Workspaces Centres Management and Social Mitigation Project in Mining regions

The overall goal of the social mitigation component of the Mine Closure and Social Mitigation Project is to support members of mining communities to adapt to new livelihoods primarily through new employment and self-employment activities; more widely, the component aims to contribute to the process of revitalisation and diversification of the economic activity of the traditional mining regions.

There are two fields of activity upon which the activities of the assignment will focus:

• enterprise support services to assist small entrepreneurs and business start-ups

• support for start-up businesses through provision of managed workspace premises

• improve traditional mining regions development

Corporate Solutions SA (as a DFC Group subsidiary then) was in charge of the Workspace Centres management component.

The assignment has five specified tasks:

• workspace centre management – to set-up and manage – for the lifetime of the project – four workspace centres, refurbished for the purpose of incubating and assisting small firms started by former mining and related personnel

• promotional activity; The purpose of this activity is to raise awareness, in all the mining localities, of the enterprise support activity and its services

• enterprise support; to provide technical assistance and support for micro and small enterprise development

• setting up and updating business information and client tracking databases that will fulfil two main objectives;

  1. To provide an effective information service for customers

  2. To record and monitor the results and impact of the business support service

• preparing and submitting an exit strategy - The purpose of this activity is to provide NAD with a business plan that will enable a satisfactory exit strategy and handover of the workspace centres, with the goal of sustaining the centre as a location for micro and small business and their development.