 | |
| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1937 |
| Jurisdiction | Government of South Africa |
| Annual budget | R 234.972 billion (2021/22) |
| Ministers responsible |
|
| Website | www |
| | |
| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1937 |
| Jurisdiction | Government of South Africa |
| Annual budget | R 234.972 billion (2021/22) |
| Ministers responsible |
|
| Website | www |
The Department of Social Development (DSD) of South Africa is a government department responsible for providing social development, protection, and welfare services to the public. Previously called the Department of Welfare, it was renamed in July 2000. [1] The current Minister of Social Development is Sisisi Tolashe.
The first Department was established in 1937, to regulate and subsidise existing private, non-governmental welfare services, while providing some additional services. The 1997 White Paper for Social Welfare noted that post-Apartheid South Africa had inherited social welfare programmes which were “not considered to be critical social investment priorities and were under-resourced”. [2]
The Department "endeavours to create a better life for the poor, vulnerable and excluded people in society". It is tasked with reducing poverty, promoting social integration, and creating conditions for sustainable livelihoods. The Department also conducts research that develops the social indicators necessary for programme implementation and public accountability. [3] Their mandate includes the provision of social assistance to the vulnerable through welfare services, social development and disaster relief. [4]
Contained within the DSD is the Nonprofit Organisations Directorate, which was established in 1997. It is tasked with administering the Register for Nonprofit Organisations. This register is voluntary. It seeks to increase credibility and transparency by having nonprofit organisations report details of their operations. [5]
The DSD plays a significant role in helping administer the South African non-profit sector. According to the South African Constitution, several rights are safeguarded through its Bill of Rights. Consequently, the DSD has a crucial role to play in administering social services and collaborating with the NPO sector to ensure peoples’ rights. [6]
The primary activities of the DSD directorate include the management and overview of services that seek to improve the quality of life of citizens, particularly due to unemployment, disability and old age. In addition, the DSD directorate also oversees programs directly related to the impact of HIV/AIDS on citizen and poverty reduction, among others. [7]
The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) is a national agency of the government created in April 2005 in order to distribute social grants on behalf of the Department of Social Development, with the latest grant being Social Relief Distress Grant SRD
Since the 1990s, welfare services have been allocated 10% of the Department’s overall budget. According to researcher Lisa Vetten, pay increases for the Department's civil servants have been consistently higher than inflation for the past 10 years; these increases have shrunk the budget for provision of services, and have correspondingly diminished funding to the non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector. She argues underfunding has created a two-tier system of care, in which government services are considerably better resourced than NGO counterparts. Further exacerbating NGOs’ situations is the Department's late payment of their subsidies. [2] In the Eastern Cape, reports have been made that the DSD is only subsidizing 40-50% of care for home-based and community care for seniors, leaving vulnerable seniors to pay for the remaining costs themselves. [8] Demonstrating that the DSD lacks financial capacity to provide social services. Similarly, criticisms have also been leveled that the government is providing insufficient funding for the provision of shelters and services for women and LGBTQ victims of gender-based violence. [9] During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government also faced backlash over its failure to provide food distribution to those in need, particularly school-aged children. [10]
In 2023, the department began a trial period of its own streaming platform (DSDTV) with a budget of R81 250 a month. The project was called a "vanity project of the minister" by sitting member of the portfolio committee for social development, Alexandra Abrahams, as the intended audience of vulnerable people don't have the resources to access a streaming service. [11] The streaming service is in addition to the Government Communications and Information System spending R1 billion on its streaming service. [12]
In October 2023, a provincial branch of the Department of Social Development (DSD) in KwaZulu-Natal, was accused by a local group of NPOs to not be paying much needed subsidies, having a negative effect on upwards of 400 000 people. This number includes vulnerable children, disabled people, and the elderly. The KwaZulu-Natal department cites having cash flow problems. [13]
In November 2023, the head of the Department of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, faced some criticism that the department’s Gender-Based Violence (GBV) call centre had collapsed. [14] Some activists note that with respect to Gender-Based Violence, South Africa has good laws, but fails at implementation. [15]
A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control. NGOs often focus on humanitarian or social issues but can also include clubs and associations offering services to members. Some NGOs, like the World Economic Forum, may also act as lobby groups for corporations. Unlike international organizations (IOs), which directly interact with sovereign states and governments, NGOs are independent from them.
Rwanda faces a generalized epidemic, with an HIV prevalence rate of 3.1 percent among adults ages 15 to 49. The prevalence rate has remained relatively stable, with an overall decline since the late 1990s, partly due to improved HIV surveillance methodology. In general, HIV prevalence is higher in urban areas than in rural areas, and women are at higher risk of HIV infection than men. Young women ages 15 to 24 are twice as likely to be infected with HIV as young men in the same age group. Populations at higher risk of HIV infection include people in prostitution and men attending clinics for sexually transmitted infections.
Jordan ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in June 2009.
The rate of sexual violence in South Africa is among the highest recorded in the world. Police statistics of reported rapes as a per capita figure has been dropping in recent years, although the reasons for the drop has not been analysed and it is not known how many rapes go unreported. More women are attacked than men, and children have also been targeted, partly owing to a myth that having sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV/AIDS. Rape victims are at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS owing to the high prevalence of the disease in South Africa. "Corrective rape" is also perpetrated against LGBT men and women.
NGO-ization refers to the professionalization, bureaucratization, and institutionalization of social movements as they adopt the form of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). It led to NGOs' depoliticizing discourses and practices of social movements. The term has been introduced in the context of Western European women's movements, but since the late 1990s has been employed to assess the role of organized civil society on a global scale. It is also used by Indian writer Arundhati Roy, who speaks about the NGO-ization of resistance, and more generally, about the NGO-ization of politics. Across the world, the number of internationally operating NGOs is around 40,000. The number of national NGOs in countries is higher, with around 1-2 million NGOs in India and 277,000 NGOs in Russia.
In 2009 Namibia was a country of origin, transit, and destination for foreign and Namibian women and children, and possibly for men subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced labor and forced prostitution. Traffickers exploited Namibian children, as well as children from Angola and Zambia, through forced labor in agriculture, cattle herding, involuntary domestic servitude, charcoal production, and commercial sexual exploitation. In some cases, Namibian parents unwittingly sold their children to traffickers. Reports indicate that vulnerable Namibian children were recruited for forced prostitution in Angola and South Africa, typically by truck drivers. There was also some evidence that traffickers move Namibian women to South Africa and South African women to Namibia to be exploited in forced prostitution. Namibian women and children, including orphans, from rural areas were the most vulnerable to trafficking. Victims were lured by traffickers to urban centers and commercial farms with promises of legitimate work for good wages they may never receive. Some adults subjected children to whom they are distantly related to forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Small business owners and farmers may also participated in trafficking crimes against women or children. Victims were forced to work long hours to carry out hazardous tasks, and may have been beaten or raped by traffickers or third parties.
Human trafficking in Nepal is a growing criminal industry affecting multiple other countries beyond Nepal, primarily across Asia and the Middle East. Nepal is mainly a source country for men, women and children subjected to the forced labor and sex trafficking. U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2" in 2017.
Lesotho ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in September 2003.
Malawi ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in September 2005.
Founded in 1999, Alliance India is a non-governmental organisation operating in partnership with civil society, government and communities to support sustained responses to HIV in India that protect rights and improve health. Complementing the Indian national programme, we build capacity, provide technical support and advocate to strengthen the delivery of effective, innovative, community-based HIV programmes to vulnerable populations: sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people, hijras, people who inject drugs (PWID), and people living with HIV.
Women in South Sudan are women who live in and are from South Sudan. Since the Independence of South Sudan on 9 July 2011, these women have gained more power but still face issues of inequality. Many women in this area do not have adequate access to health resources and education. While these women often face inequality, there has been progress since South Sudan's official declaration of independence. In recent years, this inequality has gained national attention and people have become more interested in the issue of child marriage that this area faces. Along with this, there has started to be a focus on the very high level of maternal mortality in South Sudan. With a maternal mortality rate of 789 deaths per 100,000 live births, South Sudan has one of the highest rates in the world.
Women in Nepal face high levels of gender discrimination. Although the constitution provides for the protection of women, including equal pay for equal work, the government has not taken significant action to implement its provisions.
Lindiwe Daphney Zulu is a South African politician and communications strategist who served as Minister of Social Development from May 2019 to May 2024. Before that she was the Minister of Small Business Development from 2014 to 2019. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she has served on the party's National Executive Committee since December 2007.
Nakivale refugee settlement is a settlement located in Isingiro District near the Tanzania border in Southwest Uganda.
Hendrietta Ipeleng Bogopane-Zulu is a South African politician and activist who is currently serving as Deputy Minister of Social Development since 26 May 2014. She represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2019.
Foreign aid for gender equality in Jordan includes programs funded by governments or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that aim to empower women, close gender based gaps in opportunity and experience, and promote equal access to education, economic empowerment, and political representation in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Halima Ali Adan is a Somali gender rights activist and an expert on female genital mutilation (FGM). She is national co-chair of the Gender Based Violence (GBV) working group and program manager for Save Somali Women and Children (SSWC), a non-profit humanitarian organization based in Somalia.
South Africa has one of the most extensive social welfare systems among developing countries in the world. In 2019, an estimated 18 million people received some form of social grant provided by the government.
Constance Glerah "Conny" Nxumalo was a South African social worker and government official, sometimes referred to as "South Africa's Chief Social Worker".
Collen Mashawana is a South African businessman, philanthropist and entrepreneur.
