“As South Africans we can achieve anything we wish, including putting human and social science research into action, as we put our minds to it and work together with a common purpose to uplift our people beyond inequality and gender differences.”
The HSRC was established in 1968 as South Africa’s statutory research agency and has grown to become the largest dedicated research institute in the social sciences and humanities on the African continent, doing cutting-edge public research in areas that are crucial to development.
Our mandate is to inform the effective formulation and monitoring of government policy; to evaluate policy implementation; to stimulate public debate through the effective dissemination of research-based data and fact-based research results; to foster research collaboration; and to help build research capacity and infrastructure for the human sciences.
The Council conducts large-scale, policy-relevant, social-scientific research for public sector users, non-governmental organisations and international development agencies. Research activities and structures are closely aligned with South Africa’s national development priorities.
Members:
Resources
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4What's the big deal about land?
A presentation focusing on facts about land and land dispossession in South Africa
Allocating farmland to rural women - new insights
Land reform in South Africa intends to redress racial imbalances with regard to ownership and access to land. On the surface, the various strategy documents also talk to transferring land to black women, the youth and the disabled. This article examines interesting patterns that are emerging with respect to gender relations and land ownership driven by land reform including mounting evidence of exclusive female ownership and co-ownership of land among land reform recipient households.
New angles on the impact of land redistribution
This article explores the impacts of the now discontinued Land Reform for Agricultural Development Programme on household consumption but argues that more work needs to be done to fully understand the connection between asset treansfer programmes and a reduction in persistent poverty
The impact of HIV/AIDS on land rights: case studies from Kenya
This study explores the relationship between HIV/AIDS and land rights in Kenya, with a particular focus on women as socially vulnerable group. Combining participatory research techniques, household surveys, and in-depth person-to-person interviews, the study examines three village case studies in different parts of Kenya, and attempts to distinguish the role of HIV/AIDS in precipitating or aggravating tenure insecurity from other influences.