Professor Frances Lund with Professor Robert van Niekerk, Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research

 

Professor Frances Lund of the School of Built Environment and Development Studies (BEDS) was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Rhodes University for her work as a welfare activist.  ‘It has been a great privilege to have been engaged in social policy research and implementation over the time of dramatic political transition, when the new government had ears to listen, and was thirsty for new ideas.’

In 1995, she was asked to chair a Committee –The Lund Committee of Enquiry into Child and Family Support (named after her), which she spoke about in her address at the Rhodes University graduation ceremony and the impact of the Child Support Grant. 

Lund addressed three issues- the importance of good rigorous research in contributing to policy reforms, the importance of using this research to contest popular but inaccurate beliefs about government programmes such as pensions and grants and the importance of getting this research out to the media.

Whilst doing research in rural Maputoland, Lund recalled seeing a pensioner use her money to run an entire household.

‘This focus on pensions and grants led to my being asked to chair the Lund Committee in 1995. The late President Mandela had made his ‘First Call for Children’; a considerable part of the national budget was going to older people and those with disabilities; only a small fraction of the budget was allocated directly to children and families.’

‘After considering other options, we recommended a child support grant, a small amount of cash to go every month to the primary care giver of children in poor households. It was a brave recommendation. The Cabinet accepted it the day it was tabled in 1996, and it was introduced in 1998. Today it is received by the primary care givers of about 11.5 million children, and the cash amount is R330 per qualifying child.’

A lot of research, quantitative and qualitative has been done on the impact of the grant with findings all pointing in the same direction: the grant contributes to improved health status of the children who receive it; it increases school enrolments; it leads to children staying a longer time in school; together with the other grants (which are far larger than the Child Support Grant) it reduces the Gini coefficient (a measure of inequality in this most unequal society).

Lund dispelled negative stereotypes and myths associated with the grants such as that the grant ‘causes’ teenage pregnancy, that the grant is the cause of ‘the population explosion’ as a whole, that the money is spent frivolously on cosmetics, and that grants – all of the grants - make people lazy and do something called ‘create dependency’.

‘Senior researcher Dr Monde Makiwane at the Human Sciences Research Council did an extensive search for evidence for the association between the grant and young teen pregnancy. He and his colleagues could find none. Yet the belief persists.’

‘The fertility rate in South Africa has decreased since the grant was introduced, but the decrease was not ‘caused by’ the grant – it might have more to do with the HIV&AIDS, including the intensive education that has influenced sexual behaviour.’

‘Do any of the grants ‘create dependency’? There is firm evidence from two large studies in different parts of the country that old age pension income – a much larger amount than the Child Support Grant - enables job search by younger household members, and assists in the setting up of micro-enterprises, and in job creation in the informal economy.’

Lund observed that there has been improved reporting in the media with stories featuring the positive impacts of grants.

‘The South African Child Support Grant is often used as an example of ‘good practice’.  I am proud of having been associated with this policy intervention. It is blindingly clear that in cash-based societies, the lack of cash is a binding constraint, and the social grants have done and are doing important work.’

She also thanked Rhodes University for the award of the Honorary Doctorate which she treasures deeply.

* Frances Lund is a Senior Research Associate specialising in social policy. She is the director of the Social Protection Programme of the global research and advocacy network, WIEGO - Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing. Trained as a sociologist and social worker, she practised as a grassroots organiser in the fields of early childhood development, and in urban infrastructure, with a special interest in participatory research methods as an organising tool.

A longstanding research interest has been the impact of South Africa’s pensions and grants in mitigating poverty and redressing inequality. This led to her involvement in a range of policy interventions, including chairing the Lund Committee on Child and Family Support, in 1995, that led to the introduction of the Child Support Grant. She has been involved in the global debates around cash transfers, such as the Child Support Grant, as a form of intervention in addressing poverty and inequality.

She is engaged locally and globally in research and policy advocacy around informal workers, especially regarding local government intervention, and around the provision of social security, and occupational health and safety. An emerging research interest is in occupational health and safety for informal workers. She is a Research Associate at the Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester.