Quantitative analysis of the impact of the Child Support Grant

South Africa’s Child Support Grant, an unconditional social transfer programme, was originally designed to reduce poverty and promote social development for poor children under the age of seven. This study examines the programme’s various effects in reducing poverty, promoting human capital development and potentially contributing to economic growth.

The paper emphasises that the Child Support Grant does not impose conditions on households for receipt of the grant. Moreover, the paper points out the following results: 

• the programme has significant effects, in terms of increasing school attendance and reducing children's self-reported hunger; children receiving the grant are less likely to face persistent hunger and more likely to begin attending school 
• there are some significant impacts in terms of reducing the likelihood that households stop cultivating their land, and improving access to cell phone services
• the emerging evidence suggests that the extension of the programme to all poor children up to their 18th birthday holds the potential to cost-effectively and efficiently reduce South Africa’s poverty gap, while promoting developmental outcomes
• the Child Support Grant experiment is further evidence of the human development impact of unconditional programmes. 

These findings suggest the potential for a more extensive, forward-looking study that further explores and confirms the impacts of the Child Support Grant, and supports its expansion to all children.