Guided by its Vision 2030 — which positions UCT as a university that contributes to a fair and just society through excellence, transformation and sustainability — UCT plays an active role in shaping evidence-based policy to reduce poverty and inequality.

In 2024, UCT and UCT-affiliated academics informed key national debates through research produced by the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) under the SARChI Chair in Poverty and Inequality Research, led by Professor Murray Leibbrandt. Their analyses of the National Income Dynamics Study provided critical insights for policymakers on social protection and education reform. The Children’s Institute, meanwhile, advanced recommendations to strengthen the Child Support Grant to reduce child poverty, while the Centre for Social Science Research and other policy-oriented units contributed evidence shaping inclusive development strategies at local and national levels.

Further examples from 2024 are listed below.

1. Child Support Grant (CSG) Review Report

UCT’s Children’s Institute (senior researcher Paula Proudlock et al.) authored “Reducing Child Poverty Report: A review of child poverty and the value of the Child Support Grant (CSG)” which was commissioned by the national Department of Social Development. This report had national level impact and provided research evidence to inform policy on the grant’s value, as well as a statistical analysis of child poverty, and policy recommendations (e.g. increase in CSG to match food poverty line.), plus arguments about phasing and cost.

2. Development and implementation of a Basic Package of Support tracer study

SALDRU, working with Centre for Social Development in Africa (CSDA) and with support from the World Bank, took the lead on the development and implementation of a Basic Package of Support tracer study. The BPS programme is a multi-faceted intervention that recognises the connections between youth unemployment, poverty, and wellbeing. BPS seeks to address these interconnected factors in a comprehensive approach. The BPS works to strengthen young people’s agency and improve their self-efficacy, emotional well-being, and socio-economic inclusion – all prerequisites for increased employability. BPS also aims to offer youth a sense of possibility and belonging, by providing them with problem-solving tools, clarifying possible pathways forward, and linking them to services and opportunities that can enhance their progress in life. SALDRU launched a tracer study in 2024 which aims to inform evidence-based policy development in the coming years.

3. UCT research cited in Parliamentary discussions

UCT research was cited (via the Children’s Institute, etc.) in parliamentary / government arenas, e.g. in calls for increase of the child support grant to lower-bound poverty line and in media statements from Portfolio Committees responding to UCT-informed reports. UCT research impacted national public policy debates: Academic research (quantitative, report, policy brief) influencing government or parliament decision voices. In a media statement of the Committee on Social Development, the Chairperson welcomed calls to increase CSG, citing research evidence.

4. World Health Organization

In September 2024, UCT’s Professor Salome Maswime (Head of the Division of Global Surgery, Faculty of Health Sciences) was appointed to lead a WHO Collaborating Centre for Integrated Clinical Care, based at UCT. The mandate includes supporting countries to move toward universal health coverage, which is widely accepted as a key policy mechanism for reducing health-related poverty (by ensuring access to quality care for all). The Centre will prioritise effective organisation, planning, and patient movement across health systems, to ensure timely access to quality care aligned with users’ needs. This is well aligned with the SDG 1 goal of reducing deprivation and improving basic service access.

5. World Bank

In 2024, the UCT-managed African Centre of Excellence for Research Inequality (ACEIR) produced the book, Inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Multidimensional Perspectives and Future Challenges, which is published under a World Bank / Agence Française de Développement (AFD) series. The book underlines the importance of innovative approaches and interventions to reduce inequality on the continent.

Seven of the world’s 10 most unequal countries are in Africa, “a region of extreme inequality by international standards” according to the authors. Africa also has the highest gap between the average incomes of the top 10 percent and the bottom 50 percent.

This widening gap between the rich and the poor hampers efforts to end extreme poverty while delaying progress towards social justice, resilience-building, social cohesion and sustainable development. Poor countries are less able to respond to climate shocks and lack the capacities to adapt to climate change, which will increase inequalities between countries and between countries’ wealthy populations and those living in poverty.

Inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Multidimensional Perspectives and Future Challenges therefore makes a strong case for “systemic changes that can help reshape the conditions under which inequality emerges and persists” and “innovative policies that shift the balance between capital and labour”.

The African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR) is one of the centres of excellence of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), a network of African universities that includes UCT. ARUA aims to enhance research and graduate training in member institutions. ACEIR’s research and policy engagements to date have often taken place under the banner of the European Union–AFD Research Facility on Inequalities, a programme that aims to strengthen knowledge on inequality in low- and middle-income countries.