Advancing the integration of social assistance and labor market: South Africa
This brief summarises key learnings from the dialogue on advancing interoperability in South Africa’s social protection held on June 3, 2025.
You can watch the recordings and download the materials on the event page
Overview:
This learning brief explores South Africa shift from a fragmented, individual-based social protection system to one that is integrated, data-driven, and household-oriented, enabling interaction between employment and social assistance systems and fostering interoperability.
This transformation has been accelerated by the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, or R350 grant, introduced in May 2020 as a temporary response to pandemic-related economic shocks, alongside other emergency measures.
The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) delivers core social assistance programmes for older persons, persons with disabilities, as well as children, reaching 50% of South Africans. The R350 grant, financed by the government, complements this system, in a country where poverty affects 41.8 million out of 62 million people.