Hunger in South Africa during 2020: Results from Wave 2 of NIDS-CRAM

The first wave of the National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS- CRAM) provided strong evidence that there had been a drastic increase in both adult and child hunger in the survey months, May and June 2020, and that almost half of all households had on occasion run out of money for food during April 2020. Comparisons with information from earlier surveys (the annual General Household Survey from 2002 to 2018) showed that much of the improvements since 2000 in adult and child hunger and food security due to the expansion of the Child Support Grant had been almost entirely reversed by the hard lockdown and the coronavirus pandemic. The second wave of NIDS-CRAM shows improvement in all three measures, but that hunger and food insecurity remain disturbingly high.

I31, I32, I15

Covid19, child welfare, hunger, social grants