Articles for March 2023
Special Covid-19 grants not only provided income relief: they also improved labour-market outcomes
The Social Relief of Distress grant was the first in South Africa to target unemployed adults. Its main aim was to provide income support in a time of the crisis precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. But for the first time, new research has shown that it also played a key role in improving labour-market outcomes for recipients.
How South Africa may leverage the BRICS chair for agribusiness
Despite BRICS not being a trade bloc, its economic cooperation arrangement offers South Africa a strategic platform to advance its trade interests. The agricultural sector is interested in this grouping, mainly in advancing exports into China and India. These countries already import a sizable volume and value of agricultural products from the world market, and South African businesses want to join these suppliers. The main products that South Africa should promote within this grouping are fruits, wine, wool, and beef. Importantly, the increasing interest in BRICS should continue, while South Africa also maintains its focus on other core markets, such as the EU and the African continent.
Education is improving but the message is hard to convey
South Africa’s improvements in international standardised tests have been exceptionally steep, albeit off a low base, for some 15 years. Six reasons make this difficult to communicate: examinations distract from reliable measurement; small gains are incorrectly considered insignificant; the social benefits of gains are long-term; the psychometrics behind rigorous testing is foreign to many; this testing has on occasion been poorly done; and teachers often express ideological concerns about standardised testing.