Simon White was recently commissioned to undertake an external, end-of-project evaluation of the Social Entrepreneurship Targeting Youth in South Africa (SETYSA) project.  The evaluation was conducted in February 2011 and involved a review of all project documents as well as consultations with project partners, stakeholders and beneficiaries.

The Government of Flanders in South Africa funded the project, which the Pretoria Office of the International Labour Organization (ILO) implemented. The project was formulated in 2008 in consultation with a range of national actors, the ILO Headquarters in Geneva (Job Creation and Enterprise Development Department), and South African based social enterprise support agencies. It began in January 2009 and concluded on 28 February 2011.

The role of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in promoting social and economic development, including the creation of more decent and productive employment, has been given greater attention recently by donor and development agencies around the world. While the ILO has been at the forefront of this movement, the SETYSA project is the first ILO technical cooperation project to specifically support social enterprise and social entrepreneurship development.

In South Africa, the promotion of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship complements government policy initiatives designed to address national development challenges. These include the Integrated strategy on the promotion of entrepreneurship and small enterprises (2005), the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (2007) and the Decent work country programme 2010 to 2014.