What does ‘heritage’ mean in a modern context? South Africa is home to a myriad of diverse cultures that should all be celebrated, but what is South Africa’s actual collective heritage? What is our collective legacy that we will leave behind for the next generation, the youth?
Today’s youth have inherited a broken social landscape and an exclusive economic system: a 75% unemployment rate[1], socio-political unrest, extinct wildlife, limited/no running water, rolling blackouts and spatial inequality.
This is not a congenital disease or a problem which we can do nothing about. This is a state of affairs that can and must be altered for the better.
For YES, ‘heritage’, or ‘legacy’, is made up of three pillars: economic, social, and environmental.
Using these pillars for a thriving future, YES can be seamlessly integrated into your business’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) strategies. Impact the areas that mean the most to your business by creating critical youth jobs. If we can build and maintain the three pillars, our youth can inherit a South Africa that we can be proud of, and that works for all.
YES is a business-led collaboration that seeks out ground-breaking ways, through innovation and technological best practice, to reignite the economy and give youth a dignified first chance.
The YES 12-month quality work experience equips unemployed youth with a toolkit to be a beacon of hope for their families, households and communities. The CV and reference letter they get at the end of their 12-months gives them a 3 x greater chance of an interview call-back.
YES has a proven track record of creating meaningful, measurable impact for country, company and youth: In just two and half years, over 62,171 work experiences have already been created for, injecting R3.5 billion back into the economy directly through youth wallets, with no government funding. Through the YES mobile applications, youth have logged 10 million learning minutes in modules that teach them soft skills and work readiness. Over 650 B-BBEE level ups have already been awarded.
SDGs
The YES September webinar covered the integration of YES with ESG/SDG strategies. Explaining the United Nations’ (UN’s) SDGs, Samantha Steyn, business development and strategy director at YES, noted that “In 2015, the leaders of the world essentially made a big promise that by 2030, the lives of billions of people across the world would improve.”
“This was the largest consultation period that had taken place in the history of the UN,” says Steyn. “It included decades of research that involved more than eight million consultations with people worldwide.” All of this to understand which issues mattered to countries and our planet. Hundreds of expert consultations were narrowed down to the 17 goals we see today, which were launched and adopted by 193 UN states in 2015. “The premise of these goals,” Steyn said, “was to ‘leave no one behind’.”
Steyn says that the 17 goals pictured above have been adopted globally by countries and companies, “because the only way we are going to achieve these goals is through collaboration and partnerships.”
Although the UN has created numerous frameworks, Steyn says that the SDGs are unique because this is the first framework that recognises an integration between the goals.
“Reducing poverty means improving education, and must also go hand-in-hand with other strategies such as improving climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forestry,” said Steyn.
Steyn says that ESG (which stands for environmental, social, governance) is more corporate-centric, whereas the SDGs focus on a broader scale and are more thematic. In other words, ESG focuses on the efforts a corporate makes to report positively on these three elements.
However, Steyn noted that there is a great overlap between ESG and SDGs (as pictured below). In fact, corporates have begun to integrate the two. “This comes on the back of requests from investors. Investors have shifted their attention towards non-financial factors. It’s no longer just about bottom-line profit, but rather how you as a business leader are making society a better place. Are you leaving the world worse than how you received it?”
The YES turnkey solution works with 31 YES-vetted host partner across South Africa to place youth. If a corporate cannot place youth in their own organisation, they have the option to place youth with our host partner. The YES host partners are generally NGOs working in high-impact sectors communities, which means youth do not have to travel far for work and they can play an important part in building their own communities.
Sectors YES host partner work in:
Meaning your business can create critical youth jobs in sectors that reflect your ESG/SDG strategies, effectively ‘killing two birds with one stone’.
The turnkey solution is a true one-stop-solution for organisations looking to make all of the impact with none of the admin. Host partners are not only responsible for hosting youth, but also for recruiting, screening, and supervising the youth, as well as facilitating absorption on behalf of the corporate.
Going back to the YES legacy/heritage pillars of economic, social and environmental, it’s apparent that each SDG could go under its own pillar.
All SDGs need to be looked at from two or more pillars to ensure that they are achieved holistically. Creating youth jobs in sectors that build economic, social and environmental stability in communities (through the turnkey solution) is an effective way to systemically and holistically begin redesigning our collective legacy and rewriting our heritage.
Through collaboration and partnerships, we can create a collective heritage that deserves celebration for years to come.
Join the movement
Changing lives and rebuilding South Africa has never been this easy. Over 1,600 corporate partners have already signed on to rebuild an inclusive and sustainable economy. Calculate your target and co-create a future that works for all with YES
[1] Expanded definition, ages 15-24