While national statistics are useful for providing data on general trends of poverty and inequality, SPII identified a gap in advancing the understanding of how real people live, their hopes and aspirations, their dreams and their frustrations, in having to cope with poverty and destitution on a daily basis.

SPII has two projects that fall under Basic Needs. These are:

• Evaton Household Expenditure Survey;
• Food Price Monitoring Survey and the Basic Needs Basket.

Project One: Evaton Household Expenditure Survey

With assistance of Statistics South Africa, SPII undertook a yearlong survey of 144 households in a township called Evaton, South of Gauteng. The survey included a formal questionnaire about people’s families and activities, their educational experiences and employment histories, and sources of income and expenditure.

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Project Two: Food Price Monitoring Survey and the Basic Needs Basket

Between November 2011 and June 2012, SPII conducted a Food Price Monitoring survey which tracked price changes of basic food items selected from the household expenditure survey conducted in Evaton, during the same period. The monthly analysis of the food price monitoring survey was published in the bi-monthly SPII Talk Newsletter and the findings were also presented at the National Economic Development and Labour Council in the Public and Monetary Policy Chamber