Informal workers and human development in South Africa

This chapter examines how the human development approach and the capability approach can be used to inform policy formulation by considering the case of social insurance for informal workers in South Africa. It begins with a discussion of the nature of the human development approach and the capability approach and the ways they can be used in the formulation of social policy. It then describes a short background study of poverty and problems in contemporary South Africa before outlining a policy proposal for social protection of informal workers in South Africa, based on human development and capability expansion. This proposal involves a savings plan based on the Mbao scheme in Kenya that might alleviate poverty. The chapter argues that this savings plan may help address the cycle of over-indebtedness among the poor and the emerging lower middle class in South Africa.