Analysing post-apartheid poverty trends by geo-type, 1997–2012: The understated role of urbanisation and social grants

Zimbalist, Zack

doi:10.1080/0376835x.2016.1259989

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…As Table 8 shows, poverty in South Africa has remained predominantly a rural phenomenon. Zimbalist (2017), among others, demonstrated that poverty was much higher in rural areas than in urban areas for the period 1997-2012. This has not changed, and it might worsen because of COVID-19.…”

Section: Poverty Dynamics Prior To Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 97%

Revisiting Poverty, Human Development and Inequality in Democratic South Africa

Gumede

2021

Indian Journal of Human Development

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There are many questions related to poverty in South Africa that remain unsatisfactorily answered. Given the poor performance of the South African economy, including declining per capita incomes and increasing unemployment, since 2010 or so, it is important to examine poverty dynamics in the recent years. Many recent studies in this regard have relied on 2015 data, and do not examine all the three interrelated aspects of wellbeing viz. poverty, human development and inequality. In this context, this paper uses all the five waves of the National Income Dynamics Study and employs different poverty and inequality measurement techniques to investigate poverty dynamics, human development and inequality during the post-apartheid period in South Africa. The estimates suggest that although poverty was declining prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the African/Black population group is the most affected by poverty. The phenomenon of feminisation of poverty is also verified based on the evidence of increasingly more women in poverty than men. The proportion of population experiencing multiple deprivations, measured by the Multidimensional Poverty Index, have not changed in the post-apartheid period. Similarly, human development has not improved during this period. South African society continues to be one of the most unequal societies in the world. The paper argues that the inability to sufficiently reduce poverty, unemployment and inequality results from the weak performance of the South African economy. In the same vein, it is the structure of the South African economy that has kept the levels of human development low and income inequality high.

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Section: Poverty Dynamics Prior To Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 97%

Revisiting Poverty, Human Development and Inequality in Democratic South Africa

Gumede

2021

Indian Journal of Human Development

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“…For example, the well-documented expansion of the government's non-contributory means-tested social grant system (in the form of cash transfers) was more concentrated in rural parts of South Africa. Under this scheme, between 1997 and 2012, the percentage of rural households receiving at least one monthly government cash transfer more than doubled while the percentage of urban grant receiving households increased by only 58 percent (Zimbalist, 2017).…”

Section: Spatial Trends In Poverty Food Security and Multiple Deprivationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Largely as a result of this expansion and extension of the cash transfer program, poverty decreased relatively more in rural areas over the post-apartheid period (Zimbalist, 2017). One key outcome associated with this decrease is the drastic reduction in the percentage of households (both rural and urban) experiencing hunger.…”

Section: Spatial Trends In Poverty Food Security and Multiple Deprivationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to the reduction of income poverty and hunger, one of the most marked improvements in rural (relative to urban) areas has been the rapid increase in access to clean (piped) water, electricity, and telephones. Increases in access to these basic services have been far more substantial in rural areas (more than doubling in the case of electricity and telephone) than in urban areas where improvements have been more measured and from a much higher base (see Zimbalist, 2017). Yet despite this encouraging progress, the rural former homelands remain far poorer and suffer from a significantly higher level of multiple deprivations (including income, employment, education, living conditions, and health) relative to the rest of South Africa (Noble and Wright, 2013).…”

Section: Spatial Trends In Poverty Food Security and Multiple Deprivationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three positive developments associated with the post-apartheid period -decreasing income poverty (related to an expanded social grant system), declining hunger levels, and improved access to service delivery -have been more pronounced in rural parts of South Africa (Pienaar and von Fintel, 2014;Zimbalist, 2017). Yet the available empirical evidence (Govender et al, 2017;Tibesigwa and Visser, 2015) is mixed in terms of how under-nutrition risk is likely to differ between urban and rural areas and how the drivers of poor nutrition may vary spatially.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Spatial Differences in Stunting and Household Agricultural Production in South Africa: (Re-)Examining the Links Using National Panel Survey Data

Otterbach

Rogan

2017

SSRN Journal

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One explanation for the increasing prevalence of stunting in South Africa over the past 15 years while other development indicators have improved is that Big Food retail chains have been contributing to a low quality diet across the country, particularly in poor urban households. We thus use nationally representative longitudinal data (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014) to trace 6 years of stunting's evolution among South African children, adolescents, and young adults aged 0-19, with particular attention to how the prevalence of under-nutrition differs between urban and rural areas and how the drivers of poor nutrition vary spatially. The results of our random-effects logistic regressions on the nutritional impact of household agricultural production suggest that, conditional on household income, subsistence farming is associated with a lower probability of stunting. Even more important, although under-nutrition retains a strong spatial component, once observable differences in living standards are controlled for, the higher tendency for children in deep rural households to suffer from (severe) stunting reverses.

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Exploring spatial differences in the risk of child stunting: Evidence from a South African national panel survey

Otterbach

Rogan

2019

Journal of Rural Studies

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Analysing post-apartheid poverty trends by geo-type, 1997–2012: The understated role of urbanisation and social grants

Cited by 8 publications

References 16 publications

Revisiting Poverty, Human Development and Inequality in Democratic South Africa

Revisiting Poverty, Human Development and Inequality in Democratic South Africa

Spatial Differences in Stunting and Household Agricultural Production in South Africa: (Re-)Examining the Links Using National Panel Survey Data

Exploring spatial differences in the risk of child stunting: Evidence from a South African national panel survey

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