Purpose: The purpose of this study is to estimate the determinants of household food insecurity in the Gauteng City-Region, South Africa. This is motivated by the fact that food insecurity remains a key challenge at the household level in South Africa. Furthermore, the Gauteng Province has been rapidly urbanising due to a migrant influx, both locally and internationally. The findings will assist the country in achieving its mandate on the local economic development policy, Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2.Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a quantitative cross-section design, utilising the binary logistic regression technique, drawing on the Gauteng City-Region Observatory Quality of Life 2020/2021 data, consisting of 13,616 observations, randomly drawn from nine municipalities in Gauteng City-Region.Findings: The main findings of the study highlight unemployment, health status, education, household size, indigency and income as the main determinants of food insecurity in Gauteng City-Region. Policies towards sustainable urban agriculture, improving access to education, increasing employment and income, and health for all can help improve the food insecurity status of households in the Gauteng City-Region.Research limitations/implications: Further studies would require an in-depth assessment of household coping mechanisms, as well as the influence of household income (notably government social grants) and access to credit on household food security status, to better understand the dynamics of food security in the Gauteng City-Region.Practical implications: Determinants of food insecurity should be considered when developing and implementing policies to reduce food insecurity in urban municipalities.Social implications: The study is of interest as it interdicts food insecurity issues, which have an effect on socio-economic well-being.Originality/value: The study adds value by providing evidence on the determinants of food insecurity in an urban setting in a developing country. Gauteng is the richest of all provinces in South Africa and is also at the receiving end of internal and international migration. Factors affecting food insecurity have changed in the nine cities. This compromises nutrition safety and calls for targeted policy interventions.

Sustainable Development Goal 13 echoes the fact that all countries must make urgent and stringent efforts to mitigate against and adapt to climate change and its associated impacts. Climate financing is one of the key mechanisms used to enable countries to remain resilient to the hastening effects of climate change. In this paper, we empirically assess the effect of institutional governance indicators on the amount of climate finance received by 21 nations for which progress towards the internationally agreed-upon target of reducing global warming to 1.5 °C is tracked. We use the fixed-effects ordinary least squares (OLS) and the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) estimators, drawing on the Climate Action Tracker panel data from 2002 to 2020. Empirical results reveal that perceived political stability significantly enhanced climate finance inflows among countries that strongly increased their NDC targets, while perceived deterioration in corruption control negatively impacted the amount of climate finance received by the same group of countries. Therefore, governments should reduce corruption tendencies while striving to avoid practices and alliances that lead to any form of violence, including terrorism and civil war. Low developing countries (LDCs) in particular need to improve the standard of public services provided to the populace while maintaining a respectable level of autonomy from political influences. Above all, as countries work towards strengthening institutional governance, there is an urgent need for developed economies to assist developing economies in overcoming debt stress since the likelihood of future resilience and prosperity is being undermined by the debt crisis, with developing countries spending almost five times as much annually on repayment of debt as they allocate to climate adaptation.

In South Africa, government departments are under legislative obligations to adopt a systematic and organised approach to the management of records. This is because sound records management is fundamental for good governance and effective and efficient administration of government units. This article analyses records management trends at Statistics South Africa (StatsSA). Qualitative desktop research was used with key legislative and policy sources, StatsSA documents and international literature. The study revealed that numerous challenges existed in the organisation’s records management. These challenges include: creation of the record retention and disposal authority granted by the Archivist; stakeholder relations and engagement; compliance with the National Archives and Records Services of South Africa (NARSSA) Act No. 43 of 1996 as the primary legislation for records and archives management in South Africa; and digitalization and transformation. The article recommends that the resource centre be digitalized by adopting the Millennium and Sierra Integrated Library Systems software for records management, skills development archiving and enhanced stakeholder relations. An effective and efficient records and archives management system promotes good governance, accountability, and transparency.

The high incidence of food insecurity in the City of Tshwane, South Africa, is of serious concern. The Household Dietary Diversity (HDD) index of the United States Aid (USAID) was used to scale the dietary patterns of 775 households, distributed in 73 clusters, from the 7 regions of the City of Tshwane. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to the data to elucidate the patterns of such choices. The analysis found that due to income shocks, households adopted a fixed pattern of food group frequencies mostly cereals. This compromised nutritional safety and calls for income-based policies and nutritional awareness.

Food security has always been a contemporary issue in urban South Africa, which is gripped by high inequality. This has recently been exacerbated by risks and hazards pertaining to climate change and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the study was to ascertain the food security status and the determinants thereof for urban households in the City of Tshwane. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and Multinomial Logistic Regression were used to scale the patterns of household-level determinants of food security of 775 households, distributed in 73 clusters, from the 7 regions of the City of Tshwane, South Africa. The study found that 39.2% of the households were food secure, 16.6% suffered from mild food insecurity, 12.1% were moderately food insecure, and 32.1% were severely food insecure. Food security was significantly more prevalent in male-headed households, households with younger members, households with educated heads, and those that are employed. Household size and income were also determinants of food security. The results indicate that age, gender (male), education, employment, household size, income, and grant type were significant at the 1% level in extreme changes in food insecurity, while only the grant was insignificant in mild changes in food security, with none of the variables being significant in slight food security changes. Government social grants were inadequate to guarantee food security status. The study concludes that there are extremes of food security and severe food insecurity indicating inequality, with various socio-economic factors affecting food security.

An effective governance structure is central to growth, sustainable development and equal income distribution (economic welfare) (Glass & Newig, 2020). Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) countries differ in governance structure with varying outcomes on economic welfare. This article explores the extent to which governance impacts economic welfare in BRICS countries viewed as an emerging powerhouse, with significant growth prospects — yet distinct in their governance systems, and income variability amongst its population. The article utilised panel static models (pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effects (FEs) estimator) from 1996 to 2019 to investigate the effects of governance proxied by the World Bank World Governance Indicators (WGI) on economic welfare (proxied from two channels): quantitative (output stock/economic growth) and qualitative (reduced income inequality). The two channels combine the ordinary measure of welfare: gross domestic product (GDP), a proxy for economic growth, household and income distribution, and a proxy for income inequality drawing (Heys, 2019). The findings revealed that governance produced varying results on the economic welfare in BRICS. Democratic countries which practise good governance principles (South Africa and Brazil) had a negative economic welfare effect from both channels compared to one-party states, such as China and Russia. Therefore, the findings invalidate the null hypothesis that good governance is a catalyst for economic welfare. Sound policies, especially on structural change and equitable income distribution are necessary to enhance economic welfare in BRICS countries. The article is relevant and discloses iterations of the distinction between good governance and sound policy implications on developing nations’ economic welfare.