- Client
- Harambee
- Sector
- Not-for-profit organisations
- Project
- Youth Self-Employment Activation
The Brief
Services
- Evidence-based research
- Gap analysis
- Behavioural insights
- Behavioural strategy
- Behaviourally informed messaging
- Behaviourally driven intervention design
- M&E
The Social Issue
Half of young jobseekers click. Fewer than 2 in 100 ever earn a rand.
South Africa has a youth unemployment crisis. Self-employment offers a route to income, but very few people make it pay. Working alone, most young people earn under R1,000 a month. Pairing up with a partner lifts that to about R3,000. Both figures fall well short of the minimum wage of R5,900. Self-employment could lift many more young people out of poverty. Right now, the system does not get them there.
The Challenge
Picture a funnel. Out of every 100 young people who show interest, only 2 ever earn a rand.
50% of young people show interest.
15% show up.
2% earn a Rand.
Somewhere between clicking and showing up, the system loses most of the people it is meant to help. BCA was asked to find out where, and why.
The Science
We used evidence, not guesswork, to find out where young people were getting stuck.
BCA started with a literature review, a behavioural audit, and journey mapping. We added surveys, interviews, focus groups, and voices from young people themselves. We anchored the diagnostic in established behavioural science, read through a decision-making lens. This helped us see not just what young people do, but why. The SA Youth platform was central to this. It is where most young people first find an opportunity. We followed the whole journey, not just the platform.
The Insights
Young people are not short on motivation. They are short on proof.
The real barrier was trust, not willpower. Young people were asking a simple question: what if this is not real? When no one replied after they applied, silence felt like proof it was a scam, not a technical delay. We mapped the findings across six stages: awareness, consideration, onboarding, preparation, early earning, and persistence. The pathway kept breaking between stages, where young people carried cost, doubt or risk with no sign they were moving forward. We found five reasons people stall: low trust, weak earnings, clunky processes, missing skills, and no support system. Every fix we built answers at least one of these.
The Intervention
BCA and Harambee agreed nineteen fixes, sequenced into three waves.
Working through co-creation sessions with Harambee, we built fixes that work across three connected layers.
The SA Youth platform, where opportunities are framed and understood.
The support journey, which carries young people through onboarding, preparation and their first pay day.
The wider partner network, where earnings and requirements decide if an opportunity is worth taking.
Wave one covers quick changes Harambee can act on right away. Wave two means designing and testing new approaches. Wave three tackles the deeper changes needed to make the gains last.
The Impact
None of this matters unless it changes outcomes.
This project has already changed how the team sees the problem. Low activation was once seen as a motivation issue. Now it is seen as a risk and friction issue. That shift shapes every fix going forward. Success is tracked every month against clear KPIs and measures. Baseline indicators and measures are in place and a testing framework will guide refinement and assess what works. Implementation is the next milestone to measure the behavioural impact on youth.
Interest was never the problem. Getting young people the rest of the way there is.
From latent interest to real income.
