An update of the policy effort, resource allocation and status of the right to food in South Africa.

An update of the policy effort, resource allocation & enjoyment of the right to Basic Education in South Africa.

This research report has two broad thrusts. It firstly reviews some of the main policies which seek to alleviate and eventually eradicate poverty and its causes and , secondly , the report provides a budget and benefit incidence analysis which puts a spotlight on the figures behind the policies. Five departments were chosen as the subject of the poverty audit review and they are the national and provincial departments of education, health, housing , social development and transport. The reasons for the choice of the latter department are set out elsewhere in this report.

This issue of the ESR Review features Hannah Dawson’s examination of new methodologies and tools for measuring,
monitoring and evaluating the progressive realisation of socioeconomic rights, and Charles Lwanga-Ntale’s analysis of the barriers to social protection uptake in East Africa. Updates are provided on recent developments on socio-economic rights in Africa and at the United Nations.

The Studies in Poverty & Inequality Institute (SPII) in partnership with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), which is constitutionally obliged to report annually on the defence and advancement of the rights in the Constitution, has developed a methodology based on international best practice. The methodology combines various
approaches to monitoring socio-economic rights including policy and budget analysis and statistical indicators.