In August 2026, Black Sash, in partnership with the National Planning Commission (NPC), convened a two-day workshop with members of the Social Protection Floor (SPF) Collective. Participants came from the Collective’s three working groups: Research, Popular Education and Basic Services.
The new report, Social Protection Floor Workshop Report: From Defining the Social Protection Floor to Collective Action, captures what the workshop found and sets out the work that follows.
What a social protection floor means
A social protection floor is a nationally defined set of basic guarantees. It is intended to ensure that everyone in South Africa can access basic income support, essential services, housing, health care, education, nutrition and transport throughout their lives.
The first convening, held in March 2025 with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the NPC, focused on building a shared understanding of what a South African social protection floor should include. This year’s workshop asked a harder question: what would it take for these guarantees to work in people’s everyday lives?
Protection must be experienced, not only promised
The workshop started from a simple but important distinction: a policy or service may exist on paper, but that does not mean people can reliably use and benefit from it.
Community evidence presented at the workshop showed why this matters. In May 2026, Black Sash held focus-group discussions with social grant recipients in five provinces; 77% of participants were women. Participants described taps running dry for days, shared toilets, sewage leaks left unrepaired, and electricity cut off from households that had paid their accounts.
These experiences show that social protection cannot be measured only by whether a policy, programme or infrastructure exists. It must also be judged by whether services are reliable, affordable, safe, accessible, adequate and responsive – and by who is able to access them in practice.
From workshop to collective action
The 2026 report marks a shift in the Social Protection Floor process: from defining the floor to organising for its realisation. Black Sash and its partners will use the report to guide the next phase of work across the Research, Popular Education and Basic Services working groups. The aim is to turn shared definitions and community evidence into practical action, stronger accountability and better implementation.
Download the August 2026 SPF workshop report here: