Did you know that a SASSA grant for pregnant women has been on the table for some time now? First tabled in 2012, it\u2019s known as the Maternal Support Grant (MSG), and it\u2019s a shame it has been in limbo for more than a decade. At its heart, a SASSA grant for pregnant women hopes to address the fact that nearly one-third of children born in South Africa are stunted. This is due to poor nourishment of the mother. In fact, 2.5 million people live in nutritionally insecure households, according to the South African Medical Research Council.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As such, mothers who are malnourished during pregnancy have much higher odds of poor birth outcomes. This includes low birthweight, poor neurodevelopment, and increased risk of chronic disease later in life. This is why the proposed SASSA grant for pregnant women came about. And many in civil society say the South African Social Security Agency should combine it as an extension of the existing R570 Child Support Grant.<\/p>\n
However, despite the draft policy being 13-years old, the Department of Social Development (DSD) says it still hasn\u2019t reached Cabinet. Last year, in November 2024, the policy was submitted to the Social Protection, Community and Human Development (SPCHD) Cabinet Committee. But it was sent back for \u2018further work,\u2019 saying poverty, unemployment and inequality need to be addressed jointly.<\/p>\n
Some worry a SASSA grant for pregnant women would \u2018incentivise childbirth and create a dependency syndrome.\u2019 However, civil society says it has been more than a decade since the DSD commissioned research on the benefits of a SASSA grant for pregnant women. And in that time the body of evidence in its favour has only grown stronger.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the absence of income support for pregnant women is a big gap in the country\u2019s social security framework. According to advocacy groups, a SASSA grant for pregnant women would require in the region of R1.9 billion to R3.2 billion annually. However, the potential saving to public health would exceed R13 billion. It is therefore a critical investment into the future of the nation. Story by Ray Leathern of The South African<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Did you know that a SASSA grant for pregnant women has been on the table<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/79"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}