Poverty and Inequalities in Child Welfare Outcomes in South Africa: An analysis of panel data
Lead Research Organisation:
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Department Name: Epidemiology and Population Health
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
May J
(2014)
Inequities in under-five child nutritional status in South Africa: What progress has been made?
in Development Southern Africa
Timaeus IM
(2015)
Teenage Childbearing and Educational Attainment in South Africa.
in Studies in family planning
Timæus I
(2013)
Poverty, Race, and Children's Progress at School in South Africa
in Journal of Development Studies
| Description | The project investigated factors associated with child welfare using data from South Africa's National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS). This longitudinal study collects unusually rich economic, social and demographic data on households. The welfare outcomes that were studied were child mortality; children's nutritional status; and attainment at school. These outcomes have important implications for children's cognitive development and the future skills of the labour force. The project was also intended to foster collaboration between demographers, economists and social policy researchers based in the UK and South Africa. Infant and child mortality, child malnutrition and failure to progress satisfactorily at school all remain unacceptably common in South Africa. Girls do better at school than boys but teenage girls who fall behind at school often become pregnant and leave school without matriculating. According to NIDS, socio-economic and geographical inequalities in these child welfare outcomes are smaller than one might anticipate given the persistence of extreme inequalities in income and wealth in the country and, in some instances, can be shown to have shrunk since the collapse of Apartheid. In part, this pattern is probably the product of shared misery - the HIV epidemic has affected middle class as well as poor South Africans and only the wealthy few can purchase the guarantee of a good education for their children. Equally, it suggests that the substantial investments in basic services and social grants made by the government beginning in the mid-1990s have provided at least a partial safety net for children growing up in poverty. |
| Exploitation Route | Our findings contribute to ongoing scientific and policy debates in South Africa about the failings of its schooling system and ways to address them and about achievements and limitations of its cash grant-based social welfare system and whether it should be extended further. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education |
| Description | Our key findings concerning child welfare, the impact of cash transfers and transitions to adulthood in South Africa have supported more informed public and policy debate about these matters both within the country and internationally. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Adult deaths, poverty dynamics, and child welfare: Evidence from a household panel survey |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Seminar presentation Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Children in Poverty Traps: Evidence from the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to a workshop on Children and Inequality organized by the Children's Institute for Unicef South Africa Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Headwinds: South Africa's progress towards MDG Goal 1 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Workshop presentation Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Poverty and Education in South Africa: Why do schools in poor communities underperform? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Public lecture, followed by a roundtable discussion led by SAFM presenter Mrs Masechaba Moshoeshoe, broadcast live on SAFM Radio from 19.00 - 21.00. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Teenage motherhood & schooling in South Africa |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A large audience of students, faculty, external professionals and several journalists attended a presentation which sparked questions and discussion afterwards. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Why the High Level Panel of Experts should promote cash transfers and fatherhood |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to the High Level Panel of Experts on food security and nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). The CFS is an intergovernmental body that serves as the forum in the United Nations System for review and follow-up of policies concerning world food security Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |