7.1 Poverty Alleviation Government remains committed to poverty alleviation, and has thus introduced a number of initiatives and continues to implement those initiated earlier. One of them is the Social Assistance Programme, which involves cash transfers including Social Relief of Distress which involves temporary provision of food parcels, food vouchers or cash of assistance to persons who are unable to meet their family’s most basic needs for a maximum period of three months. However, in exceptional cases, extensions may be granted for a further three months. In October 2009, the Cabinet announced the extension of the Child-Support Grant (CSG) to eligible children between the ages of 15 and 18 years. The CSG for 15-year-olds came into effect in January 2010. The implementation will be carried out in phases until 2012. More than 14 million people are benefiting from the expansion of the Social Assistance Programme. Government has also equalised the qualifying age for access to the Old Age Grant to 60 years for both men and women. Government introduced the Integrated Nutrition Programme (INP) which focuses on children under six years, pregnant and breast-feeding mothers and all people with chronic diseases. The INP has seven main focus areas, which are: • • • • • • • Disease-specific nutrition support, treatment and counselling (Nutrition Supplementation Programme and guidelines for children with under nutrition, over nutrition, tuberculosis and HIV) Growth monitoring and promotion (Growth monitoring and promotion guidelines and training manuals) Control of micronutrient deficiencies (dietary diversification, parasite control, food fortification, and immunisation) Promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding Nutrition education, promotion and advocacy Contribution to household food security (Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Programme and the National School Nutrition Programme) Food service management (Meals in public institutions and Technical support for dieticians in public institutions) To contribute to household food security and to eradicate hunger, under-nutrition and food insecurity by 2015, the government has established an Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Programme (IFSNP) centred on agriculture. The main objectives of the programme are to increase household food production, improve income generation and job opportunities, improve nutrition and food safety, provide safety nets and food emergency management systems, and improve information systems. To mitigate the poverty related learning problems, the ongoing school feeding scheme, referred to as the National School Nutrition Programme has been extended to some poor secondary schools. School feeding is part of the integrated poverty alleviation strategy for South Africa which was initially targeted at primary school children. 43