On 21 February, the CSDA hosted its first webinar of the year; with the highly anticipated theme of “Social Grants and Livelihoods Activities of Beneficiaries”. Leila presented the findings from a research brief that sought to understand how grants are used to support livelihood activities. During the webinar she presented quantitative data that provided an overview of grant recipients in South Africa, the employment status of grant recipients and the livelihood activities of grant recipients during the Covid-19 pandemic.This was followed by a presentation using qualitative research into how grant recipients use their grant money to search for jobs, provide seed money to generate income, make investments in education, to save in stokvels and burial societies and limit the stress they experience as a result of economic hardship. You can view the full research brief here or for a quick snapshot take a look at this great infographic which summarises the findings. Following Leila’s presentation there was a panel discussion chaired by Prof Raniga, the interim SARChI in Welfare and Social Development featuring Phumelele Ngcobo, Specialist Programme Development and Implementation at Finmark Trust, Kathy Nicolaou- Manias, Digital Innovations Expert and Technical Advisor supporting the Presidential Employment Stimulus programme and Tim Kohler, Junior Research Fellow at the Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town.

Here is the link to the presentation. Watch the full webinar here.