NEDLAC convenes stakeholders to tackle productivity gaps, job creation, and AI impact

NEDLAC’s two-day convening this week places South Africa’s most pressing economic delivery questions, productivity, jobs, and AI-driven growth, squarely on the table for government, labour, business, and community representatives to work through together.

The National Economic Development and Labour Council opens proceedings on Thursday with its 2026 Symposium, titled “Advancing Productivity and Decent Work through Social Dialogue in Southern Africa.” The session draws social partners, policy experts, and regional and international organisations from across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to exchange experiences, best practices, and policy innovations. At its core, the agenda asks a practical question: how do productivity gains actually translate into quality employment, fair wages, and improved working conditions on the ground, and how can SADC member states cooperate more effectively to make that happen?

The answer, if one emerges, will need to travel across borders. The symposium’s regional framing acknowledges that productivity challenges in southern Africa are not contained within any single country’s policy toolkit.

By contrast, Friday’s summit turns the lens inward. Under the theme “Advancing Inclusive Growth and Decent Work in the Age of AI,” NEDLAC convenes its 31st annual Summit to address how rapid digital transformation can be steered so that its benefits reach citizens broadly rather than concentrating among those already well-positioned. The practical focus falls on three delivery targets: leveraging artificial intelligence and digital tools to support small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs); equipping young jobseekers with market-ready skills; and strengthening workforce capabilities across sectors.

The back-to-back format is deliberate. Participants move from examining regional productivity dynamics on Thursday to confronting the domestic implications of artificial intelligence on Friday, a sequence that builds from continental context to national implementation.

NEDLAC describes the summit as South Africa’s premier platform for social dialogue, where government, labour, business, and community actors jointly shape the country’s socio-economic and labour agenda. Over three decades, the institution has positioned itself as the mechanism through which traditionally divergent stakeholder groups reach workable consensus on matters of national consequence. The framing this year is explicit: technological change must drive inclusive growth, and decent work must reach all segments of the economy, not only those sectors already absorbing digital investment.

The timing reflects the weight of the moment. Slow economic growth and persistently low employment rates have sharpened the urgency around both regional cooperation and domestic policy innovation. Structured dialogue of this kind is designed to generate actionable strategies, but the distance between a summit resolution and a functioning skills programme or a thriving SMME ecosystem remains the harder measure.

Whether this week’s sessions produce commitments that close that gap, or add to a longer list of well-framed intentions, is the question participants and observers will be watching.