Resolution

Today, the South African government, organised business, organised labour and thecommunity constituency reaffirm the commitment made at the launch of Nedlac 15 months ago,to work together to address the economic and social challenges facing our country.

At Nedlac's inception three defining challenges were identified: sustainable economicgrowth, greater social equity and increased participation in decision-making. Central toaddressing these challenges is the critical need for rapid and sustained employmentcreation, of better jobs for those already in employment and the accelerated alleviationof poverty. These remain the key priorities for the Nedlac constituencies.

In the past 15 months, we have learnt many lessons about agreement-making andconsensus-seeking through the Nedlac process. Much time, energy and resources have beendevoted to producing effective results. We must now learn from the lessons of the pastyear.

In seeking to address our defining challenges and also the challenges posed during ourfirst year of activity, community, business, labour and government today resolve to:

1. Evaluate, improve and strengthen the process of social dialogue and agreement-making in the period ahead, and to build confidence and trust in the Nedlac process at all levels.
2. Enhance the agreement-making function of Nedlac by improving its coordination and capacity to deal with matters and set negotiations at the appropriate level of detail.
3. Work toward developing a strategic framework which captures the overarching requirements and challenges of economic development.
4. Focus and prioritise issues on the agendas of the Nedlac chambers.
5. Structure the policy formulation process to ensure that all parties substantively participate and are afforded adequate time to consult on policy issues, while also setting deadlines for the consideration of issues.
6. Develop a structured relationship with the parliamentary process.
7. Strengthen the capacity of the constituencies, by improving access to, and the utilisation of, information and resources, including existing public resources.
8. Ensure consistent and effective representation of delegations in the various Nedlac structures to allow for substantive dialogue to take place.

We resolve to address these areas as a matter of urgency, commencing with considerationthereof in a series of planning meetings, the first of which will be held soon.