Introduction

This study aims to make sense of the relationship between social assistance and child food practices in South Africa.

The Child Support Grant (CSG) in South Africa, which is the smallest of all the grants, is currently R460 per month after being increased from R450 in April 2021. This grant needs to cover many basic needs for a child – not least nutrition. However, the reality is that the grant is primarily used to buy food; food that is insufficient in quantity and quality to contribute to adequate nutrition.

This Mental Health Investment Case for South Africa, commissioned by the National Department of Health in November 2019, represents the result of three years of sustained dialogue and collaboration with the National Department of Health, involving key Provincial partners, clinicians, financing experts, patient rights and community advocacy groups and prominent academics, all of whom are committed to upholding the rights of persons living with Mental, Neurological and Substance use Disorders in South Africa.

From 2016 to the present day, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (the Global Fund) has invested in a combination intervention for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in South Africa, with the aim of reducing HIV incidence, teenage pregnancy, and gender-based violence and increasing retention in school and access to economic opportunities.

The Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant (Covid-19 SRD) was introduced in South Africa in May 2020 to mitigate the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. It provided for people between 18 and 59 years of age, who had no income nor access to any other form of social assistance. This was an unprecedented moment in the history of social security in South Africa, initiated under enormous pressure in a remarkably short space of time.

Introduction

This report highlights findings from an implementation evaluation of Option B+, a Universal test and treat Strategy for HIV infected pregnant and lactating women to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). This evaluation sought to understand Option B+ implementation in South Africa, three years after the policy was changed. We conducted a mixed-methods, multi-level programme evaluation to understand the views and experiences from policy-makers’, health care providers’ and users’ perspectives and to identify opportunities for programme strengthening.

Executive Summary

Executive Summary

The Global Fund invested in a South African combination HIV prevention intervention for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) aged 10 to 24 years from 2016 to 2019 in ten priority districts in South Africa. The concept of “combination implementation” has been defined as “the pragmatic, localized application of a package of evidence-based prevention interventions using optimized implementation and operational strategies to achieve high sustained uptake of good quality services [1].

The Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health (CPMH), together with the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), are pleased to announce the release of the full technical report of the Evaluation of the Health System Costs of Mental Health Services and Programmes in South Africa (2016/17 FY); and the accompanying open-access publication: Mental health system costs, resources and constraints in South Africa: a national survey.