The UN CESCR Committee published its recommendations in November 2018 on South Africa’s initial report on its implementation of provisions outlined in the ICESCR and made various recommendations. This section of the report focuses on recommendation 47(a).

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ&CD) and Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) put out a term of reference for their Community Mapping and Active Citizenry Programme in the latter part of 2015. The programme is in part, a response to the National Development Plan (NDP) which recognises the “need to build a capable active citizenry and to address the obstacles preventing them from playing an active role”. This document reports on one project funded for the first phase of the Community Mapping and Active Citizenry Programme.

This Report documents the research findings, as well as the emerging issues that participants identified as being critical for the future work around a Decent Standard of Living (DSL) in South Africa.

To gain further insight into the scope of a decent standard of living, the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (SPII) in partnership with the Association of Community-based Advice Offices of South Africa (ACAOSA) with support from the Church of Sweden, the Basic Needs Basket project was re-launched in 2014 to monitor, across the 9 provinces of South Africa in both rural and urban areas, frequently purchased items (food and non-food essential items) by lower income households on a monthly basis to ascertain people’s everyday basic needs.

A composite report of the proceedings of the 2019 Colloquium and the 2019 Research and Publications on expanding a Decent Standard of Living in South Africa.

Critical reflection on the Socially Perceived Necessities (SPNs) in attaining a Decent Standard of Living (DSL): Launch of the 2021 Post COVID Report on what constitutes a decent standard of living in South Africa.