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This paper provides an overview of learning losses and altered schooling patterns in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021). Five major trends emerge from a review of the evidence. These include significant learning losses (38–118% of a year of learning), widened learning inequality, lowered grade repetition rates, increased secondary school enrolments and an unprecedented rise in candidates writing and passing the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination. School completion significantly increased in 2021 and 2022, spurred by COVID-19 adjusted assessment and promotion practices in Grades 10 and 11. Larger numbers of youth also achieved a NSC pass or Bachelor's pass enabling access to university. With twin pandemic shocks of learning losses and secondary school enrolment increases, remediating losses and realigning progression rules to effective assessment practices should be prioritised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite high rates of education expenditure, South Africa's education system remains sharply unequal and underperforms overall compared to other countries. One approach to addressing education inequality and underperformance is community-based peer mentorship. This paper presents evidence from the Nine Tenths mentorship programme in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) as a way to improve academic performance among matric students in under-resourced secondary schools. Using school matric pass rates from 2012 to 2021 and student admission metrics for participants in 2020–2022, a strong association is found between the activities of Nine Tenths and improved academic performance. No-fee schools where Nine Tenths is active record pass rates that are 28 percentage points higher on average than schools without Nine Tenths. Matric students who participate in Nine Tenths increase their Admissions Points Score (APS) by 4.23 points on average, and every student between 2020 and 2022 earned a bachelor pass. While the evidence suggests that Nine Tenths is effective, the programme operates on a relatively small scale and is not broad-based in its implementation. The programme shows is a promising example of community-based interventions to address schooling inequality independently and more efficiently than the current education policy in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change continues to exacerbate social and economic development challenges in local communities the world over. This paper advances a human development approach to climate resilience innovations, showing how local innovation initiatives can be conduits for increased equity, agency, efficiency and sustainability vis-à-vis effective responses to climate impacts. Based on a scoping review of literature (journal articles, books, theses, occasional papers etc.), and through a discussion of four case studies focused on technological and institutional innovations in selected rural South African communities, a major finding is that local innovation initiatives vis-à-vis livelihoods are laden with opportunities for improved social, economic and ecological well-being. Appreciating and supporting these local innovations will open up viable and transformative pathways towards effectively responding to the impacts of climate change and variability. The paper contributes to an interdisciplinary integration of innovation and climate change research by exploring climate resilience through a transformative human development lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a participatory approach to assess the level of understanding of the Water-Energy-Climate Change (WECC) nexus in South Africa. The aim is to initiate the development of well-coordinated, systematic, and holistic strategies to promote efficient management of the WECC and its implications in the country. The assessment follows the learnings from the Integrated Water Resource Management framework, which promotes a participatory approach in the administration of water resources. The paper reveals that, despite the reasonable level of understanding of WECC, it is still insufficient to promote an integrated approach mainly in policy development and planning for water and energy resources while averting climate impacts. This is exacerbated by limited coordination and consultation among various stakeholders. However, minimal efforts to promote an integrated approach in the management of the WECC sectors is observed. Despite these developments, the paper proposes that the participatory approach is feasible to promote holistic strategies and collaboration among stakeholders mandated to manage WECC sectors. Until approaches such as this are adopted within the institutional framework, this nexus will continue to impede the country's sustainable development endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With mega state housing projects needing large land parcels and that are often located in the periphery, this paper investigates what impact relocating residents to Golden Gardens housing development has had on the quality of life and their financial wellbeing. Using primary data obtained from residents living in the Golden Gardens housing development, the findings show that respondents' access to and quality of physical and social facilities, such as refuse services, water, and electricity, has improved. Respondents were also unanimous that staying in their Golden Gardens homes has significantly improved their security. However, many residents currently living in Golden Gardens used to live closer to work and social activities than they do now, which means that they used to spend less each month on transport than they do now. The high-commuting cost has increased household expenses, meaning that the respondents' financial wellbeing has been negatively impacted. These results imply yet unmet long-term objectives of human settlements as envisaged in various government policies and programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews South Africa’s efforts to realise the right to water from a welfare policy perspective. ‘Free basic water’ (FBW), initially a water sector policy, was later recognised to be part of the country’s wider social protection framework. However, while the principle of providing poor households with free basic services has been sustained, FBW has not provided reliable access for many of its intended beneficiaries. Analysis of the policy, implementation and performance of the programme identifies unresolved policy tensions between welfare objectives and other government priorities, reflected in the choice of targeted rather than universal welfare strategies. It is concluded that these welfare policy tensions have weakened the outcomes of the free basic water policy which are more usually blamed on operational and institutional failures. While the FBW principle is generally accepted, practical performance is often weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is growing interest in the literature and policy circles regarding the performance of cooperatives in South Africa, no study has yet synthesised the body of knowledge on how to assess cooperative performance in the country. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining the literature on the performance of cooperatives in post-apartheid South Africa, based on a scoping review of 20 studies published between 1994 and 2021. Most of the reviewed studies adopted a qualitative approach, lacked a clear definition of cooperative performance and standardised metrics/criteria for assessing cooperative performance. The studies often relied on view of study participants to determine the performance of cooperatives. Moreover, the reviewed studies often framed the performance of cooperatives from an economic viewpoint. Clear definition of cooperatives, the development of robust indicators for assessing their performance and greater emphasis on quantitative studies on the performance of cooperatives in South Africa beyond economic and financial indicators is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper articulates state response to homelessness through multi-agency intervention in South Africa. While it argues strongly on relativity of homelessness, it however agrees with previous authors on common constituents of the concept. Based on secondary sources this paper delves into what constitutes homelessness and why there has been homelessness in the country, due to one or a combination of structural and individual related drivers. It further explores the state's use of a multi-agency housing focused approach that integrates appropriate legislations, social services interventions and public works, where over 3.3 million houses have been delivered in the country. While in-depth review of available data indicated significant increase in housing provision, the strategy is confronted with human, material, and rising need concerns. Importantly, there is no certainty yet on the extent to which the 'street homeless' and marginalised groups of the poor are served equally to other categories of the homeless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between family structure and household well-being has received considerable attention in research over the past decades. Very few studies, however, go beyond linking marital component of family structure with household income. This paper uses cross-sectional and panel analytic techniques with data from National Income Dynamic Survey (NIDS) to investigate the effects of family structure on household well-being. Findings from this study show that intact married and cohabiting households have significant positive relationship with household reported well-being, and subjective wellbeing, respectively. Furthermore, extended households, households headed by females and grandparents, have significant negative relationship with household income and consumption. Lastly, bigger household size has significant negative relationship with household reported well-being. Based on the findings, policy towards economic empowerment for poorer households, enhancing income generating, and livelihood projects are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate South Africa's implementation of educational Information and Communication Technology (ICT), which is led by Gauteng and the Western Cape Provinces, for participation in the global knowledge economy. Accordingly, the two provinces are in the forefront of educational ICT implementation aimed at preparing learners for participation in the global knowledge economy and national development. The paper uses Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to examine South Africa in comparison with fourteen developing countries to establish that its approach towards implementation of educational technology is not appropriate, sustainable nor effective for a developing country. Experiences of developing countries such as Vietnam, Zambia and Kenya, which are in the medium and low Human Development Index (HDI) categories, show that national technological cultures of people have not evolved into what is characterised as the 'Net Natives', which is one of the primary driving force for the adoption of blended pedagogies as an approach for implementing educational technology, to enhance participation in the global knowledge economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is substantial evidence in the global literature that women have been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 crisis and associated lockdowns. In this paper, we use five waves of the National Income Dynamics Study - Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM) to track the gendered effects of the pandemic in South Africa during the first year of the crisis. We focus here on the impact in the labour market and on unpaid care work in the home. We find that, relative to men, women were more severely affected in both spheres, yet they benefited less from the government income support provided to unemployed and furloughed workers. The evidence from the NIDS-CRAM survey from the first year of the pandemic therefore suggests that gender inequality in South Africa has risen, undoing some of the gains of the last two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a longitudinal telephonic survey of adults, this paper provides empirical evidence from South Africa on early childhood care and education (ECCE) attendance trends just before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 39% of adult respondents living with children aged 0–6 indicated that at least one child had attended an ECCE programme in February 2020. After a period of ECCE programme closures and lockdowns, estimates fell to as low as 7% in July/August 2020, partially recovered to 28% in November/December 2020, dropped again to 7% in early February 2021 but then recovered significantly to 36% by April/May 2021. A decomposition analysis suggests that a large part of the recovery in ECCE attendance in 2021 was attributed to higher reported perceived ability to be able to afford ECCE programme fees. This could relate to lower fee ECCE programmes resuming operations in anticipation of government relief payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, children have been put at greater risk of school drop-out, as well as food insecurity and emotional health deterioration. This paper considers these issues as they have occurred in South Africa. We use all waves of the National Income Dynamics Study–Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey to estimate non-return to school, access to school meals, and household well-being. The number of learners not attending school in 2021 is estimated to be close to quadruple pre-pandemic levels. Combined with estimates of learning lost, we can conclude that the pandemic has worn away at two decades of progress made in basic education. Evidence also indicates that school feeding has been slow to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Deepened levels of household hunger combined with a lack of access to free school meals is indicated to contribute to significantly greater levels of caregiver anxiety and psychological distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decrease in public trust and lack of coordination among the traditional financial institutions drives the establishment of a grant incentive scheme for cooperative enterprise in South Africa. The grant incentive scheme provides alternative support for sustainable development of targeted cooperative enterprises with black shareholders owning a majority share. However, there is a lack of evaluation method and empirical studies determining the effectiveness of the scheme based on its mandates and objectives. Therefore, the paper, through a case study approach, investigates the effectiveness of the cooperative incentive scheme (CIS) between 2012 and 2017. A descriptive analysis approach was adopted in the study to describe specific behaviours as they appeared in the environment of the scheme. This is to understand their impacts on administration, regulations, and implementation, as well as social and economic outcomes better while prioritising its mandate in partnership with its beneficiaries to offer good public services and investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite implementation of several government policies since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, income distribution remains skewed in the country. This paper explores income distribution in the Gauteng province by addressing two important questions: first, what is the level and pattern of income distribution, and second, do the role of correlates in explaining income distribution differ across income groups? By employing quantile regression analysis, this paper's results not only show the explanatory role of various correlates, such as race, but it also confirm that the explanatory role of these correlates is heterogeneous across income groups. The paper by drilling down into the data established that there are variations across some identifiable groups (e.g. youth, pensioners, and adults) and quantiles. These results enable policy makers to tailor policies to specific income and other identifiable groups, rather than one-size-fit-all policy focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Class size reduction is frequently argued to be a cost-effective way to improve learner outcomes. In the South African context, most studies conclude that greater class sizes are associated with poorer educational outcomes on average. However, given the country's bimodal education system, it is plausible to believe that such a relationship may depend on where learners find themselves in the system. This paper merges newly available data from the 2017/18 School Monitoring Survey with external administrative data to investigate whether the relationship between class size and learner outcomes varies by school socioeconomic status. Although extreme class sizes are concentrated in poorer schools, class size is only negatively associated with learner outcomes in wealthier schools. This finding is robust to several robustness tests. This does not imply that class size does not matter. Rather, reductions may only be effective in the South African context once other school quality-related factors are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited literature pertaining to planning in the Global South, in comparison to the literature base of planning in the global North, and some believe that much of the planning literature on the Global South comes from outside the continent, and does not reflect indigenous African-knowledge. The aim of this paper is to evaluate literature relating to South African planning approaches as point of departure to validate the claims pertaining to authorship of literature, and to further investigate the thematic content that is published. The empirical investigation considered 125 papers that were identified through a qualitative inquiry as part of theory-based sampling, where the respective titles of the papers were captured and 345 key words identified and information visualisation techniques employed to illustrate such. Conclusions were drawn with regard to (1) planning literature of South Africa (and references to Africa), (2) current research themes being investigated within the local South African context, and (3) future research opportunities which could advance the science of planning, teaching-learning approaches and contribute to broadening the local planning literature base within the Global South, whilst decolonising urban theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing pool of evidence showing that cash transfers can promote livelihood activities. Yet there has been limited empirical studies that explore how financial support influences beneficiaries' decision-making in the construction and operation of livelihood activities in an urban context. This study presents findings from qualitative research conducted in a poor urban community in South Africa. Structuration theory provides an analytical tool to understand how cash transfers enable decision-making of beneficiaries in livelihood activities. The study finds that beneficiaries make different types of initial and ongoing decisions to improve their socio-economic condition. Among the contributions of this paper is that it counters the cynicism that is usually attached to cash transfers. The study's implications include the incorporation of both social and economic goals in the design of social protection policies as well as the need for greater recognition of the role of the informal economy in eradicating poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is rapidly urbanising and urban food systems are being transformed. Some have argued that this transformation is driven by a supermarket revolution akin to that in North America, Europe and Latin America. Others suggest that the supermarket revolution model oversimplifies complex African realities and that urban food systems are experiencing uneven supermarket penetration in the face of resilient informal food sectors. This paper focuses on Windhoek, Namibia, showing that the city's food system is dominated by South African and local supermarket chains. Since the end of apartheid, South African supermarket chains have expanded their operations into Namibia. Supermarket domination of Windhoek's urban food system is a function of proximity of South Africa and integration into South African supply chains. In other African countries, supermarket penetration has been much slower and is even being reversed. Explanations for uneven penetration in different countries require greater contextualisation and more case study research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While an extensive literature documents the negative effects of stunting on children's developmental potential, there is far less evidence on whether a recovery from stunting in childhood – often referred to as 'catch-up growth'– helps mitigate the negative effects of early growth retardation. This paper explores the association between catch-up growth in early childhood and subsequent schooling outcomes using data from the first five waves of NIDS. The findings suggest that children who recovered from stunting in early childhood go on to complete fewer years of schooling compared to their non-stunted counterparts, driven in large part by a slower progression through school. However, there also appear to be heterogeneous effects depending on the extent of recovery; the small proportion of children who recovered substantially exhibit similar schooling outcomes to the non-stunted group. These results have important implications for the timing of nutritional (and other) investments in the early childhood period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a disruption hypothesis that student learning is lost as a direct consequence of teacher strike action in South Africa. At face value estimates from a within-student across-subject analysis suggest that teacher strike participation negatively affects learning for students in the poorest three quarters of schools. Strike action also limits access to nutrition as school closures prevent student participation in daily school feeding programmes. However, despite controlling for student and school level factors that may drive teacher selection into strike participation, unobserved teacher characteristics continue to bias estimates. Assuming that selection on observable characteristics can tell us something about selection on unobservable characteristics, there is an implied negative selection of teachers into strike participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes in South Africa. Based on longitudinal data drawn from the South Africa National Income and Dynamic Study, we compare the results from the random and fixed effect panel estimation to estimates from the two-part model. We obtain negative price elasticity of demand for cigarettes, with significantly larger price elasticity estimates from the two-part model. The results suggest that a 10% increase in price reduces cigarette consumption by 4.3% for the economy brands and 6.9% for the mid-price brands. However, we find that over the same period, estimates from the fixed effect model are statistically insignificant. This is probably due to the limited within variation in both cigarette consumption and cigarette prices. Thus, with between variation models, increased tobacco taxes can, in the presence of the changing market structure, remain a desirable policy tool for reducing cigarette consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive businesses are complex partnerships between commercial entities and smallholders/low-income communities, to include the latter in commercial agricultural value chains. IBs offer income opportunities for both partners, but are also regarded as empowering the smallholders/communities. To date, IB inclusiveness has been assessed mainly through basic quantitative measurements. However, these measures neglect the complexities of the overall value creation process, and of the inclusion of the beneficiaries within this process. This paper aims at providing a more holistic methodology by assessing the level of inclusiveness based on four dimensions: ownership, voice, risk and reward. Case studies in South Africa show that inclusion of low-income communities lags behind the intended level. Lack of financial resources and skills, reinforced by power imbalance, result in smallholder ownership being limited to land, the community's voice being compromised, risk being transferred to the smallholder communities and rewards being disappointing for the beneficiaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to determine the degree to which class and socio-economic background influence a child's life chances and their future perspectives. We build on the growing number of papers that deal with the concept of inequality of opportunity. Comparing children from lower and upper middle-class households we find significant differences in terms of access to basic education, sanitation, clean water and mobility. Our multivariate analysis highlights the importance of class membership for schooling outcomes and labour market prospects of a child. The single most important variable to explain schooling outcomes is mother's education. While income seems to be less important for younger ages, it becomes increasingly important for the chances of reaching matric and obtaining tertiary education. The results are robust for various models and panel data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing empirical research on consumption patterns of the South African black middle class leans either on the theory of conspicuous consumption or culture-specific utility functions. This paper departs from treatment of the black middle class as a homogeneous group. By differentiating between a securely established group, with characteristics and consumption patterns similar to the white middle class, and an emerging group, often with weaker productive characteristics, the paper formally introduces economic vulnerability as a driver of consumption patterns. Households new to the middle class or uncertain of continued class membership are viewed as vulnerable. Consumption patterns of the emerging black middle class are observed to diverge substantially from the other groups, in terms of greater signalling of social status via visible consumption and preoccupation with reducing an historical asset deficit. We expect many of its members to join the established classes over time, converging to a new ‘middle class mean’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modelling approaches are utilised to understand complex and dynamic issues, which are characteristic of the South Africa power sector, especially since the sector has been at the centre of green economy debates. This paper thus draws on a system dynamics approach that captures and represents the dynamic behaviour of transforming the power sector with a green economy framework. This was done utilising the South Africa Green Economy Model and investigating whether current policies and strategies can improve economic growth, while at the same time reducing the impact on the environment and providing more employment. In general, the paper shows that green economy investments in the power sector provide opportunities for achieving the diversification of the energy mix, job creation, as well as CO2eqemissions reduction. However, more aggressive investments are necessary if all of the targets, as laid out in the National Development Plan, are to be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence, and particularly gender-based violence (GBV), has become an increasingly serious problem in the democratic era in South Africa. While numerous suggestions have been offered for why this is the case, a growing body of literature links the perpetration of violence and GBV to the expectations of men's prescribed gender roles, or their masculinities. In response to this, some organisations have begun working specifically with men as a violence prevention mechanism, through the use of masculinitiesfocused interventions. This paper uses a South African example as a case study, looking primarily at how men who participate in the intervention understand masculinities and violence, and the impact that the intervention has on this understanding. Results suggest that violence has become largely normalised in the country, but that the intervention can play a role in beginning to problematise that normalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty alleviation remains a pressing concern for South African policy-makers. Implementing effective anti-poverty policies requires a clear understanding of the nature and extent of poverty. The extant literature on South African poverty dynamics shows a decline in the headcount ratio over the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, the prior research largely adopts a narrow money-metric approach, or uses multi-dimensional indices that include welfare indicators based on private assets (e.g. television sets) or those that are provided publicly (e.g. access to water). This paper uses multiple correspondence analysis to measure non-income poverty trends for the period 2005–12. The novelty in this undertaking lies in an attempt to include a measure of the perceived quality of public assets and services to complement the standard indices. This provides some measure of ‘success’ of public service delivery, accounting for both changes in access and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

International development projects that support entrepreneurship face a number of challenges, not least because they need to integrate different paradigms. Based on the case study of a Canadian non-governmental organisation in South Africa, this paper provides an exploratory assessment of these challenges and highlights four major factors that affect the success of such international projects: transposing a northern business model to the south; developing local roots and adapting to the local context; balancing the allocation of resources between managing the project and providing services to entrepreneurs; and aligning the cultures of the private sector and international development agencies. In practical terms, the findings provide benchmarks for the success of these projects and could help improve interventions that encourage entrepreneurship in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many women interact with the South African social security system in relation to the Child Support Grant (CSG), which is social assistance payable for children living with low-income caregivers. This paper explores women's accounts of how the CSG serves to protect and respect dignity, a foundational value in the South African Constitution. Drawing from focus groups and in-depth interviews with female CSG recipients of working age, it is argued that whilst the experience of using the CSG does protect dignity in certain important respects, other aspects including the application process, the small amount of the grant and negative discourses associated with the status of being a CSG recipient were experienced by many as erosive of dignity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Poverty, despite being a multifaceted concept, is commonly measured in either absolute or relative monetary terms. However, it can also be measured subjectively, as people form perceptions on their relative income, welfare and life satisfaction. This is the first study that uses the National Income Dynamics Study data to analyse poverty across various objective and subjective methods. The paper finds that while respondents' poverty status varies across methods, blacks remain the racial group most likely to be defined as poor by at least one method. The multivariate analysis reveals that the impact of some explanatory variables, such as experience of negative events, frequency of crime victimisation, health status and importance of religious activities, is mixed across methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides evidence about socioeconomic inequity in inpatient healthcare utilisation in South Africa after 10 years of reform after Apartheid, and examines which are the contributing determinants. We use the South African sample of the World Health Survey from 2002–03 and estimate horizontal inequity in inpatient healthcare utilisation using the concentration index. We further decompose inequity in inpatient care to explore the contribution of the different determinants of use. We find that inpatient healthcare utilisation is found to be pro-rich distributed in South Africa. The rich are more likely to use inpatient healthcare than the poor, given the same level of need. In addition, race is found to be the most important contributor (42%) to socioeconomic inequity in inpatient healthcare utilisation in South Africa. Gender, education and the consumption level are also found to be important contributors, but to a lesser degree than race. Our findings provide evidence that socioeconomic inequity in inpatient healthcare utilisation still exists in post-Apartheid South Africa and that policies, regulations and research should contribute to a more equitable utilisation. The implementation of National Health Insurance could help to reduce the major problems and large (socioeconomic and racial) inequalities of the South African healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]