Values
INCLUSION
Consider all perspectives equally and honestly.
INTEGRITY
Honor the best in ourselves and others.
INSPIRATION
Move people to believe in better.
INNOVATION
Make a difference differently.
IMPACT
Create change that matters.
About Us
About IYF
IYF established roots in South Africa more than 15 years ago. At IYF, we believe that educated, employed and engaged young people possess the power to solve the world’s toughest problems. At the heart of IYF’s efforts is building partnerships, initiatives and curricular that prepares young people to succeed as citizens, learners, employees, entrepreneurs and change-makers.
In the South African context, IYF collaborates with government, industry, and civil society to strengthen TVET training systems that contribute towards making the school to work transition a smooth journey for young people.
Vision
IYF envisions a world where all young people are inspired and equipped to realize the future they want.
Mission
IYF connects young people with opportunities to transform their lives
Our Story
IYF South Africa advocates for meaningful change through advocating for youth empowerment and skills development with an acknowledgement of the potential of young people.
IYF South Africa operates in five provinces -Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
What we have achieved
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Young people
Meet the Team
Anusha Naicker
Country Director, IYF South Africa
Her background and family history has allowed her to understand the barriers to youth empowerment and ultimately drives her commitment to want to make a substantive contribution to moving the needle on youth employability.
A highly seasoned and skilled Youth Development Professional, Anusha Naicker’s skills development expertise encompasses Business, Private, Public and NGO-sector exposure.
Her Private, Public and NGO-sector experience includes exposure as a Youth Development Professional at organisations such as the International Youth Foundation (IYF), Nedcor Bank Limited, First Rand Banking Group Limited, Standard Bank Corporate and Investment Banking and the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
She is passionate about enabling youth empowerment via implementing structured initiatives that collaborate between government, business and labour and firmly believes that this will secure economic prosperity and propel young people to succeed.
Anusha D Naicker
Country Director - International Youth Foundation
Khalil Patel
Programme Manager, South Africa
He is a qualified Education, Training and Development Practitioner and has previously worked at Discovery Holdings as a corporate trainer and the South African Broadcasting Corporation where he managed the Skills Development function.
Khalil is a Programme Manager for the IYF South Africa team leading the Skills for Life initiative which seeks to improve young peoples’ academic and workforce outcomes. He is a seasoned skills development professional who previously worked as a Project Manager and Business Process Engineering Consultant helping organisations to improve the quality of their outputs through enhancing and streamlining their operational processes.
Khalil brings a combination of extensive industry expertise and a a demonstrated commitment to redressing social and economic inequalities through skills development and education.
He’s community development experience includes co-founding a non-profit organisation which seeks to uplift and empower underprivileged and disadvantaged communities through skills development and relief projects.
Khalil-Ahmed Patel
Programme Manager - International Youth Foundation
Kerrin Odendaal
Programme Manager, Risk and Planning, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT KERRIN ODENDAAL
• Languages: English
• Country of birth: South Africa
• Hobbies: Traveling, pilates, eating good food and wine
Kerrin joined IYF as the Programme Manager, Risk and Planning, for the High Gear initiative in South Africa late in 2020. Her role at IYF entails leading cross-donor project planning, budget forecasting, and risk mitigation for the High Gear initiative, amongst other areas of cross-donor implementation support.
Prior to joining IYF, she worked in the field of health consulting with more than 10 years’ experience working with large-scale USAID and UKAID-funded initiatives in South Africa, including leading collaborations with key stakeholders and clients both internationally and at the national, provincial and district levels within South Africa’s public health sector.
Kerrin is skilled at project management, budgeting and forecasting, report writing, and developing and overseeing activity-based work plans.
Kerrin studied economics and health economics at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and her Masters focused on identifying the impact of HIV/AIDS on adolescent decision-making, with a passion for youth development and economic development.
Kerrin Odendaal
Programme Manager, Risk and Planning, South Africa
Jethro Abel
Programme Manager, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT JETHRO ABEL
• Languages: Afrikaans, English, Zulu
• Country of birth: South Africa
• Hobbies: Stock trading, go-kart racing, cricket
Jethro serves as the Programme Manager for IYF’s High Gear initiative in KZN, South Africa, providing technical and operational oversight of the project. He has more than six years of multi-sector development program experience, including work for global development consulting, non-profit, and private sector organizations. He has spent more than four years advancing economic opportunities in SMMEs, healthcare, and youth development, and is passionate about the power of youth and culture to drive effective social change.
He is an exco-member of the Commonwealth Alumni Association and an advisor for economic development in his residential ward. Jethro holds a master’s degree in developmental economics from the University of Edinburgh and an honours degree (cum laude) in developmental economics and international relations from the University of KwaZulu Natal.
Jethro Abel
Programme Manager, South Africa
Joy-lynn de Kock
Project Manager, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT JOY-LYNN DE KOCK
• Languages: Afrikaans, English
• Country of birth: South Africa
• Hobbies: Painting, cooking, & baking
Joy-lynn joined IYF South Africa as Project Manager in April 2021. She is a seasoned professional with more than 20 years’ experience in project management and marketing. Joy-lynn has extensive experience in developing and executing sales and marketing strategies, delivering on project management goals, and developing initiatives to achieve and support sales drives for SMME sales teams.
She previously worked at the South African Broadcasting Corporation where she was responsible for implementation of Sales and Marketing Strategies and Project Management across Provincial offices for Business Development.
She is passionate about education and uplifting young people and has a desire to make a difference for future generations. Being part of the Skills for Success project is a privilege and provides an opportunity to reduce challenges around educational and unemployment in South Africa.
Joy-lynn de Kock
Project Manager, South Africa
Angela Govendar
TVET Curriculum Enhancement Manager, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT ANGELA GOVENDER
• Languages: Afrikaans, English
• Country of birth: South Africa
• Hobbies: Tango, hiking, and quaint cafes
Angela joined IYF in 2020, bringing extensive experience and passion for education and development. Previously, her professional roles have involved teaching, training, content design, e-learning, and programme management in countries including Angola, Malaysia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, and Uruguay.
At IYF, Angela oversees the design and refinement of TVET curricula enhancements introduced through the High Gear initiative. She is charged with creating and advising on sustainable curriculum upgrades to find solutions that are sustainable within a challenging education system, aligned to automotive industry needs, and able to create opportunities for partnership links with the goal of generating positive returns for young people and employers.
Angela’s MA thesis focused on developing, implementing, and evaluating a distanced teacher-education course at the University of South Africa.
Angela Govendar
TVET Curriculum Enhancement Manager, SOUTH AFRICA
Angelina Govindsamy
Employer Partnership Officer, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT ANGELINA GOVINDSAMY
• Languages: English
• Country of birth: South Africa
• Hobbies: Travel and watching documentaries
Angelina joined IYF South Africa as the Employer Partnerships Officer in the KwaZulu-Natal Province, helping to support South Africa’s growing programmes portfolio with a specific focus on the High Gear project, which is working to boost the TVET college system in partnership with the automotive manufacturing sector. She has over 16 years of experience in South Africa’s skills development and quality assurance environment, with 10 of those years working within the SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority) system.Angelina has worked closely with private and public organizations from a regional and national level providing technical advisory services; project managed SETA-funded learning programmes primarily targeted at youth from previously disadvantage backgrounds; and quality assured training at TVET colleges.
Through her previous work, she has also advocated on HIV/Aids awareness and gender equity at workplaces whilst providing career guidance in remote areas in KZN. She is a qualified education, training, and development practitioner who is passionate and committed to empowerment of our future leaders through equal and quality skills development and creation of entrepreneurship opportunities.
Angelina Govindsamy
Employer Partnership Officer, South Africa
Colin Hagans
Program Director, Chief of Party, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT COLIN HAGANS
• Languages: English, Portuguese
• Country of birth: United States
• Hobbies: Cooking; hiking; road trips; discovering hidden coffee shops
Colin leads High Gear, a multi-donor funded initiative that is advancing South Africa’s public TVET college system by facilitating robust, mutually beneficial partnerships with the country’s automotive manufacturing industry. Colin joined IYF in 2012 to support implementation and expansion of the organization’s Southern Africa portfolio. Since that time, he has contributed to the design and successful implementation of youth entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, workforce development, and TVET system strengthening initiatives in Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Colin played a lead role in expanding IYF programming in South Africa, including developing the
first IYF South Africa Country Strategy, leading business development to resource that strategy, and establishing IYF’s first partnership with government and the national TVET system to enable strategy implementation. In 2019, Colin led the design of High Gear, and in 2020 he was appointed to oversee start-up and implementation of this flagship IYF initiative in South Africa. Colin came to IYF with eight years’ experience, including with Aga Khan Foundation in Mozambique and UN-HABITAT in Nairobi. His previous roles included research, program management, and business development in agriculture, food security, market systems development, financial inclusion, urban planning, and climate change resiliency planning sectors. Colin holds a BSocSci in Public Policy & Administration from the University of Cape Town, and a MS in Urban Development Planning from University College London.
Colin Hagans
Program Director, Chief of Party, South Africa
Siyanda Magubane
MERL Officer, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT SIYANDA MAGUBANE
• Languages: English, isiXhosa, Sotho, Zulu
• Country of birth: South Africa
• Hobbies: Reading, politics, personal fitness
Siyanda Magubane joined IYF in 2020 as the Measurement, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) Officer for the High Gear initiative. He has nearly 10 years of experience working in the development sector, six of which have been spent in a senior MERL role supporting various projects in early childhood development, education, child protection, child rights governance, and health & nutrition.
Siyanda is systems-orientated and has spent most of his career developing and strengthening MERL systems to collect credible evidence on the effectiveness of projects. He takes a participatory approach to his work as he believes MERL processes require collaboration and are the foundations on which we can all learn from our experiences, improve our projects, and ultimately improve the quality of impact on our
beneficiaries.
He earned a Bachelor of Social Science degree in philosophy, politics, and law and a Bachelor of Social Science Honours degree in international relations from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.
Siyanda Magubane
MERL Officer, South Africa
Masakhane Mlamla
Programme Manager, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT MASAKHANE MLAMLA
• Languages: English, isiXhosa
• Country of birth South Africa
• Hobbies: Hiking, Bungee Jumping, and playing indoor soccer
Masa joined IYF South Africa in 2020 as a Programme Manager leading High Gear work in the Eastern Cape Province. Over 15 years Masa has worked for various national organizations in multiple sectors across a number of provinces in South Africa serving at different leadership levels. In the last 8 years he has held a number of positions in Human Capital Development, before joining IYF his last role was serving as Provincial Executive Eastern Cape. He provided leadership to set up and to evolve the organizations business model and strategy in increasing impact, building efficiencies and influence in the labor market. Over the years Masa has built strong strategic partnerships which are central to organizational development, stakeholder and donor management. He has also been involved in providing though leadership on youth opportunity transitions in platforms such as national Manufacturing Indaba, COGTA BRICS Summit, Nelson Mandela Youth Summit etc. Masa is also appointed by the Minister in the Department of Higher Education and Training to serve as a Council member providing governance oversight and strategic direction to one of the TVET Colleges in South Africa serving as chairperson in one of the Committees.
Masakhane Mlamla
Programme Manager, South Africa
Nigel Joseph Ndekwere
Senior Finance & Administration Officer, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT NIGEL JOSEPH NDEKWERE
• Languages: English, Shona
• Country of birth Zimbabwe
• Hobbies: Traveling, watching soccer and basketball
Nigel Joseph Ndekwere is IYF South Africa’s Senior Finance & Administration Officer. Nigel joined IYF South Africa in April 2021, where he is responsible for providing financial accounting, reporting, budgeting, and budget management support to the three main programs, namely Skills for life, Skills for Success and High Gear. Before joining IYF SA, Nigel worked for several International NGOs in South Africa and Zimbabwe in different capacities in finance departments, with responsibilities in grants management, financial accounting and reporting for several funders including USAID, the Global Fund, DIFD, and the EU.
Nigel has joined several professionals, through Humentum, who are developing the world’s first internationally applicable financial reporting guidance for non-profit organizations IFR4NPO, with the aim of solving many challenges experienced by preparers, users, and auditors of financial reports. Nigel holds a Higher National Diploma in Accounting, NFQ7, Management Development Diploma from Wits Business School. He is currently studying for the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) qualification. Nigel moved from Zimbabwe to South Africa in 2008.
Nigel Joseph Ndekwere
Senior Finance & Administration Officer, SOUTH AFRICA
Simphiwe Nkosi
MERL Officer, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT SIMPHIWE NKOSI
• Languages: English, Sotho, Zulu
• Country of birth: South Africa
• Hobbies: Cooking and reading
In 2020, Simphiwe joined the IYF South Africa Team. With over seven years of monitoring and assessment experience, Simphiwe has expertise in the design and execution of M&E systems, performance metrics, and monitoring plans for projects.
Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to develop his craft in numerous contexts and fields within the sector.
Before joining IYF, he worked as an M&E consultant for organizations such as Singizi Consulting Africa and The Aurum Institute, where he provided technical support for all M&E processes, including quality assessments and ensuring appropriate quality-assurance frameworks for
programs.
Simphiwe Nkosi
MERL Officer, South Africa
Nqobile Zwane
Communications Officer, South Africa
FACTS ABOUT NQOBILE ZWANE
• Languages: English, Siswati, Zulu
• Country of birth: Kingdom of Eswatini
• Hobbies: Travelling, sightseeing, creative journaling
Nqobile joined IYF in October 2021 as a Communications Officer. In her current role, she will lead on content creation, coordination, and dissemination across the South Africa portfolio. Most notably, Nqobile has worked at GIZ South Africa supporting in the Planning and Coordination of the Africa Creates Jobs 2021 dialogue under the Skills Initiative for Africa Programme (SIFA).
Prior to that, she was working as a Communications Officer for the Youth Division at the African Union Commission (AUC). Nqobile has six years’ experience in marketing, public relations and communications.
She holds a BA Honours in Strategic Communication and a BA in Strategic Corporate Communication.