IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2021-56.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The livelihood impacts of COVID-19 in urban South Africa: A view from below

Author

Listed:
  • Simone Schotte
  • Rocco Zizzamia

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related policy measures on livelihoods in urban South Africa. Using qualitative research methods, we analyse two rounds of semi-structured phone interviews, conducted between June and September 2020 in the township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town. We contextualise these by presenting a snapshot of the nationwide dynamics using quantitative panel data. Our findings describe how the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the economic vulnerability which preceded the crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Simone Schotte & Rocco Zizzamia, 2021. "The livelihood impacts of COVID-19 in urban South Africa: A view from below," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-56, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-56
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2021-56-livelihood-impacts-COVID-19-urban-South-Africa.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Gustafsson, 2020. "How does South Africa’s Covid-19 response compare globally? A preliminary analysis using the new OxCGRT dataset," Working Papers 07/2020, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Zizzamia, Rocco, 2020. "Is employment a panacea for poverty? A mixed-methods investigation of employment decisions in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    3. Rachel M. Gisselquist & Anustup Kundu, 2020. "Horizontal inequality, COVID-19, and lockdown readiness: Evidence from India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-156, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Haroon Bhorat & Tim Köhler, 2020. "Social assistance during South Africa’s national lockdown: Examining the COVID-19 grant, changes to the Child Support Grant, and post-October policy options," Working Papers 202009, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    5. Vimal Ranchhod & Reza Daniels, 2020. "Labour market dynamics in South Africa in the time of COVID-19: Evidence from wave 1 of the NIDS-CRAM survey," SALDRU Working Papers 265, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    6. Ronak Jain & Joshua Budlender & Rocco Zizzamia & Ihsaan Bassier, 2020. "Locked down and locked out: Repurposing social assistance as emergency relief to informal workers," SALDRU Working Papers 264, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    7. Bassier, Ihsaan & Budlender, Joshua & Zizzamia, Rocco & Leibbrandt, Murray & Ranchhod, Vimal, 2021. "Locked down and locked out: Repurposing social assistance as emergency relief to informal workers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    8. Schotte, Simone & Zizzamia, Rocco & Leibbrandt, Murray, 2018. "A poverty dynamics approach to social stratification: The South African case," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 88-103.
    9. Gabrielle Wills & Servaas van der Berg & Leila Patel & Bokang Mpeta, 2020. "Household resource flows and food poverty during South Africa’s lockdown: Short-term policy implications for three channels of social protection," Working Papers 22/2020, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    10. Balde, Racky & Boly, Mohamed & Avenyo, Elvis, 2020. "Labour market effects of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa: An informality lens from Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal," MERIT Working Papers 2020-022, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    11. Daniela Casale & Debra Shepherd, 2020. "The gendered effects of the ongoing lockdown and school closures in South Africa: Evidence from NIDS-CRAM Waves 1 and 2," Working Papers 21/2020, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simone Schotte & Rocco Zizzamia, 2023. "The livelihood impacts of COVID-19 in urban South Africa: a view from below," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-30, January.
    2. Michael Danquah & Simone Schotte & Kunal Sen, 2020. "COVID-19 and Employment: Insights from the Sub-Saharan African Experience," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(1), pages 23-30, October.
    3. Köhler, Timothy & Bhorat, Haroon & Hill, Robert & Stanwix, Benjamin, 2023. "Lockdown stringency and employment formality: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 57, pages 1-3.
    4. Tim Köhler & Haroon Bhorat, 2021. "Can cash transfers aid labour market recovery? Evidence from South Africa’s special COVID-19 grant," Working Papers 202108, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    5. Bassier, Ihsaan & Budlender, Joshua & Zizzamia, Rocco & Leibbrandt, Murray & Ranchhod, Vimal, 2021. "Locked down and locked out: Repurposing social assistance as emergency relief to informal workers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    6. Vimal Ranchhod & Reza Che Daniels, 2021. "Labour Market Dynamics in South Africa at the Onset of the COVID‐19 Pandemic," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 89(1), pages 44-62, March.
    7. Ouoba, Youmanli & Sawadogo, Natéwindé, 2022. "Food security, poverty and household resilience to COVID-19 in Burkina Faso: Evidence from urban small traders’ households," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    8. Simone Schotte & Michael Danquah & Robert Darko Osei & Kunal Sen, 2023. "The Labour Market Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns: Evidence from Ghana," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 32(Supplemen), pages 10-33.
    9. Lumengo Bonga-Bonga & Thabiso Molemohi & Frederich Kirsten, 2023. "The Role of Personal Characteristics in Shaping Gender-Biased Job Losses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-14, April.
    10. Helen Barnes & Gabriel Espi-Sanchis & Murray Leibbrandt & David McLennan & Michael Noble & Jukka Olavi Pirttilä & Wynnona Steyn & Brenton Van Vrede & Gemma Wright, 2021. "Analysis of the Distributional Effects of COVID-19 and State-led Remedial Measures in South Africa," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 14(2), pages 2-31.
    11. Aroop Chatterjee & Léo Czajka & Amory Gethin, 2021. "Can Redistribution Keep Up with Inequality? Evidence from South Africa, 1993-2019," PSE Working Papers halshs-03364039, HAL.
    12. Miyajima, Ken, 2022. "Mobile phone ownership and welfare: Evidence from South Africa’s household survey," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    13. Ihsaan Bassier, 2021. "The impact of centralized bargaining on spillovers and the wage structure in monopsonistic labour markets," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-132, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Vusi Gumede, 2021. "Revisiting Poverty, Human Development and Inequality in Democratic South Africa," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 15(2), pages 183-199, August.
    15. Robert Hill & Tim Köhler, 2021. "Mind the gap: The distributional effects of South Africa’s national lockdown on gender wage inequality," Working Papers 202101, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    16. Chijioke O. Nwosu & Umakrishnan Kollamparambil & Adeola Oyenubi, 2022. "Food insecurity and health outcomes during the coronavirus pandemic in South Africa: a longitudinal study," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    17. Shehu Folaranmi Gbolahan Yusuf & Oluwabunmi Oluwaseun Popoola & Lindokhule Gwala & Thinandavha Nesengani, 2021. "Promoting University–Community Alliances in the Experiential Learning Activities of Agricultural Extension Postgraduate Students at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    18. Mascagni, Giulia & Lees, Adrienne, 2021. "Using Administrative Data to Assess the Impact of the Pandemic in Low-Income Countries: An Application with VAT Data in Rwanda," Working Papers 16468, Institute of Development Studies, International Centre for Tax and Development.
    19. Clementi,Fabio & Fabiani,Michele & Molini,Vasco & Schettino,Francesco, 2022. "Is Inequality Systematically Underestimated in Sub-Saharan Africa ? A Proposal toOvercome the Problem," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10058, The World Bank.
    20. Masagus M. Ridhwan & Asep Suryahadi & Jahen F. Rezki & Immanuel Satya Pekerti, 2021. "The Labor Market Impact Of Covid-19 And The Role Of E-Commerce Development: Evidence From Indonesia," Working Papers WP/10/2021, Bank Indonesia.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-56. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.