South Africa’s seven-page Gender Budget problem

In all the contestation around the budget earlier this year, you may just have missed a small seven-page document released by National Treasury, titled the Gender Budget Statement. Whilst the Government of National Unity grappled with VAT increases, fuel levy adjustments, and coalition politics through multiple budget revisions, this modest document quietly represented South Africa’s […]

A Paradox of Plenty

South Africa’s food story is one of abundance shadowed by avoidable tragedy. Devastatingly, in this year alone, 155 children under the age of five have died from moderate or severe acute malnutrition as an underlying condition in public health facilities (Parliamentary Monitoring Group, 2025). As the most food-secure country in sub-Saharan Africa according to the […]

The state’s evolving role in development

Concerns about the effectiveness of South Africa’s public institutions are longstanding, yet they have intensified in recent years. Service delivery challenges, energy crises, and fragmented governance structures have exposed the country’s struggles to address critical problems in a timely, coordinated way. Many attribute these challenges to weak state capacity – an issue shaped not just […]

How to advance digital public infrastructure in South Africa

South Africa’s social grant system has been a cornerstone of social protection for millions, yet its inefficiencies highlight a need for reform. Among proposed solutions, the integration of digital public infrastructure (DPI) offers a transformative vision for improving service delivery: Imagine a social grant system where parents can sign up for the Child Support Grant […]