Agency and shock-responsive social protection: Informal traders and the Social Relief of Distress grant in South Africa

Abstract

Across many countries, the design of social protection for informal workers – particularly in response to shocks – is often shaped by assumptions about their limited agency. This article examines how the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of South Africa’s Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant influenced the agency of informal traders. The SRD was the country’s first cash transfer made available to able-bodied, working-age adults. Drawing on structuration theory, the article explores how informal traders responded to crisis within a constrained structural environment. The findings challenge prevailing narratives that depict informal workers as passive recipients or deviant economic actors. Instead, traders demonstrated a strong agentic identity and a desire to be recognised as legitimate workers. The article argues that shock-responsive social protection can support informal workers’ own efforts to sustain livelihoods, if it offers stable, appropriately designed benefits linked to broader labour protections. These insights have broader relevance for inclusive global social protection policy.