Browsing by Subject "Poverty"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 43
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    An analysis of formal sector employment in South Africa: Its implications for poverty and future economic strategies
    (Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, 2015-05-28) Abedian, Iraj; Schneier, Steffen
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    Asset-based versus money metric poverty indices in South Africa: An assessment using the chronic poverty research centre RSA 2002 survey
    (CSSR and SALDRU, 2015-05-28) Crosoer, David; Leibbrandt, Murray; Woolard, Ingrid
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    Beyond free electricity: The cost of electric cooking in poor households and a market-friendly alternative
    (Elsevier, 2006) Howells, Mark; Victor, David G; Gaunt, Trevor; Elias, Rebecca J; Alfstad, Thomas
    The South African government is introducing a poverty-reduction policy that will supply households with a monthly 50kWh “Free Basic Electricity (FBE)” subsidy. We show that FBE distorts the energy choices of poor households by encouraging them to cook with electricity, whereas alternatives such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) can deliver a similar cooking service at a much lower cost to society. An alternative energy scheme, such as providing households with clean energy credits equivalent in value to the FBE’s cost, could deliver additional energy services worth at least 6% of total household welfare (and probably much more) at no additional public cost; those benefits are so large that they would cover the entire cost of LPG fuel needed to implement the scheme. The analysis is extremely sensitive to the coincidence of electric cooking with peak power demand on the South African grid and to assumptions regarding how South Africa will meet its looming shortfall in peak power capacity. One danger of FBE is that actual peak coincidence and the costs of supplying peak power could be much less favorable than we assume, and such uncertainties expose the South African power system to potentially very high costs of service.
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    Building the capacity of policy-makers and planners to strengthen mental health systems in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review
    (2016) Hanlon, Charlotte
    Abstract Background Little is known about the interventions required to build the capacity of mental health policy-makers and planners in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We conducted a systematic review with the primary aim of identifying and synthesizing the evidence base for building the capacity of policy-makers and planners to strengthen mental health systems in LMICs. Methods We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Knowledge, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, LILACS, ScieELO, Google Scholar and Cochrane databases for studies reporting evidence, experience or evaluation of capacity-building of policy-makers, service planners or managers in mental health system strengthening in LMICs. Reports in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French or German were included. Additional papers were identified by hand-searching references and contacting experts and key informants. Database searches yielded 2922 abstracts and 28 additional papers were identified. Following screening, 409 full papers were reviewed, of which 14 fulfilled inclusion criteria for the review. Data were extracted from all included papers and synthesized into a narrative review. Results Only a small number of mental health system-related capacity-building interventions for policy-makers and planners in LMICs were described. Most models of capacity-building combined brief training with longer term mentorship, dialogue and/or the establishment of networks of support. However, rigorous research and evaluation methods were largely absent, with studies being of low quality, limiting the potential to separate mental health system strengthening outcomes from the effects of associated contextual factors. Conclusions This review demonstrates the need for partnership approaches to building the capacity of mental health policy-makers and planners in LMICs, assessed rigorously against pre-specified conceptual frameworks and hypotheses, utilising longitudinal evaluation and mixed quantitative and qualitative approaches.
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    Correlates of substance abuse treatment completion among disadvantaged communities in Cape Town, South Africa
    (BioMed Central Ltd, 2010) Myers, Bronwyn; Pasche, Sonja; Adam, Mohamed
    BACKGROUND: Completion of substance abuse treatment is a proximal indicator of positive treatment outcomes. To design interventions to improve outcomes, it is therefore important to unpack the factors contributing to treatment completion. To date, substance abuse research has not examined the factors associated with treatment completion among poor, disadvantaged communities in developing countries. This study aimed to address this gap by exploring client-level factors associated with treatment completion among poor communities in South Africa. METHODS: Secondary data analysis was conducted on cross-sectional survey data collected from 434 persons residing in poor communities in Cape Town, South Africa who had accessed substance abuse treatment in 2006. RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses revealed that therapeutic alliance, treatment perceptions, abstinence-specific social support, and depression were significant partial predictors of treatment completion. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that treatment completion rates of individuals from poor South African communities can be enhanced by i) improving perceptions of substance abuse treatment through introducing quality improvement initiatives into substance abuse services, ii) strengthening clients' abstinence-oriented social networks and, iii) strengthening the counselor-client therapeutic alliance.
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    Does capability measurement enable aspiration during emergent adulthood? Examining 'Poverty Stoplight' as a poverty measurement and capability building instrument for youth in South Africa
    (2019) Newell, Ashley Michelle; Hall, Martin
    In South Africa, the majority of youth entering emerging adulthood find themselves in a protracted struggle to access further education, training or to secure their first decent job. The purpose of this multi-case study is to deepen the understanding of how capability measurement approaches and tools can empower marginalized youth to better understand their aspirations and map their way through emerging adulthood and out of poverty. This research aims to deepen the understanding of youth's experience utilizing 'Poverty Stoplight'; a poverty measurement and capability building instrument that utilizes a self-assessment survey and mentorship methodology. The researcher utilized a youth-focused participatory approach in conducting focus groups and in-depth one-on-one interviews across five marginalized communities in the Western Cape to gain insight into their experience using the tool, their ability to envision their future selves and develop their aspirations. What emerged from the data were insights into the youth's aspirations, the perceived enabling factors and impediments towards their aspirations and their experiences utilizing Poverty Stoplight. This process enabled youth to genuinely reflect and assess their situation, and have the opportunity to define their aspirations. Overall the Poverty Stoplight programme was experienced as empowering by participants, with several implications for the programme pertaining to data accessibility, communication, mentorship and solution sharing, as well as the importance of youth-specific participatory approaches. Aligned to this, the findings yielded several recommendations pertaining to providing support and enabling opportunities for emerging adults to realise their aspirations. Despite the limitations of this research, this study is relevant for stakeholders in South Africa and globally as it examines the critical issue of youth development, with a focus on the ability of young people to attain their aspirations. Further, it analyses the capability measurement approach as a means to ensuring young people can better understand and plot their way out of poverty, making the most of their individual capabilities and attributes within the broader structural and systemic challenges they face. This exploration of practical tools and methodologies being developed and utilized by pioneering organisations in the South African context provides empirical evidence of the merit of such approaches, with recommendations on how tools and approaches can even better serve the needs of youth. Further, longitudinal research is merited into the use of such capability measurement approaches to empower youth and the further use of participatory methodologies.
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    The dynamics of household formation and composition in the rural Eastern Cape.
    (2008) Neves, David; Du Toit, Andries
    Focusing on a specific impoverished region of rural Eastern Cape, this paper examines the dynamics of household formation and composition within postapartheid migratory networks. While the fluidity, contingency and spatially extended nature of African households is generally understood, the paper focuses on the social relationships that both buttress and flow from these qualities. In conceptualising the notion of the household, the paper also suggests the rubric of the ‘household’ can be a powerful, cultural narrative for constituting practices of domesticity. Five detailed case studies are presented and the dynamics of household-making explicated in terms of three distinct levels of analysis. The first is the overarching macro-structural context which includes kinship practices, cultural mores, rural governance and the changing political economy of South Africa’s former homelands. The paper argues that the altered material base of rural livelihoods in the last two decades has seen traditional patterns of male circular migration and trajectories of household formation eclipsed by large numbers of economically marginalised workseekers who precariously churn between both urban-rural and within rural areas. These changes have undercut the prospects for traditional forms of household formation and reconfigured the nature of the contemporary conjugal contract.
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    Education and youth unemployment in South Africa
    (Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, 2015-05-28) Lam, David; Leibbrandt, Murray; Mlatsheni, Cecil
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    Evidence insufficient to confirm the value of population screening for diabetes and hypertension in low- and-middle-income settings
    (2015) Durao, Solange; Ajumobi, Oluwayemisi; Kredo, Tamara; Naude, Celeste; Levitt, Naomi S; Steyn, Krisela; Bradshaw, Debbie; Young, Taryn
    To assess the evidence from systematic reviews on the effect on morbidity and mortality of blanket screening for hypertension or diabetes mellitus compared with targeted, opportunistic or no screening, we searched for relevant systematic reviews and conducted duplicate study selection, data extraction and quality appraisal. Results were summarised narratively. We included two completed reviews of moderate quality and one ongoing Cochrane review. In one completed review, general health checks had no effect on total morbidity or mortality or on healthcare services compared with no health checks. In the other, intensive hypertension screening methods were ineffective in increasing screening uptake or detecting new cases compared with less intensive methods. Both reviews included studies in high-income settings. There is insufficient evidence from currently available systematic reviews to confirm a beneficial effect of blanket screening for hypertension and/or diabetes compared with other types of screening methods in low- and middle-income settings. Scarce resources are being mobilised to implement mass screening intervention for diabetes and hypertension without adequate evidence of its effects. A systematic review is needed to assess clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and overall impact on the health system of screening strategies, especially in low- and middle-income settings such as exist in South Africa. Robust evaluation of these outcomes would then be necessary to inform secondary prevention strategies.
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    Flogging a dead horse: Attempts by van der Berg et al to measure changes in poverty and inequality
    (Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, 2015-05-28) Meth, C.
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    Forgotten by the highway: Globalisation, adverse incorporation and chronic poverty in a commercial farming district
    (2005) Du Toit, Andries
    The paper highlights the key insights arising from a household livelihood survey conducted in Ceres as part of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre’s work in South Africa. It argues that conventional livelihoods analysis needs to be informed by a much more sophisticated awareness of the local and global socioeconomic factors that mediate and shape the strategies that are available in local contexts. The livelihoods of the marginalised rural poor in Ceres, for instance, have to be understood against the background of complex shifts and realignments in global agro-food networks and the implications for local labour market restructuring. This analysis casts doubt on the appropriateness of attempts to frame poverty in South Africa in terms of social exclusion and the lack of integration into the ‘First World’ economy. Rather than social exclusion, poverty in Ceres needs to be understood in terms of adverse incorporation.
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    Full-term, peri-urban South African infants under 6 months of age are at risk for early-onset anaemia
    (2004) Sibeko, L N; Dhansay, M A; Charlton, K E; Johns, T; Van Stuijvenberg, M E; Gray-Donald, K
    OBJECTIVE: There is a paucity of data on the micronutrient status of low-income, lactating South African women and their infants under 6 months of age. The aim of this study was to elucidate the level of anaemia and vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in peri-urban breast-feeding women and their young infants. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study including anthropometric, biochemical and infant feeding data. SETTING: Peri-urban settlement in Cape Town, South Africa. SUBJECTS: Breast-feeding women (n=113) and their infants (aged 1-6 months) attending a peri-urban clinic. RESULTS: Mean (standard deviation (SD)) haemoglobin (Hb) of the lactating mothers was 12.4 (1.3) g dl(-1), with 32% found to be anaemic (Hb<12 g dl(-1)). Maternal serum retinol was 49.8 (SD 13.3) microg dl(-1), with 4.5% VAD. Using breast milk, mean (SD) retinol concentration was found to be 70.6 (24.6) microg dl(-1) and 15.7 (8.3) microg/g milk fat, with 13% below the cut-off level of <8 microg/g fat. There was no correlation found between breast milk retinol and infant serum retinol. Z-scores (SD) of height-for-age, weight-for-age and weight-for-height were -0.69 (0.81), 0.89 (1.01) and 1.78 (0.83), respectively. Mean (SD) infant Hb was 10.9 (1.1) g dl(-1), with the prevalence of anaemia being 50%, 33% and 12% using Hb cut-offs below 11 g dl(-1), 10.5 g dl(-1) and 9.5 g dl(-1), respectively. Mean (SD) infant serum retinol was 26.9 (7.2) microg dl(-1), with 10% being VAD. None of the infants was exclusively breast-fed, 22% were predominantly breast-fed and 78% received complementary (mixed) breast-feeding. Thirty-two per cent of infants received weaning foods at an exceptionally young age (< or =1 month old). CONCLUSION: A high rate of anaemia is present in lactating women residing in resource-poor settings. Moreover, their seemingly healthy infants under 6 months of age are at an elevated risk of developing early-onset anaemia and at lower risk of VAD.
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    Health seeking behaviour in northern KwaZulu-Natal
    (CSSR and SALDRU, 2015-05-28) Case, Anne; Menendez, Alicia; Ardington, Cally
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    Income mobility in a high-inequality society: Evidence from the first two waves of NIDS
    (Development Southern Africa, 2015-05-28) Finn, Arden; Leibbrandt, Murray; Levinsohn, James
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    Income mobility in South Africa: Evidence from the first two waves of the National Income Dynamics Study
    (Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, 2015-05-28) Finn, Arden; Leibbrandt, Murray; Levinsohn, James
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    Infrastructuring aid : materializing social protection in Northern Kenya
    (2013-12) Donovan, Kevin P.
    In numerous African countries, humanitarian and development organizations—as well as governments—are expanding expenditures on social protection schemes as a means of poverty alleviation. These initiatives, which typically provide small cash grants to poor households, are often considered particularly agreeable for the simplicity of their administration and the feasibility of their implementation. This paper examines the background work required to deploy social protection in one especially remote area: the margins of postcolonial Kenya. Specifically, it documents the often-overlooked social and technical construction of the infrastructure necessary so that cash transfers may function with the ease and simplicity for which they are commended. Attention to the practice of ‘infrastructuring’ offers insights into the tensions and politics of what is rapidly becoming a key form of transnational governance in the global south, especially the way in which market-based means and humanitarian ethics overlap.
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    The material and political bases of lived poverty in Africa: Insights from the Afrobarometer
    (2008) Mattes, Robert
    The Afrobarometer has developed an experiential measure of lived poverty (how frequently people go without basic necessities during the course of a year) that measures a portion of the central core of the concept of poverty not captured by existing objective or subjective measures. Empirically, the measure has strong individual level construct validity and reliability within any cross national round of surveys. Yet it also displays inconsistent levels of external validity as a measure of aggregate level poverty when compared to other objective, material measures of poverty or well being. Surprisingly, however, we find that lived poverty is very strongly related to country level measures of political freedom. This finding simultaneously supports Sen's (1999) arguments about development as freedom, corroborates Halperin et al’s (2005) arguments about the “democracy advantage” in development, and increases our confidence that we are indeed measuring the experiential core of poverty.
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    Measuring recent changes in South African inequality and poverty using 1996 and 2001 census data
    (CSSR and SALDRU, 2015-05-28) Leibbrandt, Murray; Poswell, Laura; Naidoo, Pranushka; Welch, Matthew; Woolard, Ingrid