Research Project Description
This research project is investigating how families and households experience the Covid-19 pandemic, whilst also examining how social protection is responding to and supporting vulnerable persons and households. We are all not equally affected by Covid-19: whilst the elderly face increased health risk, others such as paid and unpaid informal workers, low-skilled, and precarious workers risk a lack of income and food security. In South Africa, where resources including money and care move between individuals in different households, the loss of one income or a primary caregiver can put at least three other households at risk. Families in southern African countries have traditionally responded to crises by households assisting each other, social networks, and recently through social protection. Lockdowns, however, weaken familial networks by depriving individuals both of sources of livelihood as well as opportunities for sharing care. In the pre-Covid-19 period of 2018 and 2019 we examined the flow of care and money within and across over 100 households in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Using these data as a baseline, the project examines how the negative impact of Covid-19 travels across households through the early stages, through a peak expected in August/September 2020 in South Africa, and during the recovery period in 2021.
The project includes three work packages which document separately
- How families living on a low (including state-grant only income) and low-middle income are navigating both the flow of financial and caring resources before, during and after the pandemic.
- How social protection systems respond to Covid-19 and the the impact of social protection changes and the emergency relief budget on social grant receiving households during the lockdown but also during the recovery period expected in 2021 and into 2022. This part of the project will also include collaborations with researchers at the Children’s Institute and bring together policy makers, government officials and NGOs to workshops to discuss how the state’s relief budget is working and how it is being supported by other relief offered by church groups, NGOs, etc.
- How researchers can ethically and effectively conduct research and impact policy in these challenging times.
How was the research done?
Since lockdown, we have been working with over 100 households in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The research participants include men and women from diverse ethnic backgrounds, income groups and generations. By building on research that examined the flow of care and money within and across over 100 households in Cape Town and Johannesburg in the pre-Covid-19 period of 2018 and 2019 (which was funded by the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development), this research will build a second and third wave of data that will examine how the impact of Covid-19 travels across households through the early stages, through a peak expected in September in South Africa, and during the recovery period in 2021.
Writing
In the News
Impossible choices for low-income essential workers with young children
Symposium on Childcare at Transforming Care Conference
Adding insult to injury: When you’re a womxn and a caregiver, you’re not a citizen
Covid-19 emergency child support grants need flexibility to accommodate fluid caregiving
Sidla imbuya ngothi (We are very poor): Child Support Grants and Covid-19
Family dynamics in multi-generational households during Covid-19
Women-headed households and Covid-19
Old age grants hold together many a household
Podcasts & e-Seminars
Fireside Chat: Feminist Economic Perspectives on the Organization of Care in Times of Covid-19
Plenary Talk at Virtual Conference on Healthy Ageing
Awareness : Women-headed households and Covid-19.
E-Seminar: Women, Work and Care during Covid-19