Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises in South Africa

The objective of the SCORE South Africa project is to promote sustainable employment opportunities in rural areas. The project will work with managers and staff in wildlife lodges as well as surrounding communities to the Madikwe Game Reserve and the greater Addo area. The expected end result of this project is a replicable model to achieve the following situation: • Wildlife lodges providing excellent services based on motivated and skilled staff • A long term vision of the lodges shared by both the lodge operators and surrounding communities • Enterprises in the surrounding communities providing goods and services to the lodges • A better understanding of the social, environmental and economic benefits of sustainable wildlife tourism among national industry stakeholders, e.g. operators To achieve these results the following five main areas of intervention were established during the initial project design mission in November. 1. At the lodge level the need in some lodges to establish good workplace cooperation and HR strategies and systems. Some of these strategies might be directly linked to the global economic crisis and the implications on the lodges. 2. At the lodge level the need to train and certify staff with recognized diplomas in order to improve the service quality level as well as the self confidence and motivation of the workers. 3. At the lodge / community level, ensure that there is a dialogue on how the community and lodge will develop together in order to minimize tension and maximize the benefits of all stakeholders involved. 4. At the lodge / community level support the establishment of businesses in the surrounding communities that can provide goods and services to the wildlife lodges. 5. At the wildlife tourism industry level, support awareness of sustainable tourism To deliver these services, a combination of various local and national experts will be engaged. Some will be trained in using ILO methodologies on sustainable and responsible workplace practices and stakeholder dialogue, while others will base their intervention on national vocational training curricula. A “virtual college” hosted by a park based foundation will be the main coordinating organization at the park level. The virtual college will, with support from the ILO, develop a training and support plan for the stakeholders involved. This plan will be based on an in-depth assessment of the lodges and communities. The role of the ILO-SCORE project will be to: • Train trainers in responsible workplace practices • Support the dialogue between lodges and communities • Facilitate links to vocational tourism skills providers • Support the development of enterprise start-up and support services for community based enterprise development • Organize workshops on sustainable tourism for national industry stakeholders with influence on the development of the tourism industry and access to national and international markets • Facilitate a mix of revenue streams (lodge owners, provincial departments, ILO etc) to create a financially sustainable virtual college

Project symbol

SAF/09/50/SWI

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Pretoria

Start date

01/05/2009

End date

31/03/2013

Total allocation

581398

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

581398

Development Partners

Switzerland, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

Country/Countries

South Africa

Outcomes

Sustainable Enterprises