Getting from Good Intentions to Effective Action: A Proposal for a Just Transition Partnering Implementation Model in South Africa

The paper calls for implementation plans arising from the just transition framework in South Africa to be based on an explicit collaborative and adaptive approach and proposes a Partnering Implementation Model (PIM) to move from good intentions to implementation. The paper points to recurring patterns of failure to implement policies, frameworks and strategies in South Africa and argues if the proposed just transition implementation plan is going to succeed, it should not only identify state and societal actors necessary for implementation, but, more importantly, adopt a partnering approach that mobilises diverse actors and enables them to work together in practice. The process and practice of partnering, and adaptive management and learning, which forms the basis of the model, is aimed at navigating and managing complexity, especially in low-trust, low-certainty, and low-agreement environments, where no single institution has the whole mandate or resources to resolve the problem on its own, where technical and managerial solutions are insufficient, and where there is a need for human and institutional behaviour change. The partnering model is based on the notion of citizens as potential implementers, rather than passive bystanders in their own development. As such, it specifically challenges the instrumentalist ‘state-client’ model, which reduces citizens to recipients of public services, and instead views the state as a potential enabler of development, supporting non-state initiatives to play a role in delivering a just transition. The model prioritises building and sustaining relationships between the bottom-up mobilising environment and the top-down authorising environment, illustrated by a case study of the Social Employment Fund (SEF).