Social Procurement in South Africa: Driving Impact through Corporate Value Chains

The Release of YSB's Corporate Guide to Social Procurement in South Africa

September 3, 2024

Social procurement is a rising topic in supply chain sustainability for companies in South Africa. The origin of this practice traces back to South Africa's post-apartheid transition, marked by the implementation of transformative economic policies to uplift previously disadvantaged groups. Initiatives like Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and Enterprise & Supplier Development Programmes provide preferential procurement opportunities to black-owned businesses and work towards the bigger picture of a strengthened South African economy.

Social procurement is the practice of companies proactively selecting social enterprises as suppliers of goods and services in their value chain. (Learn more in the Social Procurement Manual)

The Corporate Guide to Social Procurement in South Africa offers insights into the opportunity for corporate procurement managers to leverage the strength of their corporate buying power not only to diversify their supply chains but also foster wider economic transformation and job creation for marginalised groups by working with social enterprises.

Click here to download the report

Download the Corporate Guide to Social Procurement in South Africa to:

🔎 🇿🇦 Gain instant access to a list of 36 South African social enterprises who are ready to sell to corporates with an overview on their product and service offerings, impact focus areas, and business links.

👣 🚩 Follow the social procurement experiences of social enterprises like Village Market Africa, Setšong African Tea Crafters, Tarem Services, I Love Coffee, and Taking Care of Business, to go in-depth about the impact that working with a social enterprise can bring to corporations.

📚 💪 Useful resources and practical tips to to get you started on your own corporate social procurement journey.

👉📩 If you are interested in developing social procurement in your company, reach out to Yunus Social Business for more information or support!

The Corporate Guide to Social Procurement in South Africa was done in partnership with Accendio, a Cape Town-based economic development consultancy specialising in entrepreneurial ecosystem development and innovative finance for social enterprises.

Learn more about Yunus Social Business' work in social procurement in the articles below:

The Social Procurement Manual

The Social Procurement Manual

Your guide to learning the basics of social procurement, debunking myths about the practice, and gaining a global view on the movement.

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Uncover the steps that Zurich is taking to implement social procurement in their organisation including the nuances of working with the local implementation of an international strategy.

Program Managers From SAP, Airbus and Kohler Co. Share Their Experiences As Social Intrapreneurs

For 14 months, we’ve been working closely with remarkable employees at some of the best known corporations in the world. We wanted to understand how they are driving corporate innovation from within and making their companies a force for good. On Tuesday, we spoke live to some of these intrepid Social Intrapreneurs, and shared the findings from our extensive joint research. Here’s what we learned

5 Questions with Audi's Social Intrapreneur, Lukas Petersik

In 2022, Yunus Social Business (YSB) and Audi embarked on a journey of social procurement together with the intention to learn, innovate, and take the lead on using business as a force for good. Now at the start of the 2nd year on this journey, YSB speaks with Lukas Petersik of Audi to hear about his experience as a corporate intrapreneur striving to turn value chains into a force for good. 

Meet the Eight Startups selected by the MAN Impact Accelerator for its second cohort!

In August we began scouting for the second round of the MAN Impact accelerator, searching for impact-driven and purpose-led startups in mobility and logistics.

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