02 December 2025
Beyond the digital divide: Rethinking science and technology engagement in South AfricaEquitable Education and Economies (EEE), a research division of the Human Sciences Research Council established in 2020, conducts multidisciplinary research aimed at transforming educational outcomes and boosting economic participation in South Africa. Recognising the deep connection between education and the economy, EEE explores these areas both separately and in tandem to support national development and growth.
Over the past five years, EEE has focused on youth engagement in science, higher education transformation, educational outcomes, and the impact of unemployment on wellbeing. Their work also includes studying internship experiences, graduate transitions, and the effects of technological and pandemic-driven changes in education. Additionally, EEE examines spatialised economies, including job mapping, township innovation, housing, social security, and women's economic empowerment.
The Equitable Education and Economies (EEE) division focuses on three themes of work, namely Land, Food Security, Agriculture and Human Settlements, Future of education and youth, and Future of skills and work – each further divided into sub-themes and with a number of flagship projects falling under each. During the 2025–2030 period, EEE aims to reduce inequality, boost employment, and combat poverty by researching spatial economic transformation, land access, food security, and the future of education and work—aligning its mission with South Africa’s strategic goals for a capable, ethical, and developmental state.
The economy changes all the time, for better or worse. Economic change affects peoples’ livelihoods and living standards. Research in Land, Food Security, Agriculture and Human Settlements seeks to understand the forces that drive temporary economic fluctuations and the more significant, longer-term shifts in economic structures, social relations, and spatial distribution of economic opportunities. Our research focuses on innovation and how to change the economy so that it produces better outcomes for all people, including the state’s role in enacting economic policies that foster wider participation among the vulnerable and marginalised. The research within the Land, Food Security, Agriculture and Human Settlements theme is grouped into two main sub-themes:
From a young person’s point of view, it is essential to understand their work aspirations, how they describe dignified work and their participation in the labour market. Moreover, while it is well known that young people’s pathways are complex and should be described as “non-linear, disrupted, fragmentary, portfolio journeys” (Swartz et al., 2023), how ready are young people for these journeys? To address these challenges, the nature of skills needed to thrive in both the current and future world of work is a critical gap that must be systematically addressed and understood across various sectors and characteristics of work, for example, its level of skill, formality, circularity, technology-use, dignity, security, entrepreneurship, social protection, sustainability, creativity, compliance and collectivity. The unit investigates this through the following sub-themes:
Young people in South Africa and across the African Continent have to contend with the skills and institutional offerings mismatch that threaten economic development, as well as the early exit points from education and low rates of tertiary completion in South Africa and across the African continent. They also face limited imaginaries of possible futures, often due to inadequate career guidance that is age- or exit point-appropriate and further limited by how opportunities and occupations are described (or ignored), particularly in the informal sector. The Future of Education and Youth research theme interrogates this through the following sub-themes:
The National Skills Audit
Scoping of Human Resource Development Observatory with the NRF, CSIR and DHET
Artificial Intelligence Risks
