South Africa : Social Assistance Programs and Systems Review

Despite being an upper middle income country, South Africa’s high inequality and the long-lasting legacies of apartheid mean that the country is faced with numerous development challenges, many of which are characteristic of countries with much low...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/238611633430611402/South-Africa-Social-Assistance-Programs-and-Systems-Review
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36514
id okr-10986-36514
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-365142021-11-10T05:10:34Z South Africa : Social Assistance Programs and Systems Review World Bank LABOR MARKET POVERTY INEQUALITY LOCKDOWN PANDEMIC IMPACT CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMS SOCIAL ASSISTANCE GRANTS TARGETING BENEFITS SOCIAL INCLUSION COST EFFECTIVENESS EXPENDITURE EFFICIENCY SHOCK RESPONSIVENESS Despite being an upper middle income country, South Africa’s high inequality and the long-lasting legacies of apartheid mean that the country is faced with numerous development challenges, many of which are characteristic of countries with much lower incomes. This paper focuses on social assistance and, specifically, the system of social grants in South Africa. This report aims to review the social assistance system in South Africa to first understand how it functions and what kinds of benefits it provides through which programs, and what tools and systems it uses to do so. Second, it reviews the performance of the system in terms of coverage, targeting, benefit incidence, adequacy, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes. Third, it assesses the extent to which the system is aligned and equipped to address the so called “triple challenge” of poverty, inequality, and unemployment as shown by data. It also reviews the limitations in the design, delivery systems, and institutional coordination at different administrative levels. Based on the analysis, this paper provides some recommendation for what adjustments and improvement the South African social assistance system could undertake in the next fi ve years in order to better align the system address the structural causes of poverty and inequality in addition to providing relief and income support. The report concludes and provides some policy and programme recommendations for the future. 2021-11-09T18:47:37Z 2021-11-09T18:47:37Z 2021-10-05 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/238611633430611402/South-Africa-Social-Assistance-Programs-and-Systems-Review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36514 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Other Social Protection Study Africa South Africa
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic LABOR MARKET
POVERTY
INEQUALITY
LOCKDOWN
PANDEMIC IMPACT
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMS
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE
GRANTS
TARGETING BENEFITS
SOCIAL INCLUSION
COST EFFECTIVENESS
EXPENDITURE EFFICIENCY
SHOCK RESPONSIVENESS
spellingShingle LABOR MARKET
POVERTY
INEQUALITY
LOCKDOWN
PANDEMIC IMPACT
CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMS
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE
GRANTS
TARGETING BENEFITS
SOCIAL INCLUSION
COST EFFECTIVENESS
EXPENDITURE EFFICIENCY
SHOCK RESPONSIVENESS
World Bank
South Africa : Social Assistance Programs and Systems Review
geographic_facet Africa
South Africa
description Despite being an upper middle income country, South Africa’s high inequality and the long-lasting legacies of apartheid mean that the country is faced with numerous development challenges, many of which are characteristic of countries with much lower incomes. This paper focuses on social assistance and, specifically, the system of social grants in South Africa. This report aims to review the social assistance system in South Africa to first understand how it functions and what kinds of benefits it provides through which programs, and what tools and systems it uses to do so. Second, it reviews the performance of the system in terms of coverage, targeting, benefit incidence, adequacy, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes. Third, it assesses the extent to which the system is aligned and equipped to address the so called “triple challenge” of poverty, inequality, and unemployment as shown by data. It also reviews the limitations in the design, delivery systems, and institutional coordination at different administrative levels. Based on the analysis, this paper provides some recommendation for what adjustments and improvement the South African social assistance system could undertake in the next fi ve years in order to better align the system address the structural causes of poverty and inequality in addition to providing relief and income support. The report concludes and provides some policy and programme recommendations for the future.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title South Africa : Social Assistance Programs and Systems Review
title_short South Africa : Social Assistance Programs and Systems Review
title_full South Africa : Social Assistance Programs and Systems Review
title_fullStr South Africa : Social Assistance Programs and Systems Review
title_full_unstemmed South Africa : Social Assistance Programs and Systems Review
title_sort south africa : social assistance programs and systems review
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/238611633430611402/South-Africa-Social-Assistance-Programs-and-Systems-Review
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36514
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