South Africa’s lockdown in March and April has saved lives by containing the spread of COVID-19 but it has done so at a tremendous social and economic cost. To avoid a second surge and another lockdown, it is vital to prioritise adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) as a first line of defence against containing COVID-19. NPIs can save lives without having to risk livelihoods. But to have an impact, it requires sufficiently high levels of public adherence.
Working Papers
New evidence suggests that over four months after the closure of early childhood development (ECD) programmes on 18 March 2020, the ECD sector is likely to be operating at less than a quarter of its pre-lockdown levels. Of the 38% of respondents from the new NIDS-CRAM survey reporting that children aged 0-6 in their households had attended ECD programmes before the lockdown in March, only 12% indicated that children had returned to these programmes by mid-July, well after programmes were allowed to reopen
RESEP researcher recent Oped in News24: Opportunities for girls to excel few and far between RESEP researcher, Linda Zuze, recently wrote an article for News…
In an effort to provide expert opinions, as well as assist in guiding public discussions around socio-economic policy, such as education, and issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the press contributions of RESEP researchers have increased markedly over the past several months.
In April this year, 24-year-old Lunga Swelindawo received his Master’s degree in Economics. This Swartlander knew from a young age that he was different: He wanted to build bridges, lift other people and change people’s lives. Leo Cordom talked to Lunga Swelindawo about big dreams, to feel like a token black and his next big hurdle.
The report serves as a background paper to UNESCO’s 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR).
This report determines how the real resources available to the average child in South Africa have changed over the period 2008 to 2018.
Van der Berg, S & Spaull, N. (2020). Counting the Cost: COVID-19 school closures in South Africa & its impacts on children. Research on Socioeconomic Policy (RESEP). Stellenbosch University. Stellenbosch.
A report by RESEP’s Servaas van der Berg, Martin Gustafsson, and Kholekile Malindi titled Education and Skills for the Economy and Links to Labour Markets in South Africa, has been released for public comment by the National Planning Commission.
This policy brief compares educational progress among South African girls across the socioeconomic spectrum to shed some light on which girls are actually succeeding academically and which ones are being left behind.
Gabrielle Wills and Servaas van der Berg explore the development and trial of new metrics to quantify school leadership and management practices and/or processes considered to be theoretically related to literacy outcomes.
Wills, G. and van der Berg, S., 2020. Measuring school leadership and management and linkages with literacy: Evidence from rural and township primary schools in South Africa. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, p.1741143220915923.
I use the latest (16 May) version of the OxCGRT dataset to answer three fairly common questions about COVID-19 in the South African context. The three questions are: (1) Is South Africa’s curve a relatively flat one? (2.) Does South Africa have ‘one of the toughest lockdowns on earth’? (3.) How do restrictions and ‘flattening the curve’ relate to each other, and where does South Africa fit in?
Good policymaking requires reliable, comparable statistics over time. Despite there being an annual survey of agricultural firms in South Africa, confusion exists about the number of commercial farms in South Africa and the structure of the agricultural sector. According to the agricultural census in 2007, there were 39 966 commercial farms, while the agricultural survey mentions a figure of 64 192 and 57 126 in 2008 and 2017, respectively. With such diverging numbers across time, which figures should we trust and how does one analyse trends in the sector and make evidence-based decisions?
This paper presents new evidence on the employment effects of a large increase in agricultural minimum wages in South Africa using anonymized tax data.
Von Fintel, D. and Orthofer, A., 2020. Wealth inequality and financial inclusion: Evidence from South African tax and survey records. Economic Modelling.
Piek, M. and von Fintel, D., 2020. Sectoral minimum wages in South Africa: Disemployment by firm size and trade exposure. Development Southern Africa, 37(3), pp.462-482.
It is critical that the debates leading up to the re-opening of South Africa’s schools, and the actual process of re-opening, which will almost certainly occur in stages, be informed by the emerging medical evidence and reports on best school practices. Re-opening the pre-school sector, covering around 2.4 million children, and the earliest school grades, seems least risky in terms of infections. Moreover, there are strong educational and nutritional arguments which favour prioritising these levels.
Who should go back to school first in South Africa? Children under 10 are least susceptible to COVID-19, they should go back first. Spaull,…
Many have to fall back on that familiar South African last resort, the extended family. It will take some time before the full effect of Covid-19, the lockdown and recession will be clear, writes Servaas van der Berg.