Press Release: SA’s Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund selected as a grant recipient by the global Outcomes Accelerator
POSTED ON: August 12, 2025 IN Newsby admin
12 August 2025 – Johannesburg, South Africa – Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund, South Africa’s pioneering outcomes-based youth employment fund, has been recognised on the global stage as one of ten selected projects of the Outcomes Finance Alliance’s (OFA) Outcomes Accelerator.
The Outcomes Accelerator provides grant funding that will be used for the scale up of Jobs Boost following its highly successful R300m pilot programme which has already seen over 6,000 excluded young people placed into quality jobs.
Jobs Boost, a part of the Presidency’s Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI), was developed and implemented by research-led consulting house Krutham. Its pilot phase, for which the Department of Higher Education and Training’s National Skills Fund was the sole outcomes funder, is on track to exceed targets when it concludes at the end of 2025.
Launched in 2023, Jobs Boost works with implementation partners to train and place unemployed youth from disadvantaged backgrounds into sustainable, quality jobs and pays for results only when those jobs are secured and sustained. This performance-based approach shifts the risk of creating jobs from the public sector to the private sector and ensures that funding is directly tied to meaningful employment.
Jobs Boost is one of two South African initiatives selected from over 500 applications to the Outcomes Accelerator. Half of this year’s winners have an African presence, underscoring the continent’s growing leadership in innovative finance for impact.
Scaling to meet urgent demand
The OFA Outcomes Accelerator award provides Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund with targeted funding and technical support to scale up for the next phase. The grant will fund research to accelerate its expansion, refine delivery models, and widen partnerships.
“We are proud to see Jobs Boost recognised alongside some of the most innovative impact finance initiatives globally,” said Dr Stuart Theobald, founder and executive chairman of Krutham. “It validates the Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund model and puts us on a pathway to substantially scale the initiative for its next phase, allowing us to reach thousands of excluded young people and connecting them to sustainable, life-changing employment.”
Proven progress, powerful potential
The fund is delivering real-world impact, having already placed over 6,000 youth into quality jobs at 192 employers since inception. The eligible candidates must be young people who are unemployed and have minimal qualifications, a group that historically struggles to access the labour market. The eligible jobs meet strict criteria: full-time, minimum 12-month contracts, above-minimum-wage pay, and compliance with all labour laws. As an outcomes fund, implementing partners only receive funding on delivering verified outcomes, with the final one being six months of sustained quality employment. The 12 implementing partners were selected through a rigorous process that assessed proposals on value for money, additionality, technical capacity, governance and other criteria.
“The Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund is a powerful example of how innovative financing can translate into real, measurable opportunities for young South Africans,” said Tshego Walker, director of the PYEI. “By tying funding directly to quality job outcomes, we are ensuring that every rand spent delivers tangible results. This global recognition shows that South Africa is not only tackling youth unemployment, but also shaping solutions that can inspire the world.”
With South Africa’s youth unemployment rate among the highest in the world, initiatives like the Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund are critical to turning the tide. By linking funding directly to tangible employment outcomes, the programme ensures that young people are not just trained but placed into meaningful work. This latest recognition underscores the urgency and the potential of scaling innovative models that give South Africa’s youth the opportunities they need to build sustainable careers and contribute to the country’s economic growth.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Jennifer Kann: jkann@krutham.com | +27 83 455 3289
Kennedy Dube: kennedy@lingocom.co.za | +27 78 844 4229
About Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund
Jobs Boost is a R300 million pay-for-performance programme in South Africa. It is an outcomes fund that works with implementing partners to secure sustainable, quality jobs for unemployed, excluded youth. The initiative was designed by Krutham, with funding for the pilot provided by the National Skills Fund, and is part of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI). For further information please click here
About the Outcomes Accelerator
The Outcomes Accelerator is a global initiative to accelerate more effective testing, scaling, and mainstreaming of outcomes-based financing approaches in the delivery of SDG impact. It offers flexible funding, targeted expertise, and networking to enable outcomes-based financing projects to launch. At the policy level, the Accelerator aims to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of development spending from the public and private sectors, to ultimately achieve the objectives of the SDGs. All proposals are competitively assessed against pre-defined evaluation and eligibility criteria that can be found here.
To learn more about the Outcomes Accelerator and our growing global community, visit outcomesaccelerator.org.
The Governing Committee of the Outcomes Accelerator is comprised by its funders, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the UBS Optimus Foundation and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the UK (FCDO), who are supported by Levoca LLC as the Secretariat.
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