Speaker
Dr. Sadiyya Haffejee
Senior Researcher
University of Johannesburg
Social sector systems strengthening for better child-well-being outcomes: Lessons from a South African case study
Abstract Narrative
Increasingly scholars, practitioners and development organizations are promoting inter-sectoral and multidisciplinary interventions to find solutions to persistent and complex social, health, educational and economic challenges facing children and their families. Despite this trend, collaboration across disciplines is more difficult to achieve than we think. Significant systemic barriers exist that hamper collaboration in health, education and social welfare service provision relating to issues of governance, organisational mandates and administrative and management systems, competition between service providers and different disciplinary knowledge systems and professional cultures (Kanste, Hulme and Perala 2013). Overcoming these challenges could reduce fragmentation in service delivery, lead to the better pooling of scare resources, breakdown barriers between practitioners across the disciplinary divide and in finding integrated remedial, preventative and promotive strategies to improve outcomes for children and their families.
This roundtable will consist of presentations and discussion of the lessons learnt from a South African case study of an inter-sectoral Community of Practice (CoP) model developed and implemented by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners from the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. This innovative and on-going initiative builds on previous research on cash transfers and child well-being (Patel et al 2017) and aims to strengthen multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary cooperation to enhance child well-being outcomes that could disrupt the intergenerational cycle of poverty in the early years of life (Richter, 2018). Key stakeholders from health, welfare, social work, education, mental health and a team of engineers collaborated in the development and testing of a digital tool to assess and track child well-being and to devise intervention plans for children and families with different risk profiles. The child well-being tracking tool (CWTT) was implemented with 181 children aged 6-8 years old in five schools in the poorest wards of the City of Johannesburg in 2020 and at different stages of the national lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The roundtable made up of collaborating partners in the CoP will share (a) the findings of the risk assessment of the children and the factors associated with their well-being in different domains; (b) findings of the cross- sectoral and interdisciplinary solutions developed and implemented by local school/community level CoPs; and will share (c) the results of a process evaluation of the lessons learnt from the CoP practice model concluding with the implications of the model for social systems strengthening locally and in the African context.
References
Kanste, O., Hulme, N., Perala, M. (2013). Functionality of cooperation between health, welfare and education sectors servicing children and families. International Journal of Integrated Care. 3(2):7-15
Patel, L., Knijn, T., Gorman-Smith, D, Hochfeld, T., Isserow, M., Garthe, R., Chiba, J., Moodley J., & Kgaphola, I. (2017). Family contexts, child support grants and child well-being in South Africa. Johannesburg, Centre for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg. https://www.uj.ac.za/faculties/humanities/csda/Documents/PSPPD%20Family%20contexts%20full%20report_Patel_single%20web%20pages.pdf
Richter, L. (2018) Interactions between the family and the state in children’s health, education and social development .In K. Hall, L. Richter , Z. Mokomane & L. Lake (eds) (2018) South African Child Gauge 2018. Cape Town: Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town
Biography
Dr. Sadiyya Haffejee is a practicing psychologist and senior researcher at the Centre for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg. She enjoys working at the interface of research, practice and policy and her research interests include children and youth exposed to adversity, resilience, gender and mental health. She is particularly interested in participatory visual methods that re-position participants as experts of their lives and which may be used as a vehicle for change. Sadiyya is currently part of a social systems strengthening intervention and is leading various other projects focusing on youth well-being. She continues to be actively involved at Kids Haven, a Child and Youth Child Care Centre and provides psycho-social support to organizations working in the area of transitional justice.
Prof Leila Patel
SARCHI (Chair)
University of Johannesburg
Theme 5G (RT)
Biography
Leila Patel is professor of Social Development Studies and holds the South African Research Chair in Welfare and Social Development, University of Johannesburg. Leila is the founding director of the Centre for Social Development in Africa (CSDA) from 2004 -2018. She has published widely on issues of social development in South Africa and internationally and is the recipient of both national and international awards. In 2020, she received the National Research Foundation’s Science for Society Gold Medal Award (2020) and Katherine Kendell Memorial Award (2020) for distinguished scholarship and for her contribution to social work education and social development. Her research interests include social welfare policy, poverty and hunger, social protection, gender, care, the social services and children, youth and families. She has wide experience in academia, research, teaching and fulfilled various roles in government, civil society and private sector social involvement initiatives. She was South Africa’s first director general of social welfare after apartheid and has played a leading role in the development of welfare policy in South Africa. Her forthcoming edited volume will be published by Edward Elgar titled Social Protection and Social Development in the Global South.
Dr Wanga Zembe-Mkabile
Specialist Scientist
South African Medical Research Council
Cash plus programme in Global South
Supporting Documents Link
Biography
Wanga Zembe-Mkabile is a Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council. She has a DPhil in Social Policy from the University of Oxford. Her main interests are research and teaching in social policy, specifically as this relates to poverty, inequality, health and wellbeing.
Naomi Hill
Programme Head
Wits Reproductive Health
Cash plus programme in Global South
Supporting Document
Biography
A social worker by profession, Naomi has extensive experience in both public health and social development. Her areas of technical specialization include trauma, gender-based violence, social service workforce strengthening and social protection. Her HIV-related expertise spans prevention and social behavior change, interventions for vulnerable children/ youth and key populations programming. She is currently Programme Head of the Wits Reproductive Health and Research Institute (Wits RHI) Key Populations Programme which aims to advance the South African HIV response for Key Populations, specifically sex workers and transgender people. She is committed to the integrating practice, research and policy to strengthen service delivery to communities. Naomi holds Honours degrees in Criminology and Psychology, and a Masters degree in Social Work.
Ms Tania Sani
Researcher
University of Johannesburg
Cash plus programme in Global South
Biography
Tania Sani is a community development social worker who has a master’s degree in social work. She was part of developing, piloting and implementing the community coaching role for the SmartStart Early Learning programme and is passionate about leveraging community stakeholder resources in social services delivery.
Prof Trudie Knijn
Professor of Interdisciplinary Social Science
Utrecht University
Cash Plus Programmes in the Global South
Biography
Prof. Trudie Knijn is emeritus professor of Interdisciplinary Social Science at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and visiting professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She co-coordinated (with Dorota Lepianka) the ETHOS Horizon2020 programme (2017-2019). Before she was PI in the 7th framework program bEUcitizen and in the Horizon2020 programme SOLIDUS. Her most recent publications are Justice and Vulnerability in Europe. An Interdisciplinary Approach (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020, co-edited with Dorota Lepianka) and Streng maar Onrechtvaardig.De bijstand gewogen/ Strict but Unjust. Weighting Social Welfare (Van Gennep, Amsterdam 2020) Before she published Moving Beyond Barriers: Prospects for EU Citizenship? (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018, co-edited with Marcel Hoogenboom, Sandra Seubert, Sybe de Vries and Frans van Waarden), and Gender and the Generational Division in EU Citizenship (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018, co-edited with Manuela Naldini). Her research fields are comparative family and child policy, care and gender-relations, welfare reforms and the evaluation of cash and care interventions in the Netherlands and South Africa, (EU)citizenship, solidarity and justice. She works since 2017as a volunteer for a Dutch refugee organisation in supporting refugees with their social welfare and family reunion applications.