The reach and impact of Child Support Grants: evidence from KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

This paper examines the reach and impact of the South African Child Support Grant, using longitudinal data collected through the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies. The grant is being taken up for a third of all age-eligible resident children, and appears to be reaching those children living in the poorer households of the demographic surveillance area (DSA). Children who received the grant are significantly more likely to be enrolled in school in the years following grant receipt than are equally poor children of the same age. However, older brothers and sisters of grant recipients, when they were observed at younger ages, were less likely than other children to be enrolled in school – perhaps reflecting the greater poverty in grant-receiving households. Thus the grant appears to help overcome the impact of poverty on school enrolment.

Analysis is based on data collected through the Africa Centre Demographic Information System (ACDIS). We have benefited from the help of the ACDIS field and data centre staff under the leadership of the principal investigator, Dr Kobus Herbst. We thank Anna-Maria Vanneste for assisting with the development of the child grant questionnaire, and Shirin Motala, Lawrence Haddad, and seminar participants at the School of Development Studies, University of Natal, and Princeton University for helpful comments. This work was supported by Wellcome Trust Grants to the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies. Case acknowledges funding from the National Institutes of Health and the MacArthur Foundation. Hosegood acknowledges funding from The Wellcome Trust, UK through grants to the Africa Centre and V Hosegood.