On Friday, 15 March, 2013, the DA and FEDUSA held a landmark and intensive day of discussions on how to bolster South Africa's anaemic level of economic growth to create jobs and cut the country's high levels of poverty and inequality.

The two organisations, hosted by The Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, agreed on six points and interventions.

1. Increased accountability was pivotal to the delivery of quality education for all. The most pressing challenge today is to increase the number of young adults completing matric to meet the demand-side of the economy.

Both organisations will engage with the government and educationalists to determine how best to retrain and 'up-skill' teachers to advance their overall and technological abilities.

2. The principle of a youth wage subsidy. The YWS must be designed to incentivise the private sector to create new jobs for young and inexperienced jobseekers.

It was agreed that older workers must not be displaced. The private sector businesses should focus on training and up-skilling young workers.

3. Water security is a constitutional human right, and poses one of the greatest public policy challenges of our time.

International regulations and conventions must be used as the benchmark to ensure that South Africa uses and preserves water in a safe and sustainable manner.

4. Real improvements in worker productivity must be factored into the collective bargaining process.

The two organisations also agreed to, drawing on evidence-based research, hold further in-depth discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of multi-year agreements.

5. A joint position on cutting wasteful expenditure and corruption and streamlining government was reached to exact greater levels of accountability and to use all available means to heighten transparency when it comes to corruption and wasteful expenditure.

6. Grave concern at the upswing in gender-based violence in one of the world's most violent societies was expressed. Joint campaigns against gender violence will be established as a matter of urgency.

We would look to link parliamentary processes to union based campaigns to reform the justice system and policing to deal more effectively with gender based violence.

Wilmot James, Federal Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance