An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Professor Nicole De Wet-Billings (African Fellow 2023; University of the Witwatersrand)
Food insecurity during COVID-19 in South Africa: impact of the pandemic on children and households
Background and aim: Perpetual or long-term food insecurity has a negative impact on the health, ability to complete education or engage in labour market activities and other development prospects for people within these households. Prior to the pandemic, approximately 20% of South African households reported not having enough food to eat in the last seven days (Statistics SA, 2020). This percentage increased to over 25% during the early months of the pandemic (Ranchhod & Daniels, 2020). Households suffering from food insecurity prior to the pandemic, may have been relieved to receive this additional grant and this may have lifted them out of a dire situation. But of particular concern are the households unable to escape food insecurity. This study aims to identify and analyse the social and economic determinants of perpetual household food insecurity during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa.
Data and Methods: The data used for this study comes from the National Income Dynamics CRAM survey of 2020 to 2021. The NIDS CRAM consists of five waves of data starting in May 2020 until May 2021. The dependent variable for this study is ‘perpetual food insecurity’ and is measured as the number of respondents who had at least one member of the household not have enough food to eat in the seven days prior to the interview at the start of Wave 1 and continued into Wave 5. Cross-tabulation has been used to describe the distribution (frequency and percentage) of food insecurity at Wave 1 and perpetual food insecurity by the various independent variables. Chi-square analysis was done to establish the relationship between variables and p-values are reported. A binary logistic regression model was fit to the data with the outcome of perpetual food insecurity (yes=1 and no=0) by all variables in the study.
Results: At Wave 1, 26.15% (total n of sample= 4 786) reported being ‘food insecure’. Approximately 41% of households remained food insecure during the pandemic. Participants with no education (45.45%) and those with only primary education (46.44%) had the highest levels of perpetual food insecure during the period. , the likelihood of remaining food insecure during the pandemic are higher for retired (OR= 1.82; CI: 1.040552- 3.175925), now unemployed (OR= 2.09; CI: 1.335293 - 3.265678), still unemployed (OR= 1.86; CI: 1.308032- 2.636252), seven or more (>=7) household members (OR= 1.24; CI: 1.1611329 - 1.610126), those with only a primary education (OR= 1.11; CI: 1.5051066- 2.434695), participants between the ages of 45 and 64 years old (ORs = 1.03 and 1.20; CIs: 1.0171956 - 1.0171956 and 1.1733304 - 2.144875 respectively) and women (OR= 1.09; CI: 1.0745444- 1.406035).
Preliminary conclusion: While COVID-19 exacerbated food insecurity in South Africa, the number of households without sufficient food to eat at the start of the pandemic indicates a pre-existing problem in the country. The results of this study show that in low socioeconomic settings, food insecurity becomes perpetual during outbreaks of infectious disease. The health and survival of those affected by poverty therefore needs to be prioritized during times of low infectious disease rates, so as to not exacerbate food insecurity during times epidemics and pandemics.
Please note this seminar will be ONLINE ONLY. Click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/86535202023
Passcode: Vr8f3ew2