Can basic income contribute to inclusive development in South Africa?

This working paper by the Institute for Economic Justice examines the potential for basic income proposals to foster inclusive development in South Africa, evaluating various government and civil society models against criteria for progressiveness including benefit adequacy, population coverage, and non-regressive financing.

• South Africa faces severe socio-economic challenges, with over 50% of the population living below the poverty line and an unemployment rate of 42.4% as of the first quarter of 2023.
• The paper utilizes a framework established by Ortiz et al. (2018) to evaluate basic income proposals based on three primary criteria: non-regressive financing, population coverage, and benefit adequacy, to ensure alignment with ILO standards.
• While the South African government has provided a "temporary" grant and indicated intentions to implement permanent basic income support, the success of such an initiative depends on design specifics including financing methods, eligibility criteria, the value of the transfer, and potential conditionalities.

APA

iej_admin (2023). Can basic income contribute to inclusive development in South Africa? Institute for Economic Justice. https://iej.org.za/resource/working-paper/can-basic-income-contribute-to-inclusive-development-in-south-africa/

Chicago

iej_admin. Can basic income contribute to inclusive development in South Africa? Institute for Economic Justice, 2023. https://iej.org.za/resource/working-paper/can-basic-income-contribute-to-inclusive-development-in-south-africa/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=iej_admin |title=Can basic income contribute to inclusive development in South Africa? |publisher=Institute for Economic Justice |date=18 October 2023 |url=https://iej.org.za/resource/working-paper/can-basic-income-contribute-to-inclusive-development-in-south-africa/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{iejadmin2023can, author = {iej\_admin}, title = {{Can basic income contribute to inclusive development in South Africa?}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2023}, month = oct, url = {https://iej.org.za/resource/working-paper/can-basic-income-contribute-to-inclusive-development-in-south-africa/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }