Minister Sindisiwe Lydia Chikunga: 8th Annual Regenesys Women in Business and Leadership Conference

Keynote address by the Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Republic of South Africa, Hon. Sindisiwe Lydia Chikunga, MP, at the 8th Annual Regenesys Women in Business and Leadership Conference

Topic: Building an Inclusive Economy: The Role of Government, Business, and Academia

Members of the Regenesys Council and Management
Academics
Government and Business Leaders present
Distinguished Delegates
Good Morning!

Programme Director,

Thank you very much for the opportunity to join you this morning for the 8th Annual Regenesys Women in Business and Leadership Conference.

We are honoured by the opportunity to contribute to a theme that lies particularly close to the mandate, and to the programme of action, of the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities: “Building an Inclusive Economy — The Role of Government, Business, and Academia.” We are happy to be here. There is nowhere else we would rather be this morning.

Whenever business, government, academia and civil society assemble in one room to deliberate, coordinate and act on genuine empowerment programmes, our mandate is effectively activated. At the centre of that mandate is our Government’s commitment to transform, empower and transition women, youth and persons with disabilities into catalysts for socio-economic change and impact. In other words, our department occupies a space informed by our Government’s recognition that, despite the presence of several line-function departments and their programmes, vulnerable groups require a dedicated catalyst — one that takes extraordinary measures to ensure that they are not left behind.

Therefore, on behalf of the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, I want to thank Regenesys for convening this Women in Business and Leadership Conference just a few days  before  His  Excellency,  President  Cyril  Ramaphosa, delivers a historic Women’s Day Message on the 9th of August, at the Union Buildings.

Women’s Month During the 70th Anniversary of 1956

Programme Director, before I engage with today’s theme, and present our call to action, I wish to pay tribute to the generations of women who came before us — both present and departed — for waging a fearless and unrelenting struggle against all forms of discrimination, subordination and exploitation, in pursuit of a more just and humane society.Their struggle for gender equality represents one of history’s most enduring and transformative social movements. It has evolved from early demands by women not to be treated as minors, into contemporary demands for fundamental and systemic transformation in every sphere of life where decisions are made, and where power is exercised.

It was Lilian Ngoyi and a million others who paved the way for you and me to continue the work of dismantling patriarchal relations in the ownership, control and management of the wealth-producing resources of this land. It is they who laid the foundation for us to challenge, head-on, the exclusion of women from political participation, leadership and decision-making structures, property rights, educational opportunities, economic ownership — and every sphere in which power is exercised.

The commemoration of the Platinum Jubilee presents us with a timely opportunity to take active measures to challenge and correct some of the societal and cultural beliefs that continue to leverage gender stereotypes to steer women and girls away from government, business and academia — and from every other space where power is exercised, and where economic hierarchies are either reproduced or disrupted.

The Role of Business, Government and Academia in Building an Inclusive Economy — The Three Pillars Must Move in Unison
Programme Director, I now wish to turn our attention to the theme you have placed before me— the role of Government, Business and Academia in building an inclusive economy.

From the outset, allow me to state a fundamental premise: these three are the constitutive pillars of a functional economy. Not one of them can accomplish what we seek to achieve in isolation. Government cannot legislate its way to inclusion without the productive capacity of industry players. Businesses cannot thrive without the enabling framework and stability of an innovative public service. And neither government nor business can build a workforce, or a citizenry, capable of driving inclusion — without academia.

Everything I say this morning must therefore be read against a single organising claim: if we are to achieve real results, these three pillars must move in unison, not in parallel; in partnership, not in silos.

Africa’s Demographic Reality — Dividend or Disaster

Dear Colleagues, our continent stands at a critical crossroads. We are home to the youngest population on earth, with a median age of just 19 years; by 2050, one in four people on this planet will be African. This demographic reality presents us with what economists call a “demographic dividend” — a window in which the working-age population significantly outnumbers dependents, a massive opportunity to fuel rapid productive growth. 

However, a demographic dividend is not automatic. Without deliberate, massive and sustained investment in the health, education and wellbeing of our young people, our demographic bulge could become a demographic disaster — with youth unemployment, social instability, and lost potential as our legacy. This is why the three pillars must act in unison.

The Partnership Imperative — Reimagining Public-Private Collaboration

Public-Private Partnerships offer a pathway to bridge financing gaps, accelerate service delivery, enhance quality, and drive innovation in ways that neither sector can achieve alone. I am not talking about traditional PPPs focused solely on extractive industries. I am referring to a new generation of partnerships centred explicitly on human capital development.

The rationale for such PPPs must rest on four specific pillars: The first principle is    efficiency and innovation. In education, public-private partnerships have been shown to improve learning outcomes  when properly structured and regulated. The Second
Principle is PPPs based on risk-sharing. These are partnerships that allocate risks to the party best equipped to manage them. Third, accelerated delivery. 

Traditional PPPs have tended to be cumbersome and sometimes inefficient. PPPs, done well, should significantly compress those timelines — getting schools built, clinics operational, and services delivered to children who cannot afford to wait. And fourth, capacity transfer. PPPs must be structured to cultivate cutting-edge technologies, modern management practices, and specialised expertise that strengthen public systems over the long term.

However — and this is critical — PPPs are not a panacea. Done poorly, they simply exacerbate inequalities, prioritise profit over social outcomes, and lock governments into unfavourable contracts for decades. The international evidence on PPPs is mixed precisely because design and governance matter enormously.

Principles for Transformative Partnerships

Programme Director, in order to leverage the transformative potential of both government, business and academia, five principles must guide our partnership approach.

First, equity must be non-negotiable — any partnership in health, education or nutrition must explicitly prioritise those in the margins of society. In other words PPPs cannot become vehicles for serving only those who can pay. Second, quality cannot, and should not, be compromised. Third, sustainability must guide design — we are not seeking permanent dependence on private providers, but catalytic partnerships that strengthen national capacity.

Fourth, transparency and accountability are essential — partnership contracts must be publicly available, and performance metrics must be clearly defined and independently monitored. And fifth, our local context must shape solutions — one-size-fits-all

models imported from other contexts rarely work; partnerships must be designed with a deep understanding of local realities, cultural contexts and community needs.

Sectors Ripe for Partnership — A Call to Action

With the above principles in mind, i know wish to briefly highlight key sectors that are particularly ripe for partnership between these three pillars: Government, Business and Academia.

First, Early Childhood Development — the science is clear that investing in the first 1,000 days yields the highest returns, yet ECD remains chronically underfunded across our continent.

Second, Skills Development and Technical Education — where private sector leadership is most urgent, we are calling on industry leaders to directly co-design curricula with TVET colleges, to establish apprenticeship programmes, and to partner in coding academies, digital skills bootcamps, and innovation hubs that prepare our youth for the digital economy.

Third, is Health Systems Strengthening — partnerships that strengthen primary healthcare, expand access to essential medicines, and leverage technology to overcome geographic barriers are urgently needed. Fourth, Digital Infrastructure and Connectivity — without which none of these partnerships can achieve their potential.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated clearly how the digital divide translates directly into educational, health and income inequality. We need content platforms and software companies to invest in local content in African languages. And finally, we need Innovative Financing Mechanisms — to the extent that traditional PPP structures may not be optimal for social sector investments with long-term returns, and we need financing that bridges social impact and financial viability.

The Role of Government — Enabling Environment and Stewardship

At the centre of Government’s responsibilities is guaranteeing that these partnerships succeed. In other words, we cannot call on industry partners to invest, and then create regulatory uncertainty, bureaucratic obstacles or policy inconsistency that undermines those investments. Government must be a reliable partner — honouring commitments, paying agreed subsidies on time, and providing policy stability that makes long-term investments viable.

Our government is currently strengthening our PPP frameworks specifically for social sector investments, developing outcome-based financing mechanisms, and building capacity within national and provincial departments to engage private partners effectively. But we need your partnership in shaping those frameworks — your technical expertise in structuring deals, and your commitment to co-designing solutions that genuinely serve our youth.

Financial Inclusion for Women’s Economic Empowerment — Domains for this Conference to consider

Programme Director, in closing the substantive part of this intervention, allow me to place before this Conference six domains in which we must act deliberately to achieve financial inclusion for women.

First, economic decision-making and policy leadership — none of the above interventions will be possible until women gain full and equal participation in economic decision-making at every level, through gender-responsive budgeting across Government departments and quotas in central banks and financial regulatory bodies. Second, access to financial resources and capital formation — we must establish specialised women’s banking initiatives, scale up microcredit and leverage public procurement with a mandatory minimum 40% quota for contracts awarded to women-owned businesses, and develop gender-responsive fintech.

Finally, the care economy and work-family balance — the unrecognised care responsibilities that fall disproportionately on women are a major barrier to economic participation; we must increase national budgets for affordable childcare, mandate flexible work arrangements, and engage men and boys in the equal sharing of household responsibilities.

In closing

Programme Director, I wish to end where I began. Government, Business and Academia are the three constitutive pillars of a functional economy. They must move in unison, not in parallel; in partnership, not in silos. Financial inclusion is not merely about bank accounts or loans — it is about transforming systems, challenging norms, and creating an enabling environment where women can exercise full economic citizenship. As we mark the Platinum Jubilee of the 1956 Women’s March, let us leave this Conference committed to concrete action, with timelines and accountability, and with the understanding that we owe the next generation of women more than we inherited.

I thank you.

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