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Social grants, remittances, and food security: does the source of income matter?

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  • Jennifer Waidler

    (Maastricht University
    UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti)

  • Stephen Devereux

    (University of Western Cape
    University of Sussex)

Abstract

Large numbers of South Africans receive social grants (public transfers) or remittances (private transfers), and yet one in four South Africans is food insecure. The purpose of this paper is to address two questions: do social grants and remittances improve food security and nutritional outcomes? If so, do these impacts differ between public and private transfers? Drawing on the National Income Dynamic Survey (NIDS), South Africa’s first nationally representative survey that follows more than 28,000 individuals over time, we found significant and positive impacts of the Older Person’s Grant and of remittances on the dietary diversity index, but not of the Child Support Grant. Moreover, we found no effect on food expenditure or on anthropometry (BMI) by the Older Person’s Grant, or remittances. However, some positive effects were found on children’s BMI from the Child Support Grant. We discuss why we observe different effects from different transfers, as well as giving several reasons why income transfers are failing to close the nutritional deficits in South Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Jennifer Waidler & Stephen Devereux, 2019. "Social grants, remittances, and food security: does the source of income matter?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(3), pages 679-702, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ssefpa:v:11:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s12571-019-00918-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s12571-019-00918-x
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    7. World Bank, 2021. "South Africa - Social Assistance Programs and Systems Review," World Bank Publications - Reports 37713, The World Bank Group.
    8. Stephen Devereux & Jose Cuesta, 2021. "Urban-Sensitive Social Protection: How Universalized Social Protection Can Reduce Urban Vulnerabilities Post COVID-19," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 21(4), pages 340-360, October.
    9. Hanna Dudek & Joanna Myszkowska-Ryciak, 2020. "The Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Correlates of Food Insecurity in Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-16, August.
    10. Adhikari, Tamanna & Greyling, Talita & Rossouw, Stephanie, 2021. "The ugly truth about social welfare payments and households' subjective well-being," GLO Discussion Paper Series 883, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
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