Just Access: The Real Transition is a 10-part podcast series from PARI (the Public Affairs Research Institute) exploring what a truly just transition means for South Africa, not only in energy policy, but in access to land, water, power, decision-making and economic opportunity.

Episode 7 turns to a critical question, how do we move from policy promises to real, lived change?

While the language of participation is widely used in policymaking, this episode challenges how participation actually works in practice. Tasneem Essop speaks again with economist Dr Tracy Ledger to unpack the limits of traditional public consultation and to introduce an alternative approach, co-production.

The episode argues that most policymaking processes engage communities too late, after problems have already been defined and solutions designed. In these models, participation becomes a checkbox exercise, rather than a meaningful way of shaping outcomes. As a result, policies often fail not because of poor implementation, but because they were never grounded in the realities they are meant to address.

Co-production offers a different approach. It involves communities at the very beginning of the process, helping to define the problem itself. This shifts the role of citizens from passive participants to active contributors, recognising that those living with the challenges often have the most accurate understanding of them.

The episode also highlights how narrow data and formal economic metrics can obscure the full picture. In coal-affected regions, for example, policymakers often overlook informal work, community support systems, and services provided by mining companies, all of which are central to people’s livelihoods. When these realities are excluded from planning, entire dimensions of the transition remain invisible.

Episode 7 makes a clear case, a just transition cannot be designed from the top down. It must be built with communities, from the ground up, through processes that value lived experience as essential knowledge, not an afterthought.

Subscribe to follow the full series, and to learn more about PARI and their research, visit www.pari.org.za