[{"bbox": [96, 153, 1135, 710], "category": "Text", "text": "power outages and bleak socio-economic context, SMMEs cannot operate and thrive as they should. And for jobs to be green and decent, the power supply needs to be made greener. SMMEs are losing revenue and customers and much-needed jobs are not being created. SMMEs are also shutting down or have gone into \"survival\" mode. Load-shedding and related factors aside, SMME growth in South Africa is also hindered by limited adequate access to the necessary skills and to highly skilled graduates or experienced workers. They also have limited adequate access to finance, business development services (BDS) and critical infrastructure (for instance affordable and consistent clean energy, information, etc.) to perform and grow. One root cause of SMMEs low access to banking finance is a lack of education and understanding of bank processes and factors influencing their creditworthiness. These could include poor governance by SMMEs and lack of proper bookkeeping: SMMEs need financial literacy and basic business management skills upskilling. On the other hand, banks should find innovative ways of assessing creditworthiness for SMMEs, consider other data sources and collaborate with government agents and DFIs. While several financing intermediaries contribute to providing finance to SMMEs, risk aversion remains high, and the areas most affected by the just energy transition and the opportunities therein are currently not targeted. Moreover, many SMMEs, particularly those in the new, riskier sectors and technologies, do not have the balance sheet capacity to borrow. According to SME South Africa, only 6% of SMMEs surveyed in 2022 received government funding and only 9% sourced funding from private sources. With respect to economic opportunities, women are positioned in low-skilled employment sectors¹⁶ and account for only 19.4% of business owners. Women-owned SMMEs are mostly in catering, fashion designing, cooking, wedding coordinating and the beauty industry. On average women earn less than men across all educational levels¹⁷, with much of women's work being unpaid and undervalued. Inequality is also visible in the business environment, where the glass ceiling and salary gaps are recurrent phenomena."}, {"bbox": [96, 736, 1135, 869], "category": "Text", "text": "This Action will contribute to the above problems by (1) allowing agile planning and implementation of policy and regulatory reforms for a green transition, including by drawing on EU coal regions in transition' experience and expertise and more generally on the EU's experience in promoting a transition based on clean energy sources and energy efficiency, and (2) supporting the country in addressing the challenges related to mismatches in terms of necessary qualifications and skills while helping to stimulate private sector participation and investment."}, {"bbox": [96, 896, 1083, 950], "category": "Text", "text": "Identification of **main stakeholders** and corresponding institutional and/or organisational issues (mandates, potential roles, and capacities) to be covered by the action:"}, {"bbox": [96, 975, 456, 1000], "category": "Text", "text": "This list is not exhaustive but includes:"}, {"bbox": [96, 1029, 234, 1056], "category": "Text", "text": "Target groups:"}, {"bbox": [134, 1082, 1100, 1132], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Key sectors and government departments/agencies/structures that need transition-related capacity and technical assistance"}, {"bbox": [134, 1135, 1109, 1187], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Impacted communities of the provinces which are ear-marked for de-commission of coal-power plants according to the schedule"}, {"bbox": [134, 1189, 1134, 1291], "category": "List-item", "text": "- People, in particular women (in all their diversity), the youth, people with disabilities and those from the bottom 40% or socioeconomically disadvantaged, who need skills and re-skilling/upskilling or become entrepreneurs in the net-zero energy technologies value chains or in other new sustainable carbon neutral sectors."}, {"bbox": [134, 1295, 959, 1321], "category": "List-item", "text": "- SMMEs active in the green economy value chains or looking to green their operations"}, {"bbox": [96, 1348, 333, 1373], "category": "Text", "text": "Beneficiary of the action:"}, {"bbox": [134, 1400, 629, 1426], "category": "List-item", "text": "- South African Mpumalanga mining communities."}, {"bbox": [134, 1427, 1134, 1560], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Minister of Electricity, the Office of the Presidency, National Treasury, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (e.g. as regards the development of the Integrated Resource Plan, which crucial for JETP, but also in relation to its competencies regarding critical raw materials and Green Hydrogen); the Department of Transport (in charge of reducing the significant contribution of transport to national GHG emissions through development of a Green Transport Strategy); the Department of Fishery, Forestry and"}, {"bbox": [87, 1607, 486, 1626], "category": "Footnote", "text": "16 Statistics South Africa, Gender Statistics, Pretoria, 2011."}, {"bbox": [87, 1627, 495, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "17 Statistics South Africa, Inequality Trends in South Africa."}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 8 of 27"}]