Ronelle Burger
Ronelle is a professor at Stellenbosch University’s Economics Department and part of the department’s Research on Socioeconomic Policy Group (RESEP). Her interest is in poverty and exclusion in African countries, with a focus on the role of health inequalities. Her research is closely aligned to policy processes, aiming to inform and support initiatives to fight inequity and address problems with health care delivery. She has consulted to National and Provincial government and multilateral donors such as UNICEF and the World Bank. She is a research fellow of the Centre for Development and International Trade at Nottingham University, Partnership for Economic Policy and the Pan-African Scientific Research Council. She is an associate editor for Health Economics and Development Southern Africa and serves on the board of the Journal of Development Studies. Recent sabbatical visits include the Centre for Health Policy at Imperial College London and the Institute for Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She holds a PhD in Economics from Nottingham University and a Masters degree in Economics from Cambridge University. She has received funding from J-PAL, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank.
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Follow Ronelle on:
Website
Ronelle is a professor at Stellenbosch University’s Economics Department and part of the department’s Research on Socioeconomic Policy Group (RESEP). Her interest is in poverty and exclusion in African countries, with a focus on the role of health inequalities. Her research is closely aligned to policy processes, aiming to inform and support initiatives to fight inequity and address problems with health care delivery. She has consulted to National and Provincial government and multilateral donors such as UNICEF and the World Bank. She is a research fellow of the Centre for Development and International Trade at Nottingham University, Partnership for Economic Policy and the Pan-African Scientific Research Council. She is an associate editor for Health Economics and Development Southern Africa and serves on the board of the Journal of Development Studies. Recent sabbatical visits include the Centre for Health Policy at Imperial College London and the Institute for Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She holds a PhD in Economics from Nottingham University and a Masters degree in Economics from Cambridge University. She has received funding from J-PAL, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank.
In their own words…
IEA: Can you tell us what made you pursue a career in economics?
Ronelle: I was initially planning to pursue a career in economic and financial journalism but found that economic research was a better fit for me. Research allowed me to satisfy my curiosity about the world and at the same time actively engage in the global dialogue about how we can improve well-being and advance equity and social justice.
IEA: A lot of your work focuses on health inequities and how they interact with existing policies and institutional contexts. Can you say a few words about how Covid has played out in South Africa against the background of these realities?
Ronelle: The pandemic was a substantial setback and came at a time when South Africa was already in a fragile state due to its mounting debt and its problems with corruption. We have lost many lives. Also, many jobs have been lost and the recovery has been slow so the impact on hardship and hunger is likely to be enduring. There have not been new inequality estimates post-pandemic but we expect that this would have increased inequality in the most unequal country in the world. Vulnerable and poorest households have been hit hardest. For instance, women were more likely to lose jobs than men, and lower-skilled workers were more likely to lose jobs than higher-skilled workers.
IEA: How would you evaluate South Africa’s overall record in delivering social progress since the transition to democracy?
Ronelle: In many respects, the post-apartheid government has made remarkable progress with its efforts to address the legacy of apartheid and promote social justice. A child support grant has been introduced and expanded, alleviating poverty in the process. Access to basic services was extended via an expansion of water, sewerage, and electricity infrastructure, and investments in the schools and primary health care facility networks. The largest and most ambitious housing subsidy program in the world was launched and facilitated the construction of more than 3 million houses for low-income households in the 25 years from 1994 to 2018.
Inequality has unfortunately remained very high, despite these pro-poor polices. The most important constraint to progress on this front is the uneven playing field for human capital investments. The quality of schooling remains weak in most schools in poor neighborhoods and there are substantial problems with public health care services. In our research, we see that by the age of eight there are already substantial learning and knowledge gaps between children from the richest quintile of households and those from the poorest quintile of households. These gaps remain throughout their school career and affect their labor market prospects, thus reinforcing existing patterns of poverty and privilege. There have been some recent wins with both health and education, but I think it is fair to say that the pace of progress is much slower than one would have hoped and wanted. Other major stumbling blocks are crime and the weak effectiveness and accountability of the government bureaucracy. Additionally, due to poor planning, the country‘s power utility cannot generate enough electricity to meet demand and there have been frequent scheduled electricity shutdowns since 2008. There are also worries about revenue collection and managerial capacity at a municipal level, which have manifested at the local level via poorly maintained roads, water and electricity cut-offs, breakdowns of decaying water pipes and overloaded electricity networks, contaminated water, and non-functioning sewerage systems and waste collection. These issues often enhance existing social and economic divides because the affluent can afford to protect themselves against these problems, but poor households cannot.
IEA: Researchers based in developing countries sometimes can face serious obstacles in accessing research networks in advanced countries, a problem which you have written about. Would you have some advice for younger scholars?
Ronelle: I think it is vital for younger scholars based in developing countries to be aware of the obstacles and to lobby for change, using social media to amplify their voices. There is now a growing literature describing the bias against developing country researchers when it comes to conference participation, publications, and citations, but there is not that much research on how scholars should navigate these obstacles. One of the major problems in developing countries is that there is a lack of government-funded early career researcher programs, so recent Ph.D. graduates need to find another pathway to strengthen their expertise and build their CVs. The available evidence suggests that it would be wise to hitch your wagon to that of established and reputable local researchers in your field who are known to prioritize mentoring and investments in the next generation.