Speaker
Dr Motlalepule Nathane
Academic
University of the Witwatersrand
EXTENDED FAMILIES’ INDIGENOUS CARE AND PROTECTION OF CHILDREN IN THE CONTEXT OF POVERTY AND LIMITED STATE SOCIAL GRANTS
Abstract Narrative
South African households are more likely to be constituted by more diverse groupings of kin than a two-generation nuclear household. Throughout the history of African societies, extended families have played a central role in the protection of vulnerable children. In African families in South Africa, maternal extended families take over the responsibility of child-rearing in situations where children are orphaned or born to teenage mothers out of wedlock. Children are often assimilated into maternal families as legitimate members of the family with grandmothers as primary caregivers. In most cases, these are households with three different generations living together. This presentation is based on the findings drawn from a qualitative study that utilised household narrative interviews from an urban township called Evaton which is in the southern part of Johannesburg. Two major findings indicate that while maternal extended families played a significant role in the care and protection of vulnerable children; deep poverty levels threatened the survival of family members and in particular, children growing up in these families. The old-age grant and child support grant remained the only reliable sources of income in these families. Secondly, the findings also indicate that the maternal extended families practiced indigenous child protection strategies, demonstrating that they were heavily invested in ensuring the protection of children. The paper argues that, while the state targeted interventions in the form of the old-age grant and child support grants makes a difference nationally to reduce poverty, in the context of urban Township families with historical disadvantages, these grants remain inadequate in meeting the needs of families. This situation is further worsened by the environment where adult members of households are unemployed and had limited livelihoods opportunities.
Biography
Dr Tlale Nathane-Taulela, I am lecturer in the Department Social Work in the School of Human and Community Development in the Faculty of Humanities. I joined Wits in 2007, my PhD is on Fatherhood and Female Headed Households. I have collaborated and authored a chapter in the Black Academic Voices the South African Experience. I am currently collaborating in a research project with ARUA researchers and my research is on African Perspective on Fatherhood.
Dr Colin Almeleh
Knowledge, Information and Data Systems Director
Ilifa Labantwana
Policy and programmes to promote child wellbeing
Biography
Dr Colin Almeleh is the Knowledge, Information and Data Systems (KIDS) Director at Ilifa Labantwana, a national programme working to secure an equal start for all children living in South Africa through designing the systems necessary to enable universal access to quality early childhood development. Colin has extensive experience working with governments, funders and development agencies, having worked for the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and Absolute Return for Kids on maternal, newborn and child health and HIV/AIDS projects throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. He holds a PhD in Sociology, a BSoSci (Nos) in Social Anthropology, and a BSc in Electrical Engineering. Colin is a past Fox Fellow at Yale University.
Dr Walter Mbaula
Lecturer
The University Of Dodoma
The reach and effects of in-kind transfers on children welfare in central Tanzania
Abstract Narrative
Cash and in-kind transfers are increasingly preferred safety net strategies to transfer resources to deprived households and children. Globally, approximately 37% and 44% of safety net beneficiaries receive cash and in-kind transfer, respectively. In Tanzania, nearly 9 out of 10 children are living in multidimensional poverty. Levels of deprivation for respective dimensions include sanitation (91.1%), housing (88.8%), protection (86.4%), water (72.3%), health (54.7%), education (36.1%), nutrition (30.1%), and 19.5% of children live in households below the monetary poverty line. Across all dimensions, children with disabilities, children living in rural areas and youth headed households face higher deprivations. Despite the prevalence of in-kind transfers, many of the studies focus on safety nets have focused on estimating the effect of cash transfers on children education, health access, and food security. Fewer studies have addressed the effect of in-kind transfer on these outcomes. This paper presents a study on two in-kind transfer and one cash transfer programmes in Tanzania to gain evidence of the effects of in-kind transfer on children access to education and health services. Using mixed methods approach, the study adopted a qualitative nested strategy, the study population composed the beneficiaries of cash, and in-kind transfer programmes in Dodoma Region. Respondents were the heads of households. Children who received cash transfers were more likely to come from poorest households than those received in-kind transfers. Most of the in-kind transfers that largely provided education and health related support were provided by non-state organizations compared to cash a transfer that was run by the government. In-kind supports provided were school supplies, uniforms, school fees, other school contributions, personal hygiene materials, health insurance premiums, and medical bills. Support to the children was influenced by geographical location, level of schooling and occupation of parents/guardian. Both transfers have influence of enrollment and school attendance. In-kind transfers have positive effect on children health visits than cash transfers. There is a need to build skills on households on livelihood diversification to enable to smooth consumption expenditures and ensure sustainable human capital investment.
Biography
Walter Mbaula is a Lecturer in the Department of Educational Foundations and Continuing Education of The University of Dodoma, Tanzania. He has also previously worked for Japan International Cooperation Agency/African Institute for Capacity Development in Tanzania as an Associate Programme Officer. He has taught community and development studies courses in both undergraduate and graduate degree programmes within the department and beyond for the past twelve years. He has presented paper on poverty targeting and social protection in both locally and internationally. He received his BSc from Sokoine University of Agriculture, a Postgraduate Diploma in Poverty Analysis for Socioeconomic Security and Development from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague (the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam), his MA in Education and a Ph.D in Development Studies from the University of Dodoma. His current focus is on social protection especially the interplays of safety nets, health, education and livelihood.
Ms Matshidiso Sello
Researcher
University of Johannesburg
Policy and programmes to promote child wellbeing
Yi Qie
Program Officer
China Development Research Foundation
Home Visit Intervention and Child Development in Poverty-stricken Areas: the Mediating Role of Family Nurturing Environment.”
Biography
Yi QIE currently holds the position as Program Officer at the Center for Child Development of China Development Research Foundation (CDRF), and Research Associate at Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC). Her primary task is overseeing the implementation and policy advocacy of the China REACH Project in western and mid-west rural China. Besides managing pilots, she is also responsible for program-based researches including process research, outcome evaluation and curriculum redesign. She has co-drafted policy briefs and facilitated dialogues in the field of early childhood development. Before joining CDRF, her researches focused left-behind children, transnational feminist movement, and state-society relationships in China. Current research interests include inequality/poverty, family education, gender/feminism, and social governance.
Yi holds a M.A. in Socio-cultural Anthropology from Columbia University and a B.A. in management from Renmin University of China.
Mr Thabani Buthelezi
Acting Deputy Director
Dsd
The Role of Real Time Monitoring Data in Enabling Evidence-Driven Social Development Programs that Promote Wellbeing of Children and Families
Biography
Thabani Buthelezi is the Acting Deputy Director-General of the Strategy and Organizational Transformation branch at the National Department of Social Development. He has extensive experience in leading the development of monitoring and evaluation systems as well as strategic plans in government. He was one of the authors of the National Evaluation Policy Framework and played a key role in the development of the National Evaluation System. His major responsibilities in the department include the establishing an efficient Monitoring and Evaluation system for the Social Development Sector; ensure the implementation and the progress, effectiveness, efficiency, quality and achievements of Social Development Programmes, Policies, Processes and Strategies against specific key performance indicators and targets; collecting and compiling programme-wise data for preparing periodic progress reports for the information of the Minister, the Director-General, Management and other concerned parties; facilitating research and impact studies; and, keeping all relevant stakeholders informed on the progress of the programme
Some of the evaluation studies he has managed for the department include the impact evaluation study of the Child Support Grant, the impact evaluation of the economic crisis on children in poor families as well as the development and institutionalization of the surveillance system to track and monitor maternal orphans in South Africa using the vital registration data from the department of Home Affairs. He’s currently leading a major task of linking various administrative data sets towards the development of the national integrated social protection system.
He also has proven experience as a social scientist research and a policy development specialist. Before joining the DSD he worked as a researcher in the School of Development Studies of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He possesses both quantitative and qualitative research skills. Mr. Buthelezi has been trained extensively in advanced research methodologies and the design of evaluation studies. He possesses a Masters in Population and Development Studies. He also continues to publish broadly on key evaluation journals.
Ms Mayke Huijbregts
Unicef
The Role of Real Time Monitoring Data in Enabling Evidence-Driven Social Development Programs that Promote Wellbeing of Children and Families
Biography
She is passionate about working with partners to reduce poverty, inequalities, violence against children and accelerate investments in child care. She has worked with UNICEF for over 20 years in the areas of social policy and social protection, child rights and child protection in 7 countries like Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Mayke started her career with the European Commission in Brussels, and then worked for the Human Rights Watch and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. A Dutch citizen, she holds a LLM in Law from Amsterdam University with a specialization in international law and undertook many senior courses and gave lectures on human rights, leadership, social protection and child protection. She is a mother of a precious girl.