct’s data and developed products to help SaveAct members graduate to the formal financial sector.

Genesis is working with the Credit Ombud to design surveys and conduct data analysis to test the impact that its financial education programme is having on its members. Thus far, data collection has not been properly structured. Once achieved, it will provide the Ombud with the ability to measure and capture changes in its target audience’s knowledge and attitude to financial concepts, which are vital in ensuring equal and fair inclusion of individuals into the financial system.

Presentations to schools and painting OLICO’s classrooms and library on Mandela Day.

Hannah House looks after about 15 children between 0-17 years, some of whom are HIV+. The children were abandoned due to the parents being destitute or teen mothers who could not cope alone. Hannah’s House is not state funded, so relies on individuals for food, clothing and medication.

Before Genesis became involved, the children would sleep in three hacks in Alexandra and during the day they played at a house in Kelvin. Genesis pays rent for three rooms in the Kelvin house so that the children are safe in one place.

Genesis runs an annual Christmas donation of food and clothing, as well as various activities for Mandela Day including a fun day for the kids. We also thank Mugg and Bean Woodmead, which has provided the children with weekly meals since 2019.

Many girls start their menstrual cycle each month without knowing how they will access sanitary products. This can immensely hamper their confidence and progress at school. Like their male counterparts, girls have an unequivocal right to education. However, the UN estimates that 1 in 10 girls in Africa miss school owing to their period. G:Soc ran an internal drive to raise money to buy reusable sanitary kits for 400 girls.

The G:Soc committee, together with TEEC, ran an initiative to support people affected by gender-based violence (GBV). The two committees identified the Angel Network as the beneficiary because it had begun a nationwide campaign to provide rape comfort packs to as many women across South Africa as possible. Individual donations were matched by Genesis – providing over 130 packs to the womxn and children supported by the Angel Network.