Cash Transfers and Caregivers: Working Together to Reduce Vulnerability and Hiv Risk Among Adolescent Girls in Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract

In South Africa adolescent girls have the highest HIV incidence of any sex or age cohort. Scalable HIVprevention interventions targeting this group are critical for epidemic control. Reaching 12.2 million children, the Child Support Grant mitigates the socio-structural drivers of HIV risk. This qualitative study of eight adolescents and their caregivers in Westbury, Johannesburg, explored how caregiving increases protective potential. 'Caregiving' enhanced the HIV risk-reduction benefits of 'cash' when characterised by substantial positive caregiver-adolescent involvement and adequate levels of control and consistency. Results underpin the value of social protection as an HIV-prevention modality and endorse investment in caregiver support programmes.

Public policy and developmental imperatives: theorising governance in the case of social grants in Endumeni Local Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal

“…In 2015, this rose to 55,5 percent of the population. However, this shows that more than one in the group of four South Africans was poor (Hill et al, 2021). They had insufficient food to eat daily -needs like water, transport, and housing were too expensive.…”

“…The non-Europeans had to survive despite a discriminatory distribution of payments in social grants. Therefore, the government of the new dispensation had an obligation to address the consequences of unjust policies created by the apartheid government (Hill et al, 2021;Patel, 2005). The Africans suffered economically despite having a high unemployment rate, as Table 4.4 displays.…”