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This webinar explored the importance of working across sectors to enable effective care reforms. Speakers focused in particular on work with social protection and education sectors, drawing on examples from Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Rwanda.
The Regional Learning Platform on care reform for Eastern and Southern Africa provides an opportunity for government, UNICEF and others involved in care reform in the region to share learning…
This paper draws on two case studies – South Africa and Kerala, India – to discuss the gender implications of social protection responses to Covid-19 in 2020. The impacts of the crisis have been strongly gendered. The rapid onset of the crisis in early 2020 severely disrupted livelihoods, and these impacts were strongly mediated by existing gender inequalities in the labour market, gendered roles and responsibilities around care work, and also household composition. The high number of female-headed households in South Africa, for example, and the role of women as the main providers of food…
Abstract
Limited evidence exists of the effectiveness of combining cash transfers and family strengthening interventions in developing country contexts. This study provides evidence from an evaluation of a bespoke family strengthening intervention for Child Support Grant beneficiaries in 10 urban communities in Johannesburg, South Africa. A qualitative pre-post design was used to assess the effectiveness of this combination intervention including a nine-month follow-up study. Participants were randomly assigned to intervention and non-intervention groups allowing for comparison between the…
The Sihleng’imizi (meaning ‘we care for families’) Family Programme is designed to complement and scale up the positive benefits of the Child Support Grant (CSG) in South Africa and strengthen disadvantaged families to improve child well-being outcomes. The main purpose of the follow-up evaluation was to assess first, whether participants in the Sihleng’imizi Family Strengthening programmes had retained what they had learned and were able to implement these learnings nine months following termination of the intervention; second, to compare these findings with the control group that had not…
Abstract
The people with the greatest stake in Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) interventions are the children and their parents/guardians. Unfortunately, most OVC programmes are predesigned and implemented without considering beneficiaries’ perceptions when developing solutions (ALI 2007:15). The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the perceptions of orphans and vulnerable children’s parents/guardians about the effectiveness of Future Families’ children programme in Olievenhoutbosch as a way to explore how much they are involved in the process of designing the programme…
Abstract
Most recently, the role of grandmothers has been highlighted as significant in the lives of their grandchildren in South Africa. Studies have previously highlighted the contribution the Old Age Grant makes in contexts of poverty, orphanhood and the migrant labour system. Similarly, studies on the Child Support Grant (CSG) have illustrated its contribution to the well-being of children and families in general. However, missing in these examinations has been an understanding of how the CSG is contested in contexts of parental absence due to internal labour migration. Through a…
Abstract
Background
Household cash grants are associated with beneficial outcomes; enhanced if provided in combination with care.
Objectives
This study describes the impact of cash grants and parenting quality on 854 children aged 5–15 (South African and Malawi) on educational outcomes including enrolment, regular attendance, correct class for age and school progress (controlling for cognitive performance). Consecutive attenders at randomly selected Community based organisations were recruited. The effects of cash plus good parenting, HIV status and gender were examined.…
Abstract
Background: Social protection interventions, including cash grants and care provision have been shown to effectively reduce some negative impacts of the HIV epidemic on adolescents and families. Less is known about the role of social protection on younger HIV affected populations. This study explored the impact of cash grants on children’s cognitive development. Additionally, we examined whether combined cash and care (operationalised as good parenting) was associated with improved cognitive outcomes.
Methods: The sample included 854 children, aged 5 – 15, participating in…
This report presents the findings of an intervention study evaluating the short-term outcomes of Sihleng’imizi Family Programme, an evidence-based preventative social-educational intervention. The qualitative data was drawn from interviews with the 40 families who completed the programme and 20 control group families.
The outcomes of the programme were assessed in relation to changes that were evident in the five areas outlined below:
- Child-caregiver relations: improving communication, family cohesion, behavioural management, and caregiving capabilities;
- …
Abstract
Cash transfers have delivered measurable benefits for poor and vulnerable children in low‐ and middle‐income countries. However, on its own, a cash transfer is insufficient to promote holistic child well‐being. In the quest for appropriate complementary family support services, known as ‘cash plus’ programing, this qualitative study sought to explore the perspectives of a group of South African caregivers, all of whom were in receipt of a Child Support Grant (CSG), in relation to their own caregiving and family functioning. Critical areas of support to families were identified to…