Public procurement and social economy

The project explores the potential to use public procurement to stimulate the social economy in South Africa. It responds to the New Growth Path, which identifies the social economy as a sector with the potential to create 260,000 jobs and specifically refers to the need to “encourage state procurement from and service delivery through organizations in the social economy”. The project works both on the demand side (clarifying and influencing the interpretation of procurement regulations, and creating greater procurement opportunities) and the supply side (building the capacity of social economy enterprises to respond to these opportunities). It seeks to develop and test new social economy enterprise models that reduce barriers to market entry for social economy suppliers and that create additional jobs. The project initially focuses on KwaZulu-Natal with pilot activities in selected districts in that province, with the possibility of extension to other provinces. The aim is to develop models and approaches that can be applied nationally.

Project symbol

SAF/11/01/FLA

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Pretoria

Start date

01/01/2012

End date

31/12/2013

Total allocation

821455

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

818986

Development Partners

Belgium, Government of Flanders, Department of Foreign Affairs

Country/Countries

South Africa

Outcomes

Sustainable Enterprises