Hand in Hand Southern Africa

What Hand in Hand Southern Africa does

Hand in Hand Southern Africa is a non-profit organisation founded in 2008 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. It operates across eight of South Africa's nine provinces through field offices in Johannesburg, Polokwane, Musina, and Durban, with a staff of 66. The organisation addresses chronic unemployment, poverty, and economic exclusion through integrated enterprise development, employability training, financial literacy, and psychosocial support programmes. Its primary beneficiary segments include youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), women entrepreneurs, refugees and asylum seekers, adolescent girls and young women, and migrant children.

The organisation delivers nine core service lines — wage employment, entrepreneurship development, financial literacy, digital literacy, sports and recreation, research and development, gender-based violence prevention, HIV combination prevention, and psychosocial support — supplemented by donation-funded advocacy campaigns. Programme delivery relies on ILO-accredited training modules (Generate Your Business Idea, Start Your Business, Improve Your Business) layered with proprietary Self-Help Group, Peer Support Group, and Business Improvement Group structures that provide peer-to-peer reinforcement. To date, the organisation reports impacting over 200,000 lives across 15 years of operation, with individual programmes ranging from the EWEP (23,166 women entrepreneurs, 2013-2015) to the National Youth Service (7,015 participants).

The organisation is funded entirely through donations, grants, and institutional partnerships, with no commercial revenue. Key funders and partners include ABSA, UN Women, UNHCR, Save the Children, FHI360, Beyond Zero, Jobs Fund (DBSA), National Lotteries Commission, NORAD, Anglo American, De Beers Group, and various government agencies (NYDA, Department of Social Development). The go-to-market model is community-led: beneficiaries are acquired through community mobilisation, social interventions, and referrals from implementing partners. The organisation's stated strategic goal is to reach 1 million marginalised and vulnerable people, with ambitions to expand into the rest of anglophone Southern Africa.

Name

Hand in Hand Southern Africa

Legal name

Hand In Hand Southern Africa

Website

https://handinhand-sa.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Hand in Hand Southern Africa is a Johannesburg-based non-profit that delivers enterprise development, employability training, financial literacy, and psychosocial support programmes to youth NEET, women entrepreneurs, refugees, and adolescent girls across eight of South Africa's nine provinces, funded entirely through institutional grants and donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Non-profit Socio-Economic Development

NAICS

Technical and Trade Schools (61151), Educational Support Services (61171), Professional and Management Development Training (61143)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Rural Livelihoods & Economic Empowerment (BPAGABAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

SME & Entrepreneurship Development (Trade-Linked) (BPADAMAE)

Keywords

• Enterprise development training
• Poverty alleviation programs
• Entrepreneurship skills training
• Financial literacy education
• Community economic empowerment

Headquarters

HQ city

Johannesburg

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Donations and Grants: Hand in Hand Southern Africa operates entirely on donations, grants, and funding from institutional partners including UN Women, UNHCR, ABSA, Save the Children, FHI360, Beyond Zero, Jobs Fund (DBSA), National Lotteries Commission, NORAD, Anglo American, and government agencies. As a non-profit organisation, it does not generate commercial revenue.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Hand in Hand Southern Africa is a non-profit organisation that delivers poverty alleviation programmes across South Africa. It provides enterprise development training, entrepreneurship and employability skills, financial and digital literacy, vocational training, and psychosocial support to marginalised individuals including youth, women, refugees, and migrant communities. Programmes combine business training (using ILO-accredited GYB/SYB/IYB modules), mentorship, microfinance access, and linkages to labour markets and government partners.

Product overview

Hand in Hand Southern Africa operates as a non-profit organization offering a portfolio of interconnected programs and donation-funded campaigns focused on poverty alleviation through economic empowerment. The core service offerings include Wage Employment Services (employability skills, life skills, labour market linkages, TVET), Entrepreneurship Development (business training, mentoring, microfinance access using ILO modules), Financial Literacy/Consumer Education, Digital Literacy, Sports and Recreation, Research and Development, Gender-Based Violence Prevention, HIV Combination Prevention, and Psychosocial Support. These core services are complemented by targeted campaign initiatives including Agripreneurs Training, Empower for Employment, GBV Prevention, HIV/AIDS Prevention, Women Economic Empowerment Drive, Financial Education for All Drive, Digital Skills for Empowerment, Job Creation Initiative, and Back to School Campaign. The organization implements these programs primarily in eight of nine provinces in South Africa, with a strategic goal to reach 1 million marginalized and vulnerable people, particularly women and girls.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Wage Employment Services Employability skills training, life skills training, labour market linkages, and technical/vocational education and training (TVET) programmes that help unemployed youth transition into sustainable employment.
• Entrepreneurship Development Business and entrepreneurship training using ILO-accredited GYB, SYB, and IYB modules, mentoring, and access to microfinance for aspiring and existing entrepreneurs, primarily women and youth.
• Financial Literacy / Consumer Education Consumer education workshops, savings groups, peer support groups, business skills bootcamps, and advocacy with financial institutions to support beneficiaries in opening bank accounts and managing finances.
• Digital Literacy Skills training on social media platforms, digital marketing, and online communication to help beneficiaries adapt to post-COVID digital economy requirements.
• Sports and Recreation Gender equality and empowerment programmes using sports to challenge stereotypes, mobilise communities, and create livelihood opportunities for girls, women, and youth.
• Gender-Based Violence Prevention Awareness campaigns, support services for survivors, gender equality programmes, and advocacy to prevent gender-based violence in disadvantaged communities.
• HIV Combination Prevention Comprehensive HIV prevention package for Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) including education, testing, community mobilisation, and economic strengthening interventions.
• Psychosocial Support and Business Skills Bootcamps Psychosocial support for trauma survivors, emergency business resilience bootcamps for victims of attacks or displacement, and environmental awareness with food security training.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 200,000 lives impacted across South Africa over 15 years
• +11 more outcomes

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• FHI360coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFHI360 subcontracted Hand in Hand Southern Africa in July 2021 to provide Economic Strengthening (ES) Training for Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW). The project aims to reach 5,883 AGYW girls in four provinces (Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal, and Mpumalanga), providing financial literacy, entrepreneurial mindset training, and workplace sexual harassment prevention training.
• Beyond ZerocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHand in Hand Southern Africa was appointed as a Civil Society Organisation by Beyond Zero for the Global Fund's Community Responses and Systems CSO Capacity Development Project since April 2021. The programme targets Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) in Nelson Mandela Bay Sub District C, providing mobilisation, health service referrals, and HIV prevention demand activations.
• Save the ChildrencoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHand in Hand SA partnered with Save the Children on the Skills Development for Migrant and Displaced Children in South Africa programme. During 2022, 220 migrant children were impacted in Limpopo and Gauteng provinces. The programme trained beneficiaries on entrepreneurial skills including Financial Literacy, Life Skills, and Employability through the SIYBs ILO model, and 37 business plans were developed for Girls on the Move (GOMs).
• National Youth Development Agency (NYDA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNYDA partnered with Hand in Hand SA as an implementer of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention Programme - National Youth Service (NYS) across eight provinces of South Africa. The programme mobilised young people aged 18-35 years to become active citizens while earning an income and increasing employability.
• Boyz and Girlz FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHand in Hand partnered with Boyz and Girlz Foundation on the 2026 Back-to-School Campaign to support disadvantaged children from Johannesburg's inner-city communities with school uniforms and stationery. The campaign targets children without basic school supplies to provide dignity, confidence, and a sense of belonging.
• Dikuno Tsa Sechaba Development Trust and Lefa La Rona Development TrustminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThese two development trusts partnered with Hand in Hand SA and the EWEYP (Empowering Women Entrepreneurs and Youth) project in December 2015, targeting the Mantserre community and nearby villages in the North West province to alleviate poverty and promote socio-economic growth.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• TechnoServe: Global non-profit focused on enterprise development and poverty alleviation through business-led solutions for smallholder farmers and micro-entrepreneurs. Comparable because it operates at the intersection of livelihoods, training, and market access for marginalised producers in Africa.
• Opportunity International: Global microfinance and enterprise development organisation serving micro-entrepreneurs in developing markets. Comparable in providing microfinance access, business training, and savings group programmes to women entrepreneurs in Africa.
• Hand in Hand International: Global parent/affiliate network running the same Self-Help Group + ILO entrepreneurship curriculum model. Direct peer because it operates the same poverty-alleviation-via-enterprise methodology that Hand in Hand Southern Africa delivers, including shared branding and curriculum lineage.
• Heifer International: International development non-profit working on rural livelihoods and economic empowerment through agricultural enterprise and self-help group models. Directly comparable in targeting smallholder and women entrepreneurs with structured graduation pathways.
• Self-Help Africa: Irish-headquartered non-profit working on rural livelihoods, enterprise development, and agricultural value chains across sub-Saharan Africa. Comparable focus on enterprise training, agripreneurship, and smallholder market access in similar African geographies.

Broad incumbents

• BRAC: One of the world's largest development non-profits, operating across microfinance, enterprise development, education, and health in multiple African and Asian countries. Broad incumbent because it offers overlapping enterprise and livelihoods programmes but at vastly greater scale and geographic breadth.
• Mercy Corps: Large global humanitarian and development organisation with programmes in economic recovery, livelihoods, and youth employment across fragile contexts. Broad incumbent with overlapping refugee livelihoods and youth employment work but a much wider thematic and geographic portfolio.
• CARE International: Major international NGO focused on poverty alleviation, women's economic empowerment, and humanitarian response globally. Comparable in serving women, refugees, and marginalised communities with livelihoods programming, but at much larger scale.

Emerging players

• Grameen Foundation: US-based non-profit working on poverty alleviation through microfinance, digital financial services, and self-help group methodologies for women entrepreneurs. Comparable livelihoods and SHG approach, especially across Africa and Asia, with a stronger fintech/digital emphasis.

Regional players

• Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator: South African non-profit focused on solving youth unemployment through demand-led training, job matching, and employer partnerships. Regional peer with overlapping NEET youth and employability skills mandate in South Africa, but uses a tech-enabled platform model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hand-in-hand-development

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hand in Hand Southern Africa