Mainstreaming poverty, inequality and social exclusion: A systematic assessment of public policy in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Many developing countries experience high levels of poverty and inequality. The South African Constitution and the National Development Plan 2030 establish poverty, inequality and social exclusion as central to national policy mandates. This article reports the findings of a systematic assessment of the extent to which these mandates have been grafted into the laws, policy and strategy documents across public policy sectors. The study reviews both the frequency of references to poverty, inequality and social exclusion (differentiated by gender, race, disability status and spatial dimensions), as well as the qualitative nature of engagement with these issues. Findings show that there is at least a moderate degree of engagement with poverty, inequality and social exclusion across all sectors, although the permeation into sectoral policies is uneven. There is a much higher level of recognition in policy and strategy documents in comparison with legislative documents.

KEYWORDS:

• Poverty
• inequality
• social exclusion
• social policy
• public policy
• South Africa
• policy coherence

Acknowledgements

The study was conducted by a team of researchers – Senzelwe Mthembu, Larry Onyangu, Dipuo Mokhokane, Madoda Sitshange and Khuliso Matidza. The author gratefully acknowledges the comments and feedback of Thami Ngwenya, Nthabiseng Nkhatau, Tshepo Morake at the National Development Agency, who commissioned the research. The article also benefited from the comments of Lauren Graham and Senzelwe Mthembu, and anonymous peer reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The South African government routinely collects statistical data on racial self-identification. Racial categories, also referred to as ‘population groups’, are defined as Black, Coloured, Indian, White and Other. The main stated purpose of the collection of data on race is to measure the level of transformation and to monitor the impacts of affirmative policies.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Development Agency (South Africa).