Industry body recognises best practices in the retirement sector

The awarding of trophies and certificates for acknowledged best practices in the sector is always a much anticipated event at IRFA’S annual conference.

The awards programme is extremely rigorous, both in construct criteria as well as judging processes. Judging is undertaken by IRFA board members, subject matter experts, industry media, and academics both locally and abroad. All scores are moderated by an external moderator.

This annual awards programme has grown over its 38 years of inception from being a communications challenge to the surfacing and recognition of best practices across all operations in the sector.

Entry into the programme requires compliance with all regulatory factors, the preparation of a detailed work plan outlining objectives, stakeholders in the strategy or programme, challenges and opportunities, strategy/programme construct and implementation, and endline evaluation.

This year’s awards programme, branded “The Better Together Challenge” under the overarching awards banner of “Lwela Ukwenza Kahle”, invited entrants to showcase strategies, programmes, and initiatives undertaken for the benefit of the members of retirement funds and/or society at large in collaboration with a core “partner”, indicating the importance and contribution of partnerships in achieving objectives. (Be this a service provider, internal teams or any other interested party.)

The overall winner of the 2024 IRFA Better Together Challenge is the ISASA Retirement Fund for their entry on a member self-care programme, followed as runner up by the SABC Pension Fund for a 360 degree measurement initiative which evaluates governance procedures and management board efficiency.

In addition to the two trophy winners, no fewer than 8 best practice certificates were awarded to the following retirement funds:

Transport Sector Retirement Fund for 2 entries entitled Circle of Life and Engagement and Circle of Life and Transformation.

SABC Pension Fund for 360 Degree Management Appraisal and Governance Review and an entry entitled We are family.

Isasa Retirement Fund for their entries Member Self Care and Collaborating towards Member Outcomes.

University of Zululand Pension and Provident Fund for their entry entitled Liability Driven Investment.

Fairheads Umbrella Funds for their entry entitled Pioneering and entrenching beneficiary funds in the retirement ecosystem.

Best practices certificates are awarded by IRFA for entries judged as scoring above 75%.

The primary objective of IRFAs annual award programme is to surface best practices and initiatives for the retirement sector at large, and this year’s entrants have certainly raised the barre across the board according to international judge Professor Gloria Walker.

IRFA Board member and programme champion, Cheryl Ward, has also noted that the learnings contained in this year’s entries are beneficial across the sector.

To this end the three top scoring entrants participated in a workshop at the end of the annual conference where their case studies were presented for information and review by those delegates attending.

The Management Board of the Institute of Retirement Funds Africa would sincerely like to thank all funds who entered the ‘’Better Together’’ 2024 LUKA Awards Programme. Participation in no small way contributes to the growth and evolution of the industry as it continually strives to provide better outcomes for all stakeholders.