MEL builds foundation for  Jobs Fund achievements 

Since its inception in 2011, the Jobs Fund, a programme of National Treasury, has disbursed over R7.6 billion in grants and secured R15.5 billion in matched funding, effectively tripling its public investment. Now, over a decade later, we review how the fund has employed monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) to drive programme evolution in ways that meaningfully contribute to addressing South Africa’s burgeoning unemployment crisis. 

Thriving societies rely on access to work. Whether through employment or entrepreneurship, high employment rates boost consumer spending, drive gross domestic product growth and reduce reliance on welfare. Earning money promotes independence among citizens, who, in turn, tend to be healthier, happier, safer and more peaceful. Empowered citizens are capable of personal and professional growth. They can plan for their futures and make decisions that benefit future generations.  

It is little wonder, then, that South Africa’s unemployment rate – the highest in the world – is accompanied by crippling social and economic challenges. South Africa’s basic unemployment rate was recorded at 33% in the second quarter of 2025. The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers and those unemployed for other reasons, brought this figure to almost 43%. Youth unemployment remained at a frightening 46%. 

Originating from a history of structural inequality, chronic unemployment has long hindered progress. It was in this context that the Jobs Fund was established to co-finance projects by public, private and non-governmental organisations that provide innovative solutions for job creation.  

Jobs Fund purpose and strategy 

The fundamental objective of the Jobs Fund is to catalyse investment and innovation to create jobs. It achieves this by funding activities that directly contribute to job creation and long-term employment growth in South Africa.  

High sustained economic growth is necessary to address the nation’s unemployment crisis. Having identified the keys to growth as the macroeconomic policy environment, infrastructure asset base, schooling and regulatory frameworks, it was understood from the establishment of the fund that reform would require a long-term commitment. It was also understood that the Jobs Fund itself would not attempt to tackle these structural challenges on its own. Its role remains to complement macroeconomic and structural initiatives. 

The funded interventions are designed to address barriers to job creation, including labour demand, labour supply and institutional environment challenges. Funding is channelled through four funding windows: enterprise development, infrastructure investment, support for work seekers and institutional capacity building. Managed through National Treasury, the fund aims to stimulate innovative ideas, risk-taking and investment to identify novel approaches that create pro-poor, sustainable jobs at scale.  

Jobs Fund MEL architecture 

The Jobs Fund’s high-risk model has made rigorous MEL a priority from the fund’s inception.  

Jobs Fund Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Lead Tlhalefang Moeletsi highlights the importance of good data. “Policy making must be evidence-based. We need accurate data for auditing purposes, but also because we apply performance-based disbursements. We need good, precise data so that we can learn what is working and what isn’t. Learning is a very important part of our theory of change as a fund.”  

Performance indicators aligned with the fund’s theory of change define its implementation process. Formative, midterm and summative external evaluations are conducted at the fund level, while project-level MEL is aggregated into fund-level MEL. 

MEL expectations are set early in the contracting phase, with project initiatives typically allocating 5–10% of the project’s value to MEL. Projects that are implemented over three years are required to conduct a formative, midterm and summative evaluation, while projects that are implemented over two years are required to conduct a formative and summative evaluation. “We are very clear on the performance targets that they have to meet,” says National Treasury in Employment Facilitation Deputy Director-General (DDG) and Jobs Fund Head Najwah Allie-Edries, explaining that assessments of quarterly reports against implementation targets determine future project funding. “Projects have to achieve 80% of their performance targets before they are able to draw down the next tranche of the grant funding,” she says. 

Moeletsi notes that project assessments include project self-evaluations, fund project manager close-out reports and financial audits. “Projects are also required to report for a period of two years post implementation so that we can track the catalytic effects of the fund and the sustainability of the impact.” 

Partner requirements and capacity building 

Describing the Jobs Fund MEL requirements, Allie-Edries emphasises that job creation remains the primary indicator, as defined by the fund’s clear set of metrics. She says that secondary indicators for tracking are developed in consultation with implementing partners, reflecting the uniqueness of each project.  

There are metrics for the different types of jobs created, whether permanent or internship, with strict terms-of-reference templates provided to better align with external evaluations and audits.  

Allie-Edries admits that some implementing partners have described the fund’s rigorous reporting requirements as “cumbersome”. However, post-project feedback has reported an appreciation for the improved internal systems and capacity that these MEL requirements have established in their organisations. She says she takes comfort in knowing that the Jobs Fund is contributing funds to support good MEL and to build embedded MEL capacity. The fund’s project managers and specialist team leaders also work with partners to ensure they are getting it right.  

Allie-Edries states she has observed a broad improvement in awareness and acceptance of MEL over the past decade. This is particularly evident in government programmes, such as those of the Department of Small Business Development, which now reflect MEL criteria similar to those of the Jobs Fund. She also notes a general shift in language, with new initiatives mentioning different types of challenge funds, indicating some influence from the Jobs Fund’s learnings.  

The fund prioritises sharing its learnings publicly. Before Covid-19, physical events facilitated knowledge sharing and discussions of best practices among partners. More recently, Jobs Fund MEL learnings are shared through regular newsletters and well-attended webinars. Evaluations are published, showcasing both the overall results and the work of project partners. In 2025, the fund published A Decade of Innovation and Partnerships: Lessons and Insights on Funding Sustainable Job Creation. 

Jobs Fund impact measurement 

The Jobs Fund has leveraged around R15.5 billion in matched funding from Jobs Fund partners, following a government investment of R7.6 billion. This resulted in the creation of 340 361 jobs and internships by September 2025, exceeding the fund’s initial target of creating 150 000 jobs.  

However, the fund’s MEL tracks more than the number of jobs created. It defines and measures the sustainability and quality of those jobs. Sustainable jobs are defined as those that last longer than 12 months and continue beyond the grant period. These are assessed through longitudinal studies. Moeletsi says that understanding the wage potential of a particular job is essential to assessing its quality. “There’s a big focus on the income because we need to look at income to understand the impact that the job is going to have on a person’s livelihood.” 

Allie-Edries says that a longitudinal study conducted from 2019 to 2021 confirmed that people exposed to Jobs Fund-related programmes remained in the labour market longer than others.  

Using the fund’s Support for Work Seekers projects as an example, she says, “When we support a Support for Work Seekers’ intervention, we don’t support training just for the sake of training. There must be demonstrable skills demand and projects must show that once a person has received the training, they can be placed into a job. When you have that holistic approach to work seekers, there is more ‘stickiness’ in that people remain in employment for longer.” 

The fund recognises the wider impacts of its efforts, assessing how funding influences individual implementation projects, the resulting economic effects and the communities where interventions are introduced.  

Allie-Edries says that the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town has been commissioned to analyse the impact of the Jobs Fund on unemployment trends.  

MEL challenges and limitations 

The Jobs Fund’s MEL practice has revealed the shortage of competent monitoring and evaluation practitioners in the local market. Allie-Edries says that it is challenging to find MEL practitioners with suitable qualifications, experience and technical expertise. 

The impact of this shortage is the rising cost of MEL for programmes and the difficulty in delivering quality MEL. Skilled independent specialists are in high demand, while management consulting firms charge high fees, produce inconsistent results and sometimes involve intellectual property challenges. Mission-driven nonprofits often struggle to compete with the financially attractive private sector when hiring in-house MEL professionals.  

Moeletsi suggests that limited awareness among learners about MEL as a potential career path is contributing to the skills shortage. While some practitioners achieve MEL specialisation through alternative or accidental career paths, not enough individuals enter the field early enough to develop the expertise the industry desperately needs. Allie-Edries adds that certificate qualifications are inadequate to meet the industry’s requirements for MEL specialists.  

Besides the MEL specialist challenge and the cost of MEL required to ensure rigour and thoroughness, Allie-Edries and Moeletsi mention that attributing social impact directly to a particular intervention or organisation can be difficult. To this end, the Jobs Fund is cautious about claiming direct attribution and instead emphasises its contribution to systems-level change and market transformation.  

MEL imperative to social change 

Commenting on the role MEL has played in the Jobs Fund, Moeletsi says, “The fund would not be able to meet its objectives and operate as needed without proper MEL. MEL is absolutely crucial for identifying models that work, testing their implementation and then replicating and scaling these models.”  

Allie-Edries notes that evidence-based learning helps the fund attract investment. “Our ability to operate as a challenge fund and draw in additional funding to tackle the unemployment crisis should not be underestimated.”  

As it continues to encourage innovative solutions to South Africa’s unemployment problem, the challenge fund fosters partnerships across the public, private and civil society sectors, building a collaborative ecosystem for job creation bound by a shared purpose.