Francis Wilson Memorial Prize for Data-Driven Research awarded to Dr Tsepang Khumalo

Dr Tsepang Khumalo has been awarded the Dissertation Prize for the Francis Wilson Memorial Prize for Data-Driven Research 2025 for her chapter "The mental health impact for adolescents ageing out of South Africa's child support grant".

The research, supervised by Professor Marisa von Fintel and Professor Ronelle Burger, uses the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) dataset to examine how the cessation of the child support grant affects the mental health of young beneficiaries in South Africa. She finds that becoming ineligible for the cash transfer leads to a decline in mental health. The study provides crucial insights into an often-overlooked aspect of social protection: how and when cash transfers are withdrawn, particularly when this coincides with critical life stages.

The Francis Wilson Memorial Prize, established by DataFirst at University of Cape Town, honours the legacy of Professor Francis Wilson, the founding Director of SALDRU and DataFirst. The prize recognizes outstanding research that makes innovative use of publicly available data to address development challenges.

The award was presented at the University of Cape Town on 10 December 2025, recognizing the work's contribution to evidence-based policy discussions around social protection in South Africa.

This article was written by Dr Tsepang Khumalo