This month saw the release of the results of the third wave of the National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM). This nationally-representative panel survey kicked off in early 2020 as South Africa implemented a hard lockdown; five waves of the study are planned. The data was collected between 2 November and 13 December 2020 and this wave looks specifically at employment, grants, hunger, education, early childhood development, health and the cigarette sales ban. The project lead, Nic Spaull, reports the most significant finding from the third wave is that, by October 2020, the percentage of people employed is much closer to its February 2020 pre-pandemic level. However, household hunger has now increased across the country, with 1-in-5 households reporting weekly hunger. The Synthesis Report highlights key findings from the following 11 papers:
1. Employment & Grants:
- The labour market impact of COVID-19 in South Africa: An update with NIDS-CRAM Wave 3
- The gendered effects of the Covid-19 crisis and ongoing lockdown in South Africa: Evidence from NIDS-CRAM Waves 1-3
- Age, employment history and heterogeneity of COVID era employment outcomes
2.Hunger
3.Education
4.Early Childhood Development
5. Health
- Differences in depressive symptoms between formal and informal workers during the COVID-19 crisis: Evidence from Wave 2 and Wave 3 of NIDS-CRAM
- COVID-19 risk perceptions, preventive behaviour and COVID-fatigue during a lull in the epidemic in South Africa
- Childcare and depression during the coronavirus pandemic in South Africa: A gendered analysis
- How has the easing of lockdown influenced depressive symptoms in South Africa
6.Cigarette Sales Ban
All papers are available for download here and the NIDS-CRAM data is freely available for download at the Data First Open Data Portal.