Holding South Africa Accountable : A Critique of the Reports Submitted to Treaty Bodies Pertaining to the Rights of Children with Disabilities

Magister Legum - LLMSouth Africa recently submitted reports to three treaty bodies regarding steps taken over the past two decades to implement the rights of children with disabilities. This study is focused on critically analysing the South African reports submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (hereinafter referred to as the CRC Committee), the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (hereinafter referred to as the ACERWC) and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter referred to as the CRPD Committee) regarding the implementation of the CRC, ACRWC and the CRPD in South Africa. In doing so, the study focuses on all matters pertaining to children with disabilities as well as focusing on particular groups of children with disabilities. This will be done to determine whether or not the State meets the international law obligation of implementing the CRC, ACRWC and the CRPD in South Africa

Development of a Communication Strategy to Reduce Violence against Children in South Africa: A Social-Ecological Approach

Research on violence against children, though extensive, has not been effectively deployed for the development and tailoring of communication efforts aimed at specific national, local and cultural contexts within which such violence occurs. This article presents a staged, multi-sectoral communication strategy to reduce the incidence of violence against children in South Africa. Drawing on formative data collected through a literature review, key informant interviews, focus groups, and a stakeholder review meeting, the research team, in collaboration with UNICEF South Africa, formulated a communication strategy aimed at combatting violence against children. The data analysis and strategy development within a socialecological framework sought to identify factors at multiple levels that contribute to violence against children in the South African context. The communication strategy is designed to achieve positive social and behaviour change outcomes in South Africa with respect to the treatment of children, and also to provide an approach as well as specific elements that are potentially replicable to some extent in other countries.CA201

Developing and testing a quality of life index for children with disabilities in South Africa

Abstract: There is a paucity of investigations into the multidimensional quality of life (QoL) of children with disabilities in both developed and developing countries. The reasons for a lack of these investigations include the fact that QoL and disability are both dynamic and contested constructs, which affect how QoL is measured. The prevailing situation inadvertently contributes to the perpetuation of a cycle of exclusion of children with disabilities and compromises public efforts to promote their needs and rights. Not only is it a constitutional and legislative imperative in South Africa to focus on children with disabilities, but it is also in line with global standards to promote children’s rights and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with their focus on leaving no one behind. Despite these commitments, there is no instrument currently available that is suitable for the multidimensional measurement of the QoL of children with disabilities in South Africa. Such an instrument could go a long way in determining how they fare relative to children without disabilities, including the factors that are associated with improving their wellbeing. This study fills this important knowledge gap...D.Litt. et Phil. (Anthropology and Development Studies

Early childhood development and South Africa: a literature review.

This work is based on the research supported by the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant No 71220). The work was also produced with the assistance of the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development (PSPPD Phase II) a partnership between the Presidency, the Republic of South Africa and the European Union under the project addressing the poverty and inequality challenge, grant for Informal Early Childhood Development Centres a new area based approach for improved and up-scaled ECD services for the urban poor. The contents of this work are the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect neither the views of the European Union nor the National Research Foundation.Early Childhood Development (ECD) has become a priority sector within South Africa, particularly in respect to ensuring equity and high quality of care for the youngest members (ages 0 to 5 years old) of the population. South Africa is also burdened with high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment as well as unequal levels of service delivery and public provision of infrastructure. Given the recent development and request for feedback on the provisional ECD policy, there would be a benefit to examine the current state of this draft policy, its respective white papers, and its national and international mandates as well as to understand their relationship to South Africa’s context of poverty. Furthermore, child poverty remains a major concern in the country, particularly in respect to the geographical and living conditions where children live, study and play. This paper wishes to bring to light literature on poverty and, from a multi-dimensional lens, understand how early childhood development provision, whether it be through its programming or the physical centres themselves, are affecting the lives of children, particularly those within households living in urban poverty. ECD are intended to provide children with a safe facility to stay and with some standards of conditions which would allow children to learn and improve their skills. ECD also provides parents with the ability to leave their children in safe places so that they can work or learn. The proximity of ECD centres, their costs, the staffing and their physical conditions influence the choices of parents to leave their children at an ECD centre. The ECD centres within informal settlements are also explored in this paper, given the need for further understanding of such physical infrastructures within a municipality’s planning. Planning for ECD centres within the ‘grey areas’, such as informal settlements or those located in traditional land, can be problematic, especially for ECD managers or principals in gaining access to much needed ECD resources through the appropriate departments. Those parents who have limited and erratic income stream are provided with inadequate choices which may put a mother and/or father in difficult situations of child care. The ECD policy would benefit poor households, particularly those living within informal settlements, through understanding the conditions of the poor and their limitation of choices in ECD centres. In understanding their limitation, government could help provide a more meaningful policy which caters to their needs

Preventing Violence Against Children: A Critical Analysis of the Relevance and Feasibility of Evidence-Based Practice in South Africa

Political Scienc

The experiences of health service providers working with children with physical disabilities and their caregivers in the Eastern Cape

The prevalence of childhood disability in South Africa is significant. In an attempt to meet the constitutional rights of children with disabilities, there are a variety of services available for children with disabilities. These services are aimed at rehabilitating children with disabilities and integrating them in society. Amongst such services are health services. Due to the nature of some childhood disabilities, it is recommended that they should be seen by a multidisciplinary team. While the field of childhood disability has been researched extensively. Limited research has been conducted on the experiences of health service providers working with children with disabilities and their caregivers. The current study explored the experiences of health service providers working with children with disabilities and their caregivers in the Eastern Cape. To achieve this aim, the study employed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Five participants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Semi-structured interviews were used to allow participants to freely share their experiences of working with children with disabilities and their caregivers. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed for analysis purpose. The analysis process generated five master themes namely: Positive experiences of their work; negative experiences of their work; perception of their role as changing over time; managing challenges in their work; and experiences of a service learning programme as complementary to their work. The findings of the study highlighted both the positive experiences and the negative experiences of their work. On the one hand, the participants reported positive affect and that they found their work meaningful. They also reported a sense of feeling supported by fellow colleagues and enjoying their work at the clinics. On the other hand, the participants reported negative affect in relation to their wok difficulties such as feelings of frustration, feelings of being unappreciated by management and finding the work distressing. The participants reported that professional and emotional growth in conjunction with perspective taking contributed to developing better coping mechanisms. A service learning programme offered in the community was experienced as a good contribution to the work done at the clinics and distinguished as addressing the emotional needs of the caregivers which cannot be addressed at the clinics. The findings of the study supports and expands the literature on the experiences of health service providers working with children with disabilities in South Africa

Exploring adaptation and agency of mothers caring for disabled children inan urban settlement in South Africa: A qualitative study

Mothers of disabled children who are living in poverty face multiple interlinked disadvantages in relation togender, care, disability, and poverty. Yet, their experiences have been largely neglected in academic literature.This study explores how mothers from a poor urban settlement in South Africa manoeuvre, adapt, act and reactin such a difficult context, and how they maintain or improve their own and their family's wellbeing. Ourqualitative research with 30 mothers shows women's adaptation and agency in the trade-offs they make. Fuelledby social discrimination and abuse, mothers prefer to focus solely on the child, its care and the household inorder to keep themselves and their child safe. Despite providing certain benefits that mothers value, thesepreferences perpetuate or indeed worsen their position in society, as they reinforce traditional gender structuresand render them invisible to policymakers. This poses serious challenges for women's empowerment and gender-sensitive poverty-reduction policies

Life design counselling with a learner from a vocational school setting

This article reports on the usefulness of life design counselling for a learner from a vocational school (learner with intellectual impairment) when making post school decisions. Vocational and/or career research and reporting on people with intellectual disability/impairment, especially in the South African education context, is limited and infrequent. A purposively sampled, single, intervention case study was utilised. Data generation and analysis were approached simultaneously. The intervention uncovered career/vocational themes significant to the participant. These themes highlighted the meaning he attributed to work and his role and purpose in the world of work. The intervention also proved effective in cultivating his self- and career-efficacy and adaptability. Post intervention, the participant more confidently pursued his passion and was able to identify and utilise resources more definitely. Further, longitudinal research with groups of people with different kinds of impairment from vocational school settings is needed to further examine the value of the intervention described here

The individual mindset behind violence in schools specific to the Western Cape

Text in EnglishThe study aimed at exploring the “mindset” of learners, teachers and principals behind the violence in schools. “Mindset” is a person's general attitude with which he/she approaches a situation and the way they think about things, their experiemces and opinions. The data in the current study was gathered from three schools on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape. The Cape Flats is home to South Africa’s most violent gangs, perpetuated by the socio-economic issues created by apartheid. A provincial breakdown of crime statistics ranks the Western Cape second highest in South Africa. The researcher adopted Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Framework to delineate the risk factors which impact on the community, family, individual, peer group and school environment. Participants’ selection was effected through a non-probability method of purposive sampling. Participants’ in a non-probability sample are selected based on their accessibility or by the purposive personal judgment of the researcher. The downside of the non-probability sampling method is that an unknown proportion of the entire population was not sampled. From the preceding results, it is evident that learners are exposed to many forms of violence. Too many children are reared in dysfunctional families, poorly managed schools and neighbourhoods caught in the grip of violence and poverty. If this malady is not addressed and managed, South Africa can expect another generation of youth who resort to violence as a means of conflict resolution. The rich and in-depth information around participants’ unique opinions, experiences and realities contribute towards a better understanding of school violence, dysfunctional behaviour and towards the improvement of school violence interventions. It is also argued that additional insights from the study would add value to the organisational incapacity management process of schools.PsychologyM.A. (Psychology