PRIORITY NUMBER ONE: How a UBIG can help defeat hunger

The fact sheet examines the crisis of food insecurity in South Africa, asserting that while the country is food secure at a national level, millions of households suffer from hunger due to income poverty. It advocates for a Universal Basic Income Guarantee (UBIG) as a direct mechanism to ensure all adults can afford basic nutrition, contrasting this with the limitations of current targeted grants and the paternalism of food vouchers. The document also highlights the long-term economic and health costs of malnutrition and argues that a UBIG should be part of a broader strategy including a 'just food transition' to address systemic agricultural issues and climate change risks.

• South Africa is food secure at a national level, meaning it produces enough food for its population, yet household-level food insecurity remains high due to inequities in distribution and access.
• Recent data indicates a severe hunger crisis in South Africa: 23.1% of households had 'limited access' to food in 2023, and an estimated 63.5% of households lack access to adequate nutrition.
• The South African government has failed to meet its National Food and Nutrition Plan (NFNSP) 2018-2023 targets, with the rate of households vulnerable to hunger at 13.5% against a target of 5.7%.
• Malnutrition has severe human and economic costs in South Africa, including 1,000 child deaths and 15,000 hospitalisations due to malnutrition in the 2022/23 reporting cycle; the World Bank estimated annual economic losses of US$1.1 billion in 2009 from vitamin deficiencies alone.
• Existing social grants like the Child Support Grant (CSG) and Older Persons Grant (OPG) are insufficient because they are often pooled at the household level to support non-recipients, including caregivers, reducing the per-person purchasing power.
• Cash transfers are preferred over food vouchers because vouchers are described as paternalistic, more prone to corruption, and likely to favour large retailers over informal traders, whereas cash transfers stimulate local economies.
• The risk of food price inflation from a UBIG in South Africa is considered low because the primary constraint is demand due to poverty, not the supply of food.
• A UBIG must be complemented by a 'just food transition' (JFT) and other systemic reforms to address the market power of supermarket chains, agricultural deregulation, and climate change vulnerabilities.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2024). PRIORITY NUMBER ONE: How a UBIG can help defeat hunger. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IEJ-UBIG-11-fact-sheet.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. PRIORITY NUMBER ONE: How a UBIG can help defeat hunger. 2024. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IEJ-UBIG-11-fact-sheet.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=PRIORITY NUMBER ONE: How a UBIG can help defeat hunger |date=October 2024 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IEJ-UBIG-11-fact-sheet.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforeconomicjustice2024priority, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{PRIORITY NUMBER ONE: How a UBIG can help defeat hunger}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2024}, month = oct, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IEJ-UBIG-11-fact-sheet.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }