J Swanson-Jacobs: Tackling Child Poverty Symposium

29 May 2007

The Director-General, representatives of United Nations Children's Fund
(Unicef), officials, representatives of civil society, ladies and gentlemen. It
is my privilege to conclude the proceedings of this workshop on child poverty
in South Africa.

In his opening address, the Honourable Minister Dr Zola Skweyiya emphasised
that poverty is a multi-dimensional issue that will require a holistic approach
to responding to all the needs of children in an integrated manner.

This will involve government in partnership with the individuals, the
family, community, civil society, faith based organisations (FBOs), donors and
the international community. The Government of South Africa has committed
itself to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving child poverty by
2015 and eradicating it altogether by 2035.

In addition to this agreement we are also signatories to all the conventions
on the Rights of children and have passed several pieces of legislation towards
addressing some of the social concerns in respect of children. I will not
reiterate these for the sake of time. One of government's priorities for this
and succeeding periods is its commitment to accelerating Early Childhood
Development (ECD). In this we will escalate the registration of ECD facilities
by registering 1 774 ECD sites by March 2008, identify and register all unknown
sites by 2010. From 1 April 2007, we will effectively implement an electronic
child protection register. Currently, over 17 783 cases have been
registered.

Whilst the Minister highlighted the significant progress made in the
protection of our children, he has touched on the challenges that confront us,
namely the need for more facilities to accommodate orphaned children and
children in need of protection.

Since 1994 Government has made significant strides in reducing child
poverty. The number of children that gained access to a grant increased from
2,5 to 8,5 million. All households have access to a quota of municipal services
with the indigent having the right of access to all municipal services. Over
7,5 million children have access to a free meal at school and poor children now
have access to free fee schools. Government is also accelerating its housing
programme for the poor and this department is committed to the rollout of the
ECD programme. Co-ordinating all these services still remains the challenge of
government and all of us.

Katherine Hall from the Children's Institute reminded us of the urgency to
reach children in needs by giving us a graphic presentation on the areas of
deprivation. It is good to note that civil society is vigorously monitoring the
service delivery programme of government but I want to reiterate that delivery
is not a government responsibility only, but a joint collaboration and effort
of everybody involved.

Professor Marius Olivier reminded us of our constitutional commitments to
our children and citizens and I also want to repeat some of his utterings.
Children in South Africa are of paramount importance and their needs must be
addressed immediately. The gaps in the provision of social security were
highlighted namely, children over the ages of 14 years, children with moderate
and severe disabilities, caregivers of children, pregnant women, etc.

One of the most important institutions of child support in South Africa is
the maintenance system. The Department of Justice gave us an overview of the
maintenance system and the Maintenance Act and outlined the initiatives of the
department to improve. Studies show that less than one percent of children in
receipt of grants receive maintenance and clearly there is a need to find
innovative ways to improve private child support in our country as an act of
responsibility rather than through punitive measures.

The international discourse on child poverty reduction strategies was very
informative. Whilst the international community agrees that cash transfers are
an effective measure to reduce child poverty, its implementation appears to
differ across institutions. The World Bank is a strong advocate for conditions
without conclusive evidence that the conditions and not the cash motivate the
desired changes in behaviour.

Professor Handa of Unicef described the design variations of cash transfers
in Africa namely Republic of South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya and Uganda. He
emphasised the need for a system that is transparent and inspires public
confidence to avoid social conflict. He spoke about the importance of ECD and
its value in promoting child development.

All services to children and to the population as a whole must be monitored
and Ms Raphaahle Ramokgopa of the Department of Social Development gave a
detailed analysis of the need for comprehensive monitoring and the value that
the research methods of longitudinal studies and panel studies can add to
effective monitoring.

In addition to the academic exercise, two members of the community that are
directly involved with children related that there are challenges that confront
the community in caring for children in need. Resources are scarce, and greater
involvement of parents, relatives and the community as whole is needed to
promote the wellbeing of children.

Having deliberated on child poverty issues, the working groups of this
Symposium recommended the adoption of the following resolutions:

Social Security

1. support the extension of the child support grant (CSG) for children over
14; government is currently investigating the provision of social services to
this age group of children, over and above possible income support
2. consolidation of services for children between 0 to 5 years and 5 to 17
years old
3. comprehensive assessment of children at different services points
4. development of a comprehensive multidimensional poverty line
5. development of comprehensive social security to respond to the needs of the
whole family.

Community foundations

1. Community organisations should be recognised as a critical developmental
partner to government in funding community development, for example, a
community foundation approach.
2. There is a need to examine the role of development partners in contributing
to government priorities and strategies in child poverty.
3. There is a need to review the institutional arrangements with development
partners for better co-ordination and alignment.

Child Protection and Development

1. training of service providers, investment in human capital of all
practitioners involved in child protection and development
2. strategies for co-ordination and integration of services at all levels of
government
3. continuous monitoring and evaluation of CSG and other child grants for
impact evaluation into child protection and development
4. mainstreaming of children issues in all programmes
5. expanding no school fees policy, planning and mapping of services
integration of Information Management System as integral part of planning and
management
6. development and strengthening of community based models of child care and
protection for development purposes
7. the school Nutrition Programme should be extended to secondary and high
school
8. programmes to strengthen and support families
9. specialised social work services for effective service delivery community
based organisations
10. structures to work together i.e. (co-ordination and integration forum) role
of development workers, strengthening skills of care givers, volunteers,
development workers and community health workers.

Community development approaches

1. need to come up with clear definition of child poverty with indicators
taking into account contexts
2. document all interventions as to establish successes and models
3. child caring practices for parents (fathers and mothers)
4. capacity building for community based interventions
5. sustainable funding
6. monitoring and evaluation
7. identification and strengthening of indigenous practices, integrate these
into policies; addressing the few years after turning 18, nurturing towards
independence
8. specialisation in training and capacity building in service providers, e.g.
caregivers
9. self-empowerment strategies, economic self empowerment programmes; identify
and strengthen existing livelihood strategies
10. provide infrastructure to ensure effective community based intervention
that will address basic needs
11. community education and information to create awareness and intensify
efforts to combat child poverty
12. to restore entrepreneurial spirit linked to the beneficiaries of social
grants
13. invest in community based early childhood development interventions that
will have a long term effect of alleviating poverty and facilitate economic
growth and human capital investment.

There is clearly a lot of work to be done to halve child poverty. We can
achieve these goals if we work together within government, as well as civil
society.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Social Development
29 May 2007
Source: Department of Social Development (http://www.dsd.gov.za)