Gender and child sensitive social protection in South Africa

Abstract

Drawing from a 2010 study of women receiving the Child Support Grant in an urban area of South Africa, this article discusses the link between social protection, women's empowerment and the well-being of children. It appears that the Grant enhances women's power and control over household decision-making in financial matters, general household spending and child well-being. At the same time, the data show that women continue to bear the greatest burden of care in the household and that these responsibilities significantly heighten gender inequalities. Therefore, while the Grant has benefits for child well-being and women's empowerment, it cannot on its own transform unequal and unjust social relations of power. It should be working in concert with other public programmes not only to focus on children's needs but also to strive for gender equality for poor women.

Keywords:

• care responsibilities
• child sensitive social protection
• Child Support Grant
• gender sensitive social protection
• South Africa
• women's empowerment

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Reem Mutwali for assistance with the statistical analysis for the study and the reference group, Nhlanhla Jordan and Professors Francie Lund, Shireen Hassim, Vivienne Bozalek and Trudie Knijn for their input at both the conceptualisation and analysis phase of this research. This research was funded by the South Africa Netherlands research Programme on Alternatives to Development (SANPAD), and the University Research Committee at the University of Johannesburg.