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Gender equality
No full textGender equality is entrenched in the South African Constitution, and women’s empowerment is a priority of the post-apartheid government. However, achieving gender equity remains a challenge. Even before Covid-19, impediments to women’s empowerment and gender equity persisted. Women are oppressed in various ways; the differences among them in terms of race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality help explain the extent of their marginalization. Government interventions during the Covid19 pandemic sought to ensure that gains in women’s empowerment and gender equity would not be eroded. However, while some government interventions referred to women and gender, most regulations used gender-neutral language and so amplified women’s marginalisation. Women’s already marginal position in the economy also meant that few could access the various government measures intended to alleviate the impact of the pandemic. Overall, the Covid-19 pandemic had a particularly negative effect on women in terms of employment, gender-based violence, and access to housing and health services. Gender mainstreaming of government interventions needs to be operationalized in a way that shows how key variables in women’s lives intersect in complex ways to shape their experience of exclusion and marginalisation. It is no longer feasible to continue using the single lens approach that identifies patriarchy as the only basis of women’s oppression and gender inequality, while ignoring deeply entrenched racial inequality. There is an urgent need to understand the differences among women in South Africa and to take these differences into account when implementing programmes and interventions during disasters such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Note that any conclusions on the strengths and limitations of the Covid-19 response are still preliminary and will be refined based on stakeholder consultations and feedback from readers.
Impact on vulnerability
No full textAfter four years, the longer term effects of the pandemic are clear. Vulnerability derives from the uneven distribution of power, and Covid-19’s impact was marked when people were unable to access services, lacked
adequate formal support, or lacked the right to such support. Covid-19 infection continued to impact families and communities whose vulnerability and disadvantage derives from the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, disability, and citizenship; these factors increase risk of infection, illness, and social suffering. Measures to prevent infection, at times harshly enforced, constrained people’s access to social and health services, and income generation in the informal sector especially affected those isolated and living with social disadvantage. People who were marginalised, living with disabilities, or without official identity papers, suffered especially. While the Covid-19 SRD provided some support to poor households, grants did not match the rising costs of food and commodities. Financial stress and social isolation impacted the mental health of all groups, with the increased incidence of gender-based violence and child abuse. With unemployment, housing insecurity, and the rising costs of utility bills, transport, medical care and food, people drew on savings. Nonprofit community-based programmes, such as soup kitchens, also intervened to address people’s most immediate needs. Local initiatives for people without shelter, family or community support illustrate the potential for innovations to address disadvantage in any circumstance.
Use of survey data
No full textThis chapter covers three major topics: use of survey results for estimation of TB disease burden, other key
results that can be generated from survey data and how they can be used, and country examples that illustrate
how a range of survey results have been used in practice.
Navigating threads of a young adult life-course: tangled complexity in the education and work pathways of African university graduates
No full textWhile educational attainment is increasing in sub-Saharan Africa, formal employment remains elusive. With this
context in mind, this study delves into the young adult pathways undertaken by African graduate scholarship
recipients post-university. Data from a longitudinal tracer survey was combined with qualitative interviews with
graduates from six countries. Survey findings showed complexity with activities like employment, studying and
entrepreneurship overlapping over time, with many combining working and/or studying and/or entrepreneurial
activity. Qualitative analysis underlined this complexity, with education and work comprehensively entangled.
The meaning of ‘employment’ covered various working world practices, often in education, which we call
‘finding a haven in education’ and profiting from various income streams while studying, which we call ‘multiple
income streams and educational endeavors’. The interaction between education and work therefore problematizes the concept of ‘transitions’, which assumes life-courses move from education into the world of work. We deploy the concepts ‘threads’ and ‘social navigation’ to illustrate this interaction, arguing that African graduates navigate their paths towards adulthood by weaving various thread-like opportunities into a temporarily stable livelihood knot or unravelling threads to create clear segments for income generation. They improvised an
unconventional, middle-class African hustle, rather than following linear routes from education to work.
South African National Health Insurance policy process 2007-2019: private and third-sector lessons for BRICS
No full textThis paper examines the South African National Health Insurance (NHI) policy process from 2007 to
2019, focusing on the lack of implementation and the limited involvement of the private sector and civil
society. Using summative thematic content analysis and applying the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), the study investigates factors contributing to delays in policy execution. Key findings include
challenges in evidence-based policymaking, value judgments, ideological influences, interest group power,
misunderstandings of incremental and non-incremental reforms, lack of risk analysis, and compliance
issues. The research provides valuable lessons and recommendations for improving NHI policy processes in
BRICS countries, emphasising the role of the private and third sectors, regardless of the government’s level
of involvement. This analysis offers insights into the complexities of achieving universal health coverage
(UHC) and the importance of inclusive, collaborative reform strategies.
Innovation trends in the wholesale and retail trade sector, 2019-2021
No full textThe South African wholesale and retail trade sector is a major contributor to GDP and offers significant employment. Businesses in the sector provide essential goods and services to consumers and serve as a crucial link in supply chains, connecting procedures to end-users. In recent years, businesses in the sector have faced multiple pressures, from the Covid-19 pandemic, to social unrest in mid-2021, and electricity shortages. This brief examines how much innovation happened in the wholesale and retail trade sector from 2019 to 2021, including the types of technologies wholesale and retail trade business used, the innovation challenges they faced, and the outcomes of their innovations
South African national survey of research and experimental development: changing patterns of not-for-profit sector R&D in SA, 2021/2022. Fact sheet 58
No full textNPO spending on biotechnology R&D grew substantially in 2021/22, reaching its highest contribution in ten years. NPOs in the Western Cape have played an increasingly prominent role in R&D (since 2018/19) while that of NPOs in KwaZulu-Natal has continued to decline. NPOs have always employed a larger percentage of female researchers compared to the other sectors. However, the proportion of total NPO R&D personnel who are researchers continued to decline in 2021/22.N/
Uptake of antiretroviral therapy and male circumcision after community-based HIV testing and strategies for linkage to care versus standard clinic referral: a multisite, open-label, randomised controlled trial in South Africa and Uganda
No full textMale circumcision decreases HIV acquisition by 60%, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) almost eliminates
HIV transmission from HIV-positive people who are virally suppressed; however, coverage of these interventions has lagged behind targets. We aimed to assess whether community-based HIV testing with counsellor support and point of-care CD4 cell count testing would increase uptake of ART and male circumcision.All the community-based strategies achieved high rates of linkage of HIV-positive people to HIV clinics, roughly a third of whom initiated ART, and of those more than 80% were virally suppressed at 9 months. Uptake of male circumcision was almost two-times higher in men who received text message reminders or lay counsellor visits than in those who received standard-of-care clinic referral. Clinic barriers to ART initiation should be addressed in future strategies to increase the proportion of HIV-positive people accessing treatment and achieving viral suppression
?N Kommunikasie-analise met betrekking tot gesondheidvoorligtingsdienste :die benutting van mediese dienste deur stedelike en nie-stedelike Tswanas
No full textMigrant youth in Durban's barbershop industry challenge informal economy stereotypes through conviviality
No full textConviviality, a term denoting ‘enjoyment, friendliness, liveliness’ is a description appearing in contrast to the realities of many migrants seeking out livelihoods in sometimes harsh, hostile, and insecure economic environments. Using data from a qualitative ethnographic study in Umlazi near Durban, South Africa, with migrant men from Burundi, this paper shows how social practices employed by these young barbers enable access to capitals, enabling and enhancing innovative and sustainable livelihoods. They have found strategies to utilise everyday social encounters to contribute to the development of business knowledge and tactics that assist in the promotion and sustainability of their businesses. Through exploration of their narratives, we elucidate how they navigate the challenges of the informal economy through convivial practices that maintain their businesses, but also allow them to benefit from established networks and social relations, highlighting the relational nature of youth entrepreneurship. In sum, the findings illustrate the entrepreneurial actions of migrant youth within socially produced urban spaces as innovative and sustainable, highlighting new insights into the relationship between migrant youth entrepreneurship and upward mobility.