Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694845735440.pdf (South Africa)
Ensuring Children Count: Gauging progress for children Lori Lake Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town Children Count website • Provides a child-centred analysis of national datasets in order to make children visible and track progress for SA’s children • Allows you to disaggregate data - by province, age, sex, race, geographic location and income quintile – to make visible inequalities and better target programmes • Provides expert commentary on what the numbers are telling us Budlender D (2018) Income support for children in the context of poverty and inequality.
In: Hall K, Richter L, Mokomane Z & Lake L (eds) South African Child Gauge 2018.

Cape Town: Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town South African Child Gauge • Annual publication that makes the latest research findings accessible to decision-makers • Each year focus on a particular dimension of children’s lives e.g.
health, education, ECD • Draws on a wide range of quantitative and qualitative studies to provide an in-depth analysis of the challenges facing SA’s children, the underlying causes and possible solutions 27% Stunted Overweight or obese 13% Children and COVID-19 advocacy briefs • Document the impact of the pandemic on children and children’s services • Identify opportunities to strengthen systems, improve outcomes and better support children in future waves and crises.
• Draw on administrative data from the Western Cape, as even in this well- resourced province children were overlooked and left behind What do we know about child nutrition in SA?

Child hunger 1 in 10 children live in households where children go hungry Food poverty 1 in 3 children live below the food poverty line R624 A double burden of malnutrition Department of Health, Statistics South Africa, Medical Research Council & ICF (2017) South African Demographic Health Survey 2016.

Key Indicator Report.
Pretoria: DOH, Stats SA, MRC & ICF • 1 in 4 young children are stunted or short for age • 1 in 8 young children are overweight or obese © Eric Miller A slow violence “that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, that is typically not viewed as violence at all.” Rob Nixon, 2011 Burden of Disease Study Causes of death in children under five years of age, 2010 Malnutrition 48% of child hospital deaths are associated with moderate or severe acute malnutrition Child Health Problem Identification Programme (2018 data) Personal communication Cindy Stephen Impact of COVID-19 • Rising food prices (12.6% annual increase, March 2020-2021, PMBEJD) • Rising unemployment (34.4% official, 44.4% expanded Q2 2021) (with women more likely to have lost their jobs than men (30% vs 22%, NIDSCRAM) • Closure of schools and ECD programmes • Rise in child hunger (15% in Apr/May 2021) • Disruption of health care services making it harder to identify and support children at risk of malnutrition “Children eat the same food every day.
Starch every day.

Starch every day.

Starch every day.

People are not okay.

It is not healthy to eat starch every day.

We do want to eat right but we don’t have a choice.

We can only buy the basic foods now.

We buy the same things over and over again.


We have no choice; we have to survive.” Du Noon, Cape Town, November 2020 Pietermartizburg Economic Justice and Dignity Project Social assistance R1335 R624 R460 Child Support Grant Food poverty line Upper bound poverty line 13 million children benefit from the Child Support Grant Build a strong foundation Increase the value of the CSG A child rights imperative • No child should be experience hunger of the slow violence of malnutrition.
• The state has an immediate obligation to respect, protect, promote and fulfil children’s right to basic nutrition (Section 28, Bill of Rights) • Even in an economic crisis, the State may only introduce regressive measures as a last resort and must ensure that children are the last to be affected.

(UNCRC General Comment 19 on General Implementation Measures) Many things we need can wait.

The child cannot.

Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed.
To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today.” Gabriela Mistral, Nobel Prize winning poet from Chile.