This paper adds to the growing resource of research reports about the financing of a BIG in South Africa that have proliferated since the start the of pandemicinduced recession in 2020.

This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the policy developments for social security before and after 1994. This analysis enables an assessment to be made on how far the constitutional obligation to progressively realise the right to social security and social assistance for those who can’t provide for themselves has been realised, and the extent to which this obligation has in fact driven the policy making process.

Social security in essence is the guarantee of access to sufficient income across a person’s life, from dependent child to adult with income – earning potential, to a retired older person. This paper focuses on the social assistance leg of social security. Social assistance refers to the monthly cash grants paid by the state to people deemed to meet their eligibility criteria.

This paper assesses the linkages between social security and climate adaptation strategies in South Africa.