IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2024-54.html

Legal identity and access to the state in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Aimable Nsabimana
  • Michelle Pleace
  • Rachel M. Gisselquist

Abstract

Legal identity is an important aspect of securing access to public services, such as education, healthcare, and social protection services, including child support grants. In the South African context, in the post-apartheid period, many poor South Africans benefited from well-organized civil registration services thanks to the systematic use of identity documents (ID), which reflect citizen registration in the country. South Africa today is considered to be a model in this area, with comparatively high levels of birth registration (near 90%).

Suggested Citation

  • Aimable Nsabimana & Michelle Pleace & Rachel M. Gisselquist, 2024. "Legal identity and access to the state in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2024-54, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2024-54
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2024-54-legal-identity-access-to-state-South-Africa.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank Group, 2018. "Mixed Migration, Forced Displacement and Job Outcomes in South Africa," World Bank Publications - Reports 30158, The World Bank Group.
    2. Harbers, Imke, 2020. "Legal identity for all? Gender inequality in the timing of birth registration in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    3. Kudakwashe P. Vanyoro, 2019. "‘When they come, we don’t send them back’: counter-narratives of ‘medical xenophobia’ in South Africa’s public health care system," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Szreter, Simon, 2007. "The Right of Registration: Development, Identity Registration, and Social Security--A Historical Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 67-86, January.
    5. Wendy Hunter, 2019. "Identity Documents, Welfare Enhancement, and Group Empowerment in the Global South," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(3), pages 366-383, March.
    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. Manby, Bronwen, 2021. "The Sustainable Development Goals and ‘legal identity for all’: ‘First, do no harm’," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    2. Tim Adair & Hang Li, 2024. "A global and regional assessment of the timing of birth registration using DHS and MICS survey data," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Armando Barrientos & Sony Pellissery, 2012. "Delivering effective social assistance: does politics matter?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-009-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    4. Aimee Louise Middlemiss & Ilaria Boncori & Joanna Brewis & Julie Davies & Victoria Louise Newton, 2024. "Employment leave for early pregnancy endings: A biopolitical reproductive governance analysis in England and Wales," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 75-91, January.
    5. Arruñada Benito, 2014. "Registries," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 1(2), pages 209-230, December.
    6. te Lintelo, Dolf J.H. & Haddad, Lawrence J. & Leavy, Jennifer & Lakshman, Rajith, 2014. "Measuring the commitment to reduce hunger: A hunger reduction commitment index," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 115-128.
    7. Harbers, Imke, 2020. "Legal identity for all? Gender inequality in the timing of birth registration in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    8. Elias, Brenda, 2014. "Moving beyond the historical quagmire of measuring infant mortality for the First Nations population in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 125-132.
    9. Miller, Michael & Toffolutti, Veronica & Reeves, Aaron, 2018. "The enduring influence of institutions on universal health coverage: An empirical investigation of 62 former colonies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 270-287.
    10. Nguyen, Canh Phuc, 2021. "Gender equality and economic complexity," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 45(4).
    11. Ettore Recchi & Tobias Grohmann, 2025. "Tackling ‘scandalous inequalities’: a global policy proposal for a Humanity Identity Card and Basic Income Supplement," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    12. Hamid Noghanibehambari & Jason Fletcher, 2023. "Childhood exposure to birth registration laws and old‐age mortality," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 735-743, March.
    13. Fagernäs, Sonja, 2014. "Papers, please! The effect of birth registration on child labor and education in early 20th century USA," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 63-92.
    14. Park, Albert Sanghoon, 2017. "Does the Development Discourse Learn from History?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 52-64.
    15. Reuben M. Kimotho & Dr. Ken Oluoch, 2016. "Assessment Of Effectiveness Of Citizen Registration Systems In Kenya," Journal of Public Policy and Administration, IPRJB, vol. 1(1), pages 58-75.
    16. Arjan de Haan, 2013. "The Social Policies of Emerging Economies: Growth and Welfare in China and India," Working Papers 110, International Policy Centre.
    17. Amiya Bhatia & Calum Davey & Tess Bright & Sara Rotenberg & Emily Eldred & Claudia Cappa & Hannah Kuper & Karen Devries, 2023. "Inequities in birth registration, violent discipline, and child labour by disability status and sex: Evidence from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys in 24 countries," PLOS Global Public Health, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(5), pages 1-13, May.
    18. Nicholas Ngepah & Charles Shaaba Saba & Cleide L.M. Tinga, 2024. "Gender Inequality and Economic Growth in Developing Countries," Economia Internazionale / International Economics, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova, vol. 77(3), pages 371-416.
    19. Armando Barrientos & Jasmina Byrne & Juan Miguel Villa & Paola Peña, 2013. "Social Transfers and Child Protection," Papers inwopa691, Innocenti Working Papers.
    20. Rebeca Echavarri, 2022. "Neonatal discrimination and excess female mortality in childhood in Spain in the first half of the twentieth century," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 16(1), pages 79-104, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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-2024-54. 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.