Poverty, Inequality and Social Mobility Dialogues

During the last 30 years, poverty and inequality have generally been an active area of research in South Africa. With the legacy of apartheid continuing to shape patterns of poverty and inequality in South Africa, significant disparities persist along racial, ethnic, and spatial lines. Research has highlighted the enduring impact of apartheid-era policies on access to education, housing, employment, and land ownership, contributing to persistent inequalities. Various economic empowerment and redistribution policies aimed at addressing historical inequities and promoting inclusive growth have been implemented since 1994. The effectiveness and outcomes of policies such as social welfare programs in reducing poverty and inequality have been assessed through research. This project seeks to create a platform for dialoguing these issues by bringing academics and policy practitioners together and harnessing ideas and experiences that may lead to workable approaches for addressing poverty and inequality in Gauteng.

The project seeks to achieve the following:

• Establish a GCRO-driven Working Group on poverty, inequality and social mobility (PISM).
• Run a seminar series involving academics and policy practitioners (two in the current financial year).
• Hold a GCRO-initiated PISM conference in which the outcomes of the seminar series are presented.
• Collate deliberations from the conference into publishable GCRO outputs (policy briefs/occasional paper)

This project aims to advance understanding and action on poverty and inequality in Gauteng by convening diverse stakeholders for meaningful dialogue and collaboration. The rationale for the dialogues lies in the recognition of the complex and multifaceted nature of these societal challenges, as well as the need for evidence-informed policymaking and collaborative problem-solving. Academia and policy have long operated at a distance from each other, and the dialogues are meant to bring the two together in order to foster inter alia interdisciplinary thinking and debate, evidence-based policy development, and policy relevance and applicability for the GCR.