Collaboration Is the Future of Impact

The challenges we are facing in South Africa, particularly when it comes to youth unemployment are no longer solvable through isolated efforts.

The world is changing, and with it, so too must our approach to social development. According to the Next Generation Trend and Insights Report 2025/2026, one of the most important shifts underway is the rise of collectives, collaboratives, and coalition models that enable organisations to align goals, pool resources, and drive collective impact.

These approaches aren’t simply about being more efficient. They’re about being more effective. In a context as complex and layered as South Africa’s socioeconomic landscape, partnerships are proving to be one of the few tools capable of delivering long-term, meaningful change.

Youth Unemployment: A Shared Crisis

The urgency of this shift is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the youth unemployment crisis. South Africa’s official unemployment rate has climbed to 32.9% in the first quarter of 2025, with young people representing the largest and most vulnerable segment of the unemployed population.

For many young South Africans, this is more than a statistic, it’s a daily experience marked by uncertainty and disappointment. Despite the existence of numerous programmes aimed at upskilling and supporting youth, the unemployment rate continues to rise. This disconnect between intention and outcome suggests that current efforts, while well-meaning, are often fragmented.

At Momentum Group Foundation, this reality shapes every aspect of our work. Our core focus is clear: to empower young South Africans with the tools, skills, and opportunities they need to succeed through employment or entrepreneurship. But as our recent impact assessment has shown, doing this effectively requires collaboration at scale.

One of the most promising developments highlighted in the Next Generation report is the emergence of collective impact models. These are structured, long-term collaborations that bring together stakeholders from different sectors around a common agenda. They rely on shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, and constant communication qualities that set them apart from traditional partnerships.

Initiatives such as the Presidential Employment Stimulus focus on creating social employment opportunities for the common good, and as part of its portfolio of interventions it’s to create jobs and support livelihoods. Operation Vulindlela is another great example of how partnerships between government and businesses can drive meaningful change. Its success has largely been due to active engagement with the private sector and the use of public-private collaborations to tackle economic challenges.

Our own experience reinforces these findings. Through our impact assessment, we uncovered a number of critical insights:

• There is a fundamental mismatch between the services available and the actual needs of unemployed youth. Many programmes operate in silos, often duplicating efforts without being aware of what others are doing.
• Coordination is lacking. While there are hundreds of youth-focused initiatives, few are connected in a way that allows for synergy or systemic scale.
• The job market is shrinking. With a slowing economy and fewer formal job opportunities, we must shift our focus not just toward employment, but toward self-employment and informal sector participation.
• Entrepreneurship training is essential. Equipping young people with business and financial literacy is becoming just as important as traditional job readiness training.

These insights are now informing how we design and deliver programmes with a focus on adaptability, practical skills, and entrepreneurial thinking.

A Call for Collaboration

As sobering as these challenges are, they also present a powerful opportunity: to build a more connected, coordinated, and collaborative ecosystem for youth development in South Africa. We believe the only way forward is together. That requires corporates, government departments, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders to align efforts, share data, co-invest, and co-create.

Public-private partnerships are already showing what’s possible. With the right structures in place, we can bridge funding gaps, reduce duplication, and scale what works. But more is needed.