Michelle Adato

Exploring Poverty Traps and Social Exclusion in South Africa Using Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Abstract Recent theoretical work hypothesises that a polarised society like South Africa will suffer a legacy of ineffective social capital and blocked pathways of upward mobility that leaves large numbers of people trapped in poverty. To explore these ideas, this paper employs a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. Novel econometric analysis of asset dynamics over the 1993–98 period identifies a dynamic asset poverty threshold that signals that large numbers of South Africans are indeed trapped without a pathway out of poverty. Qualitative analysis of this period and the period 1998–2001 more deeply examines patterns of mobility, and confirms the continuation of this pattern of limited upward mobility and a low-level poverty trap. In addition, the qualitative data permit a closer look at the specific role played by social relationships. While finding ample evidence of active social capital and networks, these are more helpful for non-poor households. For the poor, social capital at best helps stabilise livelihoods at low levels and does little to promote upward mobility. While there is thus some economic sense to sociability in South Africa, elimination of the polarised economic legacy of apartheid will ultimately require more proactive efforts to assure that households have access to a minimum bundle of assets and to the markets needed to effectively build on those assets over time.

Targeting Poverty through Community-Based Public Works Programmes: Experience from South Africa

Since the transition to democracy, South African public works programmes have been designed to involve community participation, and have aimed to target the poor. This article examines the targeting performance of seven programmes in Western Cape Province, and analyses the role of government, community-based organisations, trade unions and the private sector in explaining targeting outcomes. These programmes were not well targeted geographically in terms of highest poverty, unemployment or infrastructure needs. Within localities, jobs went to the poor and unemployed, though not always the poorest, and did well in reaching women, despite gender bias. Targeting guidelines of the state are mediated by diverse and sometimes conflicting priorities that emerge in programmes with multiple objectives, by local perceptions of need and entitlement, and by competing voices within civil society.

Understanding use of health services in conditional cash transfer programs: Insights from qualitative research in Latin America and Turkey

Conditional cash transfer programs provide cash grants to poor households conditional on their participation in primary health care services. While significant impacts have been demonstrated quantitatively, little attention is paid to why CCTs have these observed impacts, and as importantly- why impacts are not greater than they are. This article draws on qualitative research from four countries over a ten year period (1999-2009) to provide insights into why expected health and nutrition impacts do and do not occur. In Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Turkey, ethnographic methods were used, involving between 87 and 120 households per country, and in Mexico, focus groups were conducted with 230 people. Key informant interviews were conducted with health care providers in all countries. While CCTs operate primarily on the assumption that a cash incentive will produce behaviour change, we found multiple sociocultural and structural influences on health care decisions that compete with cash. These include beliefs around traditional and modern biomedical practices, sociocultural norms, gender relations, and the quotidian experience of poverty in many dimensions. We conclude that impacts can be increased through a better understanding of multiple contextual influences on health care decisions, and greater attention to the health education components and complementary interventions.

Acceptability and Feasibility of Cash Transfers for HIV Prevention Among Adolescent South African Women

Women are at increased risk of HIV infection in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies have found an association between school attendance and reduced HIV risk. We report feasibility and acceptability results from a pilot of a cash transfer intervention conditional on school attendance paid to young women and their families in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa for the prevention of HIV infection. Twenty-nine young women were randomised to intervention or control and a cash payment based on school attendance made over a 2-month period. Quantitative (survey) and qualitative (focus group and interview) data collection was undertaken with young women, parents, teachers and young men in the same school. Qualitative analysis was conducted in Atlas.ti using a framework approach and basic descriptive analysis in Excel was conducted on the quantitative data. Results indicate it was both feasible and acceptable to introduce such an intervention among this population in rural South Africa. There was good understanding of the process of randomisation and the aims of the study, although some rumours developed in the study community. We address some of the changes necessary to ensure acceptability and feasibility of the main trial.

Accessing the ‘Right’ Kinds of Material and Symbolic Capital: the Role of Cash Transfers in Reducing Adolescent School Absence and Risky Behaviour in South Africa

Abstract This article investigates how well South Africa’s Child Support Grant (CSG) responds to the material and psychosocial needs of adolescents, and the resultant effects on schooling and risky behaviour. One driver of schooling decisions is shame related to poverty and the ‘social cost’ of school, where a premium must often be paid for fashionable clothes or accessories. The other driver relates to symbolic and consumptive capital gained through engaging in sexual exchange relationships. The anticipated impacts from the CSG are partial because of these non-material drivers of adolescent choices. Non-material transmission mechanisms must be better understood and addressed.

Programming for Citizenship: The Conditional Cash Transfer Programme in El Salvador

Abstract State-sponsored social protection, while addressing social and economic rights in the concept of citizenship, has rarely engaged systematically with its promotion as a social good. This paper reviews El Salvador’s experience with ‘programming for citizenship’ in its Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme. Citizenship was promoted through local representative structures, and non-formal education. Outcomes are explained by local political histories, divergent objectives, limited bandwidth in the context of complex programme management, and the structural confines of CCT programme design. Impacts on women’s personal empowerment were strongest. El Salvador’s experience provides lessons for CCT programmes aiming for transformational outcomes.