Cash transfers for sustainable rural livelihoods? Examining the long-term productive effects of the Child Support Grant in South Africa

Hajdú, Flóra; Granlund, Stefan; Neves, David; Hochfeld, Tessa; Amuakwa–Mensah, Franklin; Sandström, Emil

doi:10.1016/j.wdp.2020.100227

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In a forthcoming article, the authors report on a regression analysis of the survey data, revealing a correlation between receiving Child Support Grant and investments in agricultural production, such as the acquisition of small hand-worked ploughs/cultivators for easier gardening, and a marked increase in crop diversity. 79 The positive effects of social grant receipt on garden cultivation has also been found by others. 80 Looking to the future, while it is unlikely that cultivation will be a primary or even significant source of livelihood making for most households, food price pressures may offer opportunities to supplement (or conserve) household income through more intensive horticultural cultivation in home gardens.…”

Section: Cultivationsupporting

confidence: 59%

Changing Livelihoods in Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa (2002–2016): Diminishing Employment and Expanding Social Protection

Hajdú

Neves

Granlund

2020

Journal of Southern African Studies

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Despite long-standing patterns of agrarian change in South and Southern Africa, rural locales remain home to millions of people, characterised by widespread poverty and vulnerability. This is evident in South Africa's former 'homelands', the site where this study examined changes in rural livelihoods over a 14-year period. Detailed survey data (collected in 2002 and 2016) from two villages in the Pondoland region of Eastern Cape province, and augmented by in-depth fieldwork, are analysed to explore the drivers of contemporary livelihood change. Key livelihood activities are examined, namely paid employment, social grant receipt, horticulture and livestock production, marine-resource and firewood harvesting. So too are changes within, and between, these diverse livelihood activities over time. Both monetised (income-earning) activities, and 'unremunerated' or unmonetised activities (for example, subsistence agriculture or marine-resource harvesting) are measured, aggregated and compared, in order to consider the drivers, consequences and prospective future trajectories of livelihood change. Key findings for impoverished households in the villages are that waged work has decreased significantly, while expanding social welfare provision has prevented plunges into deeper poverty. Agriculture and marine-resource harvesting remain dynamic, albeit unevenly engaged in by villagers. Amid these larger patterns, local-level variations are evident, with discrepant employment and agricultural production patterns across villages. The role of the state is ambiguous, being both a restrictor and enabler of local livelihoods. As jobs and other livelihood opportunities diminish, the villagers express frustration with the state, but remain simultaneously heavily reliant on state fiscal transfers, through grants and public employment schemes. The findings speak not only to the dynamics of rural livelihoods in South Africa's former homelands; they also point to changes in rural dwellers' livelihoods, within contexts of agrarian change, rural

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Section: Cultivationsupporting

confidence: 59%

Changing Livelihoods in Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa (2002–2016): Diminishing Employment and Expanding Social Protection

Hajdú

Neves

Granlund

2020

Journal of Southern African Studies

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“…Sexual abuse in childhood is independently associated with welfare receipt in adulthood for females, as was inclusion in the moderate adversity-abuse and high adversity groups. General social protection measures in South Africa have made substantial contributions to poverty reduction [67], and the Child Support Grant in particular has had multiple benefits for vulnerable children and families [68][69][70]. Nevertheless, the receipt of the grant is a good indication that the household is income-and resource-poor [71].…”

Section: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Human Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Long-Term Health and Human Capital Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Birth to Thirty Cohort: Single, Cumulative, and Clustered Adversity

Naicker

Ahun

Besharati

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Human capital—that is the cumulative abilities, education, social skills, and mental and physical health one possesses—is increasingly recognized as key to the reduction of inequality in societies. Adverse childhood experiences have been linked to a range of human capital indicators, with the majority of research in high-income, western settings. This study aims to examine the link between adverse childhood experiences and adult human capital in a South African birth cohort and to test whether associations differ by measurement of adversity. Secondary analysis of data from the Birth to Thirty study was undertaken. Exposure data on adversity was collected prospectively throughout childhood and retrospectively at age 22. Human capital outcomes were collected at age 28. Adversity was measured as single adverse experiences, cumulative adversity, and clustered adversity. All three measurements of adversity were linked to poor human capital outcomes, with risk for poor human capital increasing with the accumulation of adversity. Adversity was clustered by quantity (low versus high) and type (household dysfunction versus abuse). Adversity in childhood was linked to a broad range of negative outcomes in young adulthood regardless of how it was measured. Nevertheless, issues of measurement are important to understand the risk mechanisms that underlie the association between adversity and poor human capital.

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“…However, it is also large and costly, raising the associated economic, political and emotional stakes. Studies about the grant system, from the perspective of its recipients especially, report widespread implementation issues relating to systems for its administration, consistency, monitoring and distribution (Du Toit & Lues, 2021;Granlund, 2022;Hajdu et al, 2020;Hanass-Hancock & McKenzie, 2017;Kelly, 2013;Lund et al, 2009;Patel et al, 2019). As a result, questions of appropriate expenditure, the 'deservingness' of recipients and whether or not grants are getting to those who need them most are often central to investigations of the grants programme.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, an extensive literature has thoroughly investigated the child support grant (CSG), the CDG's counterpart for the support of non-disabled children, exploring everything from the CSG's impact on redistribution to its affective dimensions for various role-players, in various parts of the country (cf. for example Gordon et al, 2017;Granlund & Hochfeld, 2020;Hajdu et al, 2020;Patel & Ross, 2022;Zembe-Mkabile et al, 2015). In conversations about social assistance for disability, then, the emphasis is on working-age adults.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Five minutes earlier, you were giving hope’: Reflections from interviews with doctors conducting assessments for South Africa’s childhood disability Care Dependency Grant

Trafford¹,

Swartz²

2022

Wellcome Open Res

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Background: In South Africa, medical doctors functionally decide whether a primary caregiver can access state-funded social assistance cash transfers (‘social grants’) for the care of their disabled child. In this paper, we unpack the subjective experiences of doctors involved in conducting assessments for the care dependency grant, designed to support the cost of disabled children’s specific needs. Methods: Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with five paediatric doctors who practice and regularly conduct assessments for the care dependency grant at three Cape Town public sector hospitals. Analysis was thematic and used deductive coding. Results: The doctors we interviewed were aware that these grants were probably shared among household members but felt this was acceptable, as it contributed to the child’s wellbeing. Doctors seemed to be applying nuanced, individualised assessments but often felt the need to simplify the documentation of these assessments, sometimes even bending the rules, to ensure access for their patients. Doctors’ primary allegiance in these processes appeared to be to their patients. They identified more with their caring responsibilities than their bureaucratic gate-keeping role but nonetheless felt a heavy responsibility for decision-making, in the context of extremely strained public resources and a lack of guidance from the government’s social assistance implementation agency. Conclusions: The hyperlocal practices and approaches that doctors described allows for perception of the messier – but also more accurate – details of the system that is actually in place. Doctors’ narratives also reflect long-standing inattention to the ‘trickle down’ of guidelines to frontline implementers of disability-related grants. This cadre is a valuable but under-utilised source of evidence and information about the real-world functioning of disability-related grants administration and they should be actively included in implementation planning.

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Cash transfers for sustainable rural livelihoods? Examining the long-term productive effects of the Child Support Grant in South Africa

Cited by 23 publications

References 32 publications

Changing Livelihoods in Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa (2002–2016): Diminishing Employment and Expanding Social Protection

Changing Livelihoods in Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa (2002–2016): Diminishing Employment and Expanding Social Protection

The Long-Term Health and Human Capital Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Birth to Thirty Cohort: Single, Cumulative, and Clustered Adversity

‘Five minutes earlier, you were giving hope’: Reflections from interviews with doctors conducting assessments for South Africa’s childhood disability Care Dependency Grant

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