The launch of the Decent Standard of Living report marked a significant step towards understanding poverty and inequality’s impact on people’s lives in South Africa. The findings highlighted both positive trends and ongoing challenges in achieving a decent standard of living for all, while the discussions provided insights into the complexities of poverty reduction and policy development.

As we concentrate national initiatives on Covid-19 recovery, the systemic eradication of poverty must be the greatest priority, or reconstruction will not succeed. This lies at the heart of the Decent Standard of Living research, and other recent national poverty studies. In the Fifth Annual DSL Colloquium 2020, we ask: how will poverty shape our future in SA?

This report presents the findings from a new survey on possession of the SPNs that allows the tracking of possession of the SPNs over time, and to monetarise the monthly amount of income associated with people who possess all of the SPNs, or in other words, a decent standard of living.

This policy brief provides a synopsis of the most salient discussion through the four presentations that were delivered at the Social Dialogue, which will form the foundation for future national discussions and debates.

This research presents a Decent Standard of Living (DSL) and a DSL Index (DSLI) for South Africa. It is based on a concept for relative poverty that focuses on the ability of people to achieve a socially determined acceptable standard of living to enable them to participate fully in society.