COVID-19 pandemic, poverty and health outcomes in South Africa: Do social protection programmes protect?
The COVID-19 pandemic deepened poverty for individuals and vulnerable populations who were adversely affected through job losses.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant income loss for many people, and deepened poverty for individuals and vulnerable populations who were adversely affected through job losses. In South Africa, income loss made it harder to acquire health care and a healthy food, which had a negative impact on health outcomes. This study hypothesized that the COVID-19 shocks disproportionately affects the poor’s health, hence the need to know the impact of social protection programmes and interventions through the South Africa Social Security Grant (SASSG). Herewith, we employed the nationally represented, robust and reliable National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) data set which was conducted in 2017 (pre-COVID-19), with the first wave of the NIDS-Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM) conducted in 2021 (during COVID-19). The household’s per capita total income was used to generate poverty lines, while concentration curves and indices were employed to explain the income-health inequalities. The Difference-in-Difference with fixed effects model was used to estimate the impact of SASSG on the COVID-19 poverty stressors and self-reported health status.
This research is part of the Capacity for Economic Research and Policy making in Africa (CERPA) programme.
Citation
Omotayo AO and Ogunniyi AI. ‘COVID-19 pandemic, poverty and health outcomes in South Africa: Do social protection programmes protect?’ 2024