South Africa’s children are in deep crisis and unless government takes a swift and unified stance to address current challenges, even the best attempts at improvement in later life are likely to achieve only partial success.
This is the main argument of the South African Child Gauge 2024, launched on Wednesday by the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town.
The report is published annually as a monitor of the progress towards realising children’s rights. It focuses on early childhood development and reflects on all progress made in line with the National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy adopted in 2015, setting an agenda for 2030.
This year the report identified some challenges that have emerged since the Covid-19 pandemic with families and government departments being increasingly pressurised by rising poverty and austerity cuts, threatening the development and very survival of children.
The wide-ranging study found that:
- one out of every 25 babies born in SA dies before their fifth birthday;
- well over a third of all children live in households where their basic needs are not met;
- over a quarter of children under five are stunted — meaning they are chronically malnourished, and their physical growth and brain development are compromised;
- less than half of the four-and-five-year-olds attending early learning programmes (ELPs) are developmentally on track.
Prof Mark Tomlinson of the Life Course Health Research Institute at Stellenbosch University hailed the South African Child Gauge 2024 report as “a wonderful opportunity to assess the progress that has (or has not) been made over the past 10 years to improve the lives of young children in SA”.
On the findings, Tomlinson said: “The old way of doing things is simply not working for our children. I implore you, President Cyril Ramaphosa, and basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube to first acknowledge the crisis our children are in and make the critical decision to prioritise young children when planning the way forward.”
“Please put young children at the centre of your policy making and position your investment in young children as an investment in reducing poverty and inequality, offering easily the highest rate of return, and in doing so build the foundations for future economic growth and a healthy and caring society.”
A child’s brain is built only once.
— Prof Linda Richter, Wits University’s DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development
This year’s gauge has found that a strong focus on addressing the challenges babies and little children face is a solution to breaking free from intergenerational cycles of poverty, violence and ill-health, and would boost national development.
Prof Linda Richter of Wits University’s DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, who contributed to the study, said that promoting learning even well before the age of five was crucial as “a child’s brain is built only once.
“From conception to the end of the second or third year, is commonly referred to as the first 1,000 days of life. When we talk about early childhood development, we mean really early ... during the first 1,000 days.”
The report identified five key interventions as:
- maternal and child healthcare;
- nutrition and food security;
- opportunities for early learning;
- caring for families in need of support; and
- identifying and aiding children who need extra care.
It also laid out the main challenges that needed to be addressed.
While support for pregnant women has improved there was a need for more systems to identify and support children with developmental delays, disabilities and other long-term health problems.
Hunger could be tackled by restoring the value of the child support grant to the food poverty line along with income support for pregnant women. Reducing the costs of a basic food basket, regulating the marketing of unhealthy foods to young children and establishing the long-awaited National Food and Nutrition Security Council were also recommended.
To improve early learning programmes across the country, increasing the value of early childhood development (ECD) subsidies to state-supported ELPs and simplifying their registration process was crucial along with investing in educating and training ECD practitioners.
The capacity of poor families to support healthy development, it was said, was compromised by factors outside their control.
“Being a parent or caregiver comes with multiple challenges and we need to empower every parent by ensuring they have what they need to create positive childhood experiences for every child,” said Christine Muhinga, a representative for Unicef SA, one of the partners involved in the study.
These included income support and affordable childcare for working mothers; strengthened support from churches and community organisations and encouraging more men to be active in childcare.
In terms of supporting children in need of extra care, it was found that far too many young children are exposed to multiple adversities — high levels of poverty, malnutrition, violence and neglect among them.
These could be addressed by building the capacity of frontline workers to identify and proactively respond to danger signs and strengthening referral systems and care pathways to ensure families and children in need can access the support or services they need.
The final policy brief summed up the situation: “Creating an enabling environment for early childhood development cannot only happen from the top down; it also needs to be built from the ground up. Achieving progress will depend on strong leadership and political will at the highest level, coupled with the efforts of local champions who can breathe life into the system and make it work.”
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