Social security for children with disabilities in rural South African communities: family caregiver, health worker, civil society, and policy implementer perspectives on access to and the use of the Care Dependency Grant in the Cape Winelands
Wellcome Trust
Stellenbosch University
In South Africa, state-funded social protection for disabled children has primarily been through the Care Dependency Grant (CDG). The CDG is distributed to the caregivers of these children and provides important financial assistance, but it is under-researched. Little is known about caregivers’ access and utilisation of the CDG, what the value of complementary interventions might be, how doctors assess need and deservingness, and how government agencies conceive of and communicate about the CDG. The proposed study will investigate these and other questions in a qualitative study using ethnographic and participatory methods, with a specific focus on the Cape Winelands district. Participants will include caregivers of children with disabilities, assessing doctors, South African Social Services Agency (SASSA) staff members, and organisations working with disabled children. Findings will be discussed with reference to broader debates around social protection, development, poverty alleviation, and access to health and education for disabled children. A better understanding of how this grant is conceived of, used, and distributed from the perspective of different stakeholders will build knowledge in this underdeveloped area. It will also produce important initial evidence for potential future interventions to improve the social protection of disabled children and their caregivers in South Africa.
8.1 Organisation and delivery of services