SA Country Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

By: Prof Shanaaz Mathews & Paula Proudlock - Children’s Institute, UCT

Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Children & People with Disabilities

Content

Violence and other forms abuse against children Article 6 and its relationship to violence Progress in implementing Article 39

Budget for social welfare services Article 19 & 39

Addressing poverty through grants Article 26 & 27

Article 6 (pg 30-31)

The right to life, survival & development The report notes infanticide but the issue is

not engaged with it Infanticide - the killing of a baby from 0- 12

months, including abandonment The MRC Child Homicide Study (Mathews et

al 2012) established an excessively high rate

179/100 000 for girls and 144/100 000 for boys under 1 year

Most killings occur in the 1st week post birth

Recommendation

Infanticide is a challenge but we don’t have a full understanding of the problem

We need to gather more evidence through research to design evidence based interventions

Policies on Termination of Pregnancy and abortion services not sufficient

Awareness on the availability of reproductive health services including abortion services

We need a focus on maternal mental health to assess for post natal depression

Article 39 (pg 38-39)

“State parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and reintegration of child victims”

Aim: Is to heal the child psychologically and to integrate back into families and communities Question : Are we achieving this?This section is silent on victims of violence and focus on child offendersFramed in terms of our responsibility to protect child offenders from further harm Lacks a response to the challenge of psychological recovery for child victims of abuse – such as counselling and therapy at Thutuzela’s and NGO’s (i.e Childline)

Article 39 (pg 47 - 50)

Levels of violence and abuse 1 in 3 girls have been sexually abused before the age of 18 yrs 3 children a day are murdered A child is raped and killed every 3rd day

Children who are abused are more likely to suffer depression, anxiety , PTSD and affect their schooling if remain untreated

Child offenders most commonly have been exposed to traumatic experiences

This can result in early school drop-out, unwanted pregnancy, risk taking behaviour

This can continue into adulthood impacting on relationships, ability to parent, function socially and in the workplace

Investment in psychological recovery is critical to break the cycle of violence

Psychological recovery post sexual assault

Interview One

4 wks post

(N=31)

Interview Two

8-12 wks post

(N=30)

Interview Three

16-20 wks post

(N=30)

PTSD

Mean Symptom Scores:

- Re-experiencing (5)

- Avoidance (7)

- Hyper-arousal (5)

3

3.7

2.7

2.6

3.7

2.2

1.7

3.1

1.6

PTSD Diagnosis

Full –symptom

Partial Symptom

21 (67.7%)

9 (29.3%)

14 (46.7%)

13 (43.3%)

13 (43.3%)

9 (30.0%)

What are challenges to implement Article 39 ?

Policy Frameworks for the prevention and management of child abuse

Thutuzela one stop centres focus on a physical health and a criminal justice response

Specialised counselling services for children are limited and mainly located in well resourced urban settings

Child focused services are overburdened with long waiting periods

Lack of accessible services for children impacts on psychological healing and recovery

What children need from services

Parents expressed disillusionment with services:“I did not feel right at all, I did not like it, it felt like

their was no help at all” Children are referred out to child focused

services The long waiting periods is a barrier to access

services Parents not included in most counselling

approaches, rendering them unable to respond to the child’s needs

Competing priorities of work in the context of poverty – impact on the child’s ability to attend counselling

Recommendation

For adequate recovery we need resourced accessible child focussed counselling services

The state has committed to increase services for women and children who experience violence

The budget shows an allocation for Thutuzela’s and commits to scale up FCS units but no commitment for specialised courts

To increase conviction rates and to send a strong message to perpetrators we need courts that are child friendly and understand the needs of children

Way forward

Implementation of Article 39 needs to take into account the cycle of violence and the need to break this

South Africa faces huge challenges with the magnitude of violence and requires an action plan to implement article 39

Budget for Social welfare services – art 19 & 39 (Pg 47 – 50 in SA Report)

Q. Is South Africa allocating sufficient funding to ensure children have access to the range of social welfare services required by the Children’s Act?

A. “Budget information that is available…highlights insufficient funding to support full implementation of critical pieces of legislation, including the…Children’s Act…” √

“There is also insufficient budget to cover full service costs for non-governmental organisations assisting in the delivery of legally mandated services to children and families.” √

“In 2011, MINMEC approved a new financing policy for NPOs, to be implemented incrementally, starting in the current financial year.”X

What services are we talking about?

partial care facilities (crèches) ECD centres and programmes prevention and early intervention services

(including parenting programmes, HCBC, diversion, and child and family counselling, Isibindi)

drop-in centres protection services (identification, assessment and

protection of vulnerable children, a support scheme for child-headed households)

foster care, cluster foster care, and adoption (placement and monitoring)

child and youth care centres (children’s homes, places of safety, secure care facilities)

How do the provincial departments of social development provide these services?

Department personnel provide approximately 40% of the services

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) provide approximately 60% of the services (under contract with the department)

NGOs receive only partial funding from the provincial departments

NGOs have to raise donor funds to make up the difference

Global and local recession has exacerbated the funding crisis faced by NGOs and resulted in closure and downscaling of services for children and families

Gap in allocation: Budget needed vs budget allocated 2012/13

Key trends in 2012/13 provincial budgets

Real decrease of 2% for 2012/13 year plus 3% real decrease in transfers to NPOs plus negative donor environment for NPOs = deterioration in service delivery for vulnerable children in 2012/13.

This improves in 2013/14 with a 13% increase for services and for transfers to NPOs. This is largely due to the R650 million additional allocation for Isibindi and ECD. All other child services are unlikely to see an increase (eg protection services, children’s homes).

Plan for addressing the funding challenge?

Report does not indicate how State intends to address the challenge of insufficient funding Equitable Share Formula does not recognise the extra service

mandates the new welfare laws (including Children’s Act) have placed on the provinces. The FFC recommended that the ESF should be amended to address this but this advice has not been followed. What is the plan to address this?

Provinces do not always prioritise social welfare services when they divide their allocation between their departments. Social welfare services for children have not been identified as a national or provincial strategic priority and are also not a priority in the NDP. What is the plan to address this lack of political prioritisation?

Report does not indicate how the State intends to address the NGO funding crisis. Budget 2013 indicates that NPO Funding Policy is going to be

reviewed again in 2013. It is clearly not providing the solution. What is the plan to stop valuable NGO services for children from deteriorating further?

Social assistance – Article 26(Pg 63 in SA Report)

Report emphasises success of the CSG especially in alleviating child poverty, and improving nutritional, health and educational outcomes. Our own research supports this and we therefore recommend that the State should continue to invest in expanding the CSG. CSG is the smallest of all grants (R280/month) It is not linked to any objective measure of poverty or the actual

costs of raising a child Every year it is only increased to keep pace with inflation Children are “poorer” than adults – increasing the CSG would

address this inequity by channelling more cash into families with children.

Children living with mothers (no father present) are poorest category of children – increasing CSG would target this group well

Increasing the amount would maximise the positive impact on poverty and inequality.

An increase could be achieved incrementally or by targeting particularly vulnerable groupings with a “top-up” amount to the basic CSG.

Larger grants have greater impact on child poverty

From: Hall & Wright (2010) A profile of children living in South Africa in 2008.

R3500

Monthly income per person

R1430R750R360R0

Children – more poor

Hall calculations from GHS 2010

QUINTILE

Child income poverty per caregiver category

Category # children <18 years

Ave per capita

income (Incl all grants)

Live with both parents 5,870,000 R 808

Live with relatives – mother deceased 1,529,000 R 456

Live with relatives – double orphan 927,000 R 455

Live with relatives – mother alive 3,435,000 R 415

Live with mother but not father 7,083,000 R 363

Source: GHS 2009 (Kath Hall calculations)

Social assistance - art 26 (Pg 63 and 44 in SA Report)

Report gives statistics showing major increase in Foster Child Grant over the period 2002 to 2011(pg 63). However - since 2010 we have seen stagnation as the foster care system fails to cope with the demand.

We have over 1 million maternal and double orphans living with relatives in poverty in need of adequate social grants. In 2011 only 460 000 were getting the FCG (R770) while 570 000 were getting the CSG (R280).

It has taken nearly ten years to reach 460 000 orphans with the FCG. How long will it take to reach the target of over 1 million?

Report mentions some of the challenges and ad hoc responses on page 44. However – these ad hoc measures have not yielded growth in the grant.

Two High Court cases have highlighted urgency of reforming the system. Court has ordered State to implement a comprehensive solution by December 2014.

FCG growth pattern

Source: SOCPEN dataSource: SOCPEN data

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The necessary reform is in the pipeline

Budget Review 2013 mentions the Department of Social Development is exploring ways to improve income support for orphaned children who live with their relatives. (page 85)

Nov 2012 the Department held a consultative meeting on proposed reform that would provide a LARGER (in amount) child support grant to relatives caring for orphans (“Extended CSG”). Children’s rights groups welcomed the proposal. It will ensure orphans get their grants faster and will also free up social worker and court time to provide better protection services to children who had been abused.

Report should reflect an acknowledgment of the challenges in reaching all orphans in poverty and report that the Department is in the process of reforming the social assistance system to ensure that orphans receive adequate social assistance timeously. (The Directorate on Social Security within DSD can provide more information).