Technical Advisory to National Treasury's Jobs Fund

Unemployment is arguably the most serious social and economic challenge facing South Africa. In 2011 the South African National Treasury launched the Jobs Fund in response to South Africa's high unemployment rate.

The Jobs Fund is a competitive grant fund based on challenge fund principles. It was created by bringing about a partnership of the public and private sectors. It aims to go beyond simply funding work opportunities. It seeks innovative models that prioritise systemic solutions and creates sustainable new permanent jobs. Through its project partners, the fund aims to create 150 000 such new permanent jobs.

Genesis was appointed as technical advisers (TA) to the Jobs Fund to provide support for investment strategy, governance, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and general operations. Within the M&E role, Genesis was responsible for:

1. Developing the overarching Jobs Fund theory of change
2. Monitoring the overarching Jobs Fund logframe and supporting fund-level reporting
3. Defining fund-level outcomes indicators
4. Supporting grantee monitoring processes
5. Providing quality assurance support to grantee reporting processes
6. Supporting external evaluation processes
7. Advising grantees on project-level evaluation activities
8. Facilitating the Jobs Fund's learning agenda.

To date, the Jobs Fund has committed funds in the following thematic areas: infrastructure, institutional capacity building, support for work-seekers, enterprise development, support for smallholder farmers and innovation in job creation.