Picture: THINKSTOCK
Picture: THINKSTOCK

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WHAT is the best way to ensure young South Africans find jobs? Is it providing an incentive to employers? Is it paying recruitment consultants to place young people? Is it providing training vouchers to the youth?

We don’t yet know the best answer but, much like if we were testing medicines to see if they are effective, there are tests being undertaken of all those initiatives. The method is inspired by evidence-based medicine, with the technique of randomised controlled trials imported into the policy world. Such tests aim to prove which intervention is most effective. It doesn’t directly help us to understand why it works, merely that it does.

Evidence-based thinking is working its way across government. While ideologies are an essential part of politics they can also lead to standoffs and inertia. An evidence-based policy approach is a way to break that logjam. The NDP emerged from the National Planning Commission and its 26 commissioners drawn largely from academia. Now their work is informing direct policy interventions while government is improving monitoring of the effects. Research is on-going, including the use of randomised trials, to select improved policy interventions.

The evidence-based culture is not just about planning though. It is also about monitoring and assessing the impact of policy. That has become the next focal point of the NDP process. While much of it has been invisible to the outside world, the NDP has started to have a major effect on the work of government. It was the basis for the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), government’s plan for its current five year term. The MTSF has been a tool of every government since 1994. It sets the priorities for delivery during the current election cycle. What is different this time is that the MTSF has become the driving force for the implementation of the NDP.

The MTSF has set practical goals and allocated departments and ministers to the task of delivering on them. This has brought to the fore the monitoring and evaluation functions within the Presidency which will aim to assess progress in meeting the goals. The planning function has now been incorporated alongside monitoring and evaluation, with a specific brief to think long term and to undertake research on the best way to make policy work.

Our aim with this publication is to draw out the implications of this shift. This publication is structured into three parts. First is an analysis of the news related to the NDP, particularly the politics around it and the involvement of organised business. Second is an assessment of the MTSF, split into 14 broad areas of work. In this section we summarise the implementation objectives for the next five years and tell the stories about live projects. Third we look specifically at some of the ways business is interacting with the NDP, with companies either developing projects off their own bats or partnering with government to maximise delivery.

The overall objective is twofold: to explain and report on the MTSF and its role in the NDP and secondly to show how all various stakeholders are working together on delivery.

Last year we produced a widely read summary and analysis on the NDP. The intention this year is to examine on-the-ground delivery. The result is anecdotal, but that is by design. For all the negative headlines that South Africans read, there are also stories of new businesses being created, children being educated, infrastructure being built. The experience has brought home to me an important truth about the South African condition: there are good and bad people and there are successes and failures. By telling the stories of both we can inform and equip the public to make better decisions about their own lives and how to exercise their influence. The more empowered people are with information, the better they can direct influence on our leaders to ensure they get the outcomes they desire.

Our tools are those of journalistic craftsmanship directed to the task of telling the stories of ordinary people who are affected by the plan. We sent journalists out across the country to see projects first hand and meet people far beyond the talk shops of Pretoria. These are the stories of ordinary South Africans. While our approach has mixed styles of news reporting and narrative journalism, we have aimed to provide independent insights.

SA undoubtedly faces many challenges. Good planning and careful delivery is the best way we can confront them. It is also important that every South African aligns themselves with those plans. From universities working on researching the effect of policy to businesses shaping their strategic thinking around the outcomes of NDP projects, everyone will produce better work if they understand the broader context.

This publication aims primarily to provide insights for Business Day’s audience. Business has a critical role to play as partners to government and in developing products and services that help meet the objectives of the plan. But it is also critical to companies’ strategic planning. SA is set for change one way or another. While plans will adapt and shift as they are implemented, there is no doubt that there will be many opportunities for the private sector. Paying close attention to the plan is critical for any business executive. This is not (only) an issue for the social responsibilities of companies, but a matter of the core profit ambitions of the private sector. The future of our country depends in part on business understanding where it is going and ensuring it is ready to take advantage of the opportunities that arise, creating employment tax revenue and wealth.

• Stuart Theobald edited this publication and is chairman of Intellidex.