Panel Paper:
Social Transfers, Remittances and Food Security
Thursday, July 13, 2017
:
2:35 PM
Infinity (Crowne Plaza Brussels - Le Palace)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Large numbers of South Africans receive social grants (public transfers) or remittances (private transfers), and yet one in four South Africans is food insecure. The purpose of this paper is to address two questions: do social grants and remittances improve food security and nutritional outcomes? If so, do these impacts differ between public and private transfers? Drawing on the National Income Dynamic Survey (NIDS), South Africa’s first nationally representative survey that follows over 28,000 individuals over time, we find significant and positive impacts of the Older Person’s Grant and of remittances on the dietary diversity index, but not of the Child Support Grant. Moreover, we find no effect on anthropometry (BMI) by the Child Support Grant, Older Person’s Grant, or remittances. We discuss several reasons why grants are failing to close the hunger gap.
Full Paper:
