Social Development

Aside from the General Household Survey (GHS), the Western Cape Government employs a range of mechanisms to identify food insecurity. These include inter-departmental data sources, such as the Department of Health and Wellness, which tracks child stunting and malnutrition, the Western Cape Education Department’s National School Nutrition Programme, which provides detailed data on school-based nutrition coverage, and the Department of Agriculture, which collects data on its rollout and monitoring of household-level food gardens, offering insights into local food production for household consumption. The Department of Social Development is also collaborating with other community-based organisations, including NPOs, churches, community leaders, community-based kitchens to ascertain the level of hunger in community households. Where vulnerable households are identified by local organisations or the Department’s own local offices, they are referred to Department funded community nutrition and development centres (CNDCs).  In addition to these measures, food insecurity is monitored through programme level mechanisms that enable more immediate tracking of household vulnerability, e.g. funded NPOs are required to report quarterly non-financial data on the number of beneficiaries reached bringing a spotlight to emerging trends and extent of household food insecurity in communities.

Together, the above data sources, being both interdepartmental and community-based; supplemented with official survey data (statistics), help build a more comprehensive picture of food need across the province.