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Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, girls and boys in Southern Africa already faced various forms of abuse, including sexual violence, child marriage and exploitation, and throughout World Vision’s response over the past six months, we have continually been concerned about how the pandemic may worsen these trends.
This publication presents the voices of nearly 200 children and young people from across the Southern Africa region who shared their experiences on how COVID-19 continues to have an impact on their lives. During these conversations children and young people told…
Despite having international and national legislative frameworks and policies that guarantee children’s rights and encourage their participation in matters affecting them, consulting children has received scant scholarly attention in the African context. Notwithstanding this state of affairs, it is important to ask whether, in keeping with growing progressive practices, having children as active researchers is a feasible goal to achieve and, if so, how might this be possible. Drawing on Swartz and Nyamnjoh’s framework of research existing along an emancipatory continuum, we argue for…
Abstract
Globalization of knowledge and scholarship raises the challenges of dialogue between Global North and South. Northern knowledge and voice remain privileged, while writing from the South often goes unread. This is true also in emerging adulthood and care-leaving scholarship. The special issue of Emerging Adulthood titled “Care-Leaving in Africa” is the first collection of essays on care-leaving by African scholars. It presents both care-leaving and emerging adulthood scholars from the Global North a unique opportunity to consider the implications of a rising…
Executive Summary
This report presents the findings of a regional study on children’s participation in Southern Africa. The study documented initiatives to promote children’s participation and identified elements of good practice as well as barriers to meaningful participation, with a particular focus on South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia. It explored the opportunities for and challenges to building on achievements and lessons to date. The findings, and feedback from stakeholders form the basis for recommendations on how Save the Children can play a strategic role in strengthening and…
Thirteen agencies* working in Africa have issued a Joint Statement calling on African governments to strengthen their child protection systems to secure the right of children to a life free from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect in both emergency and non-emergency settings. The agencies, which include UNICEF, as well as networks of NGOs, delivered their recommendations during the 22nd Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, on 6 November 2013, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Joint Statement draws on a…
In this paper, Bright Drah argues that the response to the orphan crisis in sub-Saharan Africa has focused mainly on mobilizing and distributing material resources to households with orphans. Only a few anthropologists have interrogated the frameworks and values on which the projects for orphans are based. The paper provides an analysis of the trends in foster-care research in Africa and the author suggests that current ethnographic data on foster-care practices do not adequately reflect the changing context of fostering in that continent. In particular, the measures employed in these studies…
Longitudinal research has shown that, of all the identifiable groups in society, young people who have been in care are the most likely to experience poor outcomes in adult life. Upon exit, they are often forced to begin the transition into adulthood without the proper resources or knowledge of their environment and face immense challenges and risks. Care leavers are extremely vulnerable to homelessness, human trafficking, sexual and labor exploitation, depression, and recruitment by gangs or militant groups.
In light of these challenges, during the summer of 2011, the…
The papers presented here bring together research and reflections on children’s issues in
Botswana. To complement the analytical papers, the book also highlights a compendium of the most current data available on a wide range of indicators of child wellbeing, drawing mostly from recent household surveys conducted by the Central Statistics Office.
Most particular to alternative care are the child protection related articles, including:
- Seen but not heard: a call for orphans’ voices to be heard in Botswana.
- The urban orphan in Botswana: discarding the homogeneity…
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare of Namibia, mandated with ensuring efficient child welfare services and promotion of children’s well-being and rights, recently underwent the process of drafting the Child Care and Protection Bill. The process of legislative review and reform to develop the proposed bill was a remarkable and unique example of democracy and public participation – including children – in law-making.
By utilizing a rights-based approach, the drafting process of the Child Care Protection Bill has taken into account the reality behind enacting and…
As a result of the rising number of children in need of care, Africa’s adolescents and young adults, ages 12-24, have emerged as the heads of their households and the caregivers of their siblings. This paper shares the philosophy and key components of the African development initiative Giving Hope that works with these youth caregivers. The Giving Hope initiative employs an asset-based empowerment methodology to facilitate the restoration of youth caregivers’ sense of self, belonging, power, and collective responsibility. Evidence of the power of this collective…