Field office for unemployed people in South Africa

1. Introduction MSR thanks all our global giving donors for their generosity in 2010.

2. Activities and accomplishments

Since late 2009 MSR has been working on finding ways in which to move the placement aspects of our program on to a sustainable footing. The placement program essentially encompasses membership registration, customer registration, and daily marketing, placement and skills development.

The key for us has been to recognise that the services we provide to customers (employers) add value and that we can legitimately charge a fee for these services. One of the main challenges in this regard is to find a way to charge the fee at a low level and to recover the fee in an economically viable way.

The solution we have created provides members with guaranteed payment (fees are agreed upfront and employers can not arbitrarily decide to cut their wages at the end of the day) and a funeral policy if they work more than 4 days a month in our network. Customers pay a daily fee R20.00 for each member we introduce to them. Please visit www.MSR.org.za for more information.

You will also notice that MSR is in the process of a rebranding exercise to take into account the more inclusive organisation that we have evolved into, but which honours our proud beginnings. While we were founded to represent Men (looking for work) on the Side of the Road, we have become representative of Men and Women of all situations and dispositions looking for work. The new MSR has also embraced modern technology to promote its member's services. The rebranding involves moving on from the ‘Men on the Side of the Road' name to focus on the already popular acronym MSR. Our black, white and yellow colours, the 3 hand logo, ‘Making South Africa Work' tag-line and other icons remain unchanged, as does our commitment to finding work for our members. 3. Regional update

Cape Town – Branch has battled to maintain momentum in the face of the economic slowdown. The branch has also had to absorb salary cut backs due to funding constraints. The placement stats have largely come from 2 sites which have been operational for the full period under review.

The branch is acting as the test site for our recently introduced fee based service. We have been piloting this innovation since June 2010. Customer acceptance seems to be good and we are hopeful that we will be able to achieve a high level of self sustainability in the medium term.

Johannesburg – Branch has successfully built on the relationship with the Gauteng social development department and recently signed a contract for funding in the 2010 / 2011 financial year which will entail a significant expansion of the activities in JHB and Tshwane.

Tshwane – Branch was closed from June 2009 till June 2010 due to lack of funding. The regional manager continued to work on MSR business in the region and was able to secure a R500 k contract with Tshwane City. The contract is a service delivery agreement where MSR is paid for work days facilitated for its members.

DBN - Branch has reported good progress in discussion with local government regarding funding for MSR in the City for some time now. Unfortunately the discussions while always positive seem to bear no fruit.

We have however been successful in building relationships locally with 2 foundations that are committed to the region; we are hopeful that these will develop into long term funding relationships.

George and PE – Branches continue to operate at a relatively low level. The PE branch particularly is on a skeleton staff with the regional manager acting on a volunteer basis in the absence of significant funding for the region.

All branches operate within budget from a financial perspective.

4. Placement Stats are presented for the 6 months ended June 2010

Overall MSR has placed 29,337 work days this represents a 50% decrease on the on the same period last year. The placement figures are more or less the same as 2007.

Casual work has been very difficult to find. The combined effect of the long term slow down internationally, together with the slow down related to infrastructure projects which was evident in the second half of 2010 and the continued lack of investment in all sectors has hit the casual work sector very hard. Unfortunately even while the SA economy has shown month on month growth for the past 8-9 months, jobs are still being shed in the formal sector.

The casual sector is therefore hit by double blows of reduced opportunity and increased numbers of unemployed work seekers. At an assumed average of R 100 per day R2.9 million of wages have been secured for members.

Total expenditure for the same period year to date net of direct training, fundraising and admin costs is R734 thousand. For each 1 rand spent by MSR placement MSR members have earned R3.69.

5. Training This year we have trained 211 people mainly in building trade related skills and housekeeping and domestic home management.

We are in the final stages of development of our Employability Training Material. The course is designed to develop soft skills in our members. focus areas are interpersonal skills, followed by written or verbal communication skills and the ability to negotiate and resolve conflict.

Studies by Stanford Research Institute and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation found that 75% of long term job success depended on people skills and only 25% on technical skills. Although the study was conducted within SMME businesses and may not be specific to MSR members, the same applies within the casual labour market, where people skills and soft skills can significantly increase the opportunity for longer term employment, increased pay and more diverse opportunity.  

6. Marketing Marketing has been pretty much focused on embedding our worker collection points in the local community that they serve. This includes road site Blitzes, marketing to Schools, churches and other community organisations.

PR remains a very successful method of communication our benefits to the broader public. We have been very active in making ourselves heard. Articles and news reports on MSR can be accessed from our website under the news and updates tab.

We will be testing the efficacy of a radio campaign in Cape Town in August. We are hopeful that it will be more effective than our PR campaigns in communicating the benefits of hiring MSR members to a broader audience.