South Africa

Demand for agricultural products is increasing, with most experts suggesting that food production will need to double by 2050 in order to meet food demand. To increase production, while improving the sustainability of agriculture, we need to adopt better methods, better management, tillage methods, better knowledge of resources, and better genetics. In the last two decades, the area planted with biotech crops has increased in the world to reach 10% of total arable land. The main traits are herbicide tolerance and insect resistance. In South Africa, yields have almost doubled with the adoption of biotech maize, which now accounts for a fourth of the area planted. Farm-level evidence in the Freestate Province of South Africa shows that biotech varieties are less dependent on rainfall, reduce production costs, and increase yield and profit margins (by up to 32%) compared to other varieties. Moreover, savings on herbicide and pesticide applications, and the resulting decline in fuel usage, have had positive impacts on the environment.

Vocational education and training (VET) programmes are facing rapid change and intensifying challenges. How can employers and unions be engaged? How can workbased learning be used? How can teachers and trainers be effectively prepared? How should postsecondary programmes be structured? This country report on South Africa looks at these and other questions.

This chapter provides a profile of the Gauteng city-region’s leading economic and demographic trends and offers an analytical framework for policy recommendations. The chapter begins with a definition of the city-region and then offers a critical assessment of its economic performance, innovation potential and environmental constraints. Considerable achievements in public service delivery and education are highlighted. The chapter also explores the legacy of apartheid spatial patterns on mobility, local economic development and land use patterns. The question of adequate housing receives particular attention, given its potential as a catalyst of economic development and a primary vehicle for socio-economic integration. Trends in population growth, provincial R&D expenditure, employment, patenting levels, air quality, poverty, household income distribution and transport access are reviewed. For a comparative analysis sensitive to the global nature of the economy, key indicators are benchmarked with the 90 OECD metro-regions of more than 1.5 million inhabitants that are included in the OECD Metropolitan Database.

2001: Pension Funds Second Amendment Act; amends the Pension Funds Act of 1956 to provide for the apportionment of surplus to stakeholders which includes employers, members, pensioners, deferred pensioners, and former members.

The formulation of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) was in many ways an impressive process. The government consulted widely with social partners and sought international expert opinion on economic development. The result was a strategy that first identified a limited number of constraints to faster and more broadly shared growth, and then outlined a set of policy interventions to remove those constraints. AsgiSA set targets for growth for 2006-10 and 2011-14 aimed at meeting the government’s previously determined objective of halving unemployment and poverty by 2014.

This Review was produced by the Division of Regional Development Policy in the Public Governance and Territorial Development (GOV) of the OECD, in collaboration with the Gauteng Provincial Government and the Gauteng City-Region Observatory.

This chapter focuses on economic policy and outlines initiatives that build on the progress the Gauteng city-region has made towards a more inclusive economy. Since the end of the apartheid era, the windows of economic development have been opened for a large number of citizens in the city-region, but gaps remain nevertheless. The chapter reviews the result of recent attempts to reduce the exceptionally high level of unemployment, raise tertiary education attainment rates, and reduce high levels of informal housing and infrastructure backlogs. A section dedicated to spatial inequality discusses Gauteng’s central dilemma: how to provide for its booming population an affordable stock of housing and transport infrastructure that can bridge the service gaps inherited from apartheid. It recommends the adoption of a suite of policies to increase the supply of modest-cost housing and improve mobility through transport-oriented development and growth management. With a view to confronting economic inequality, the chapter includes a labour market policy analysis and stresses the need to improve labour market security for all workers. Given Gauteng’s dominance as the centre of African innovation, the chapter recommends a range of policies to capitalise on the city-region’s dynamism, e.g. improving productivity growth, expanding small businesses, developing new green growth sectors, and addressing bulk infrastructure needs. Taking account of the fluidity of the economic system in Gauteng and increasing inter-municipal commuting, the chapter proposes that policy approaches be grounded in a city-region framework.

This publication provides comprehensive and consistent information on African central government debt statistics for the period 2003-2012. Detailed quantitative information on central government debt instruments is provided for 17 countries to meet the requirements of debt managers, other financial policy makers, and market analysts. A cross country overview on African debt management policies and country policy notes provides background information on debt issuance as well as on the institutional and regulatory framework governing debt management policy.

This publication provides comprehensive and consistent information on African central government debt statistics for the period 2003-2013. Detailed quantitative information on central government debt instruments is provided for 17 countries to meet the requirements of debt managers, other financial policy makers and market analysts. A cross country overview on African debt management policies and country policy notes provides background information on debt issuance as well as on the institutional and regulatory framework governing debt management policy