Key results 2005
A number of achievements and challenges have been noted in the 2005 calendar year. One of the most important achievements has been the re-invigoration of UNICEF’s relationship with important government bodies, including the Office on the Rights of the Child in the Presidency, the National Treasury and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Work with key central ministries such as Health, Education and Social Development and others has also deepened. As a result important gains have been made in strengthening and improving structuring of programme interventions and supporting legislation and policies for children. UNICEF was involved in several consultations with Treasury and the Department of Foreign Affairs to plan a national Common Country Assessment and new United Nations Development Assistance Framework for a new Country Programme that will commence in 2007. UNICEF also continued its practice of working with key non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that do important work in programme implementation and service delivery. A number of NGOs and academic and parastatal institutions remain central to UNICEF’s success in South Africa. In 2005 for example, UNICEF, the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Health Laboratory Service and Wits Paediatric HIV Clinics in Johannesburg collaborated to scale up dry blood spot testing of infants for HIV, which has been a critical bottleneck in the provision of anti-retrovirals to infants and children. The project has plans for signifi cant expansion in 2006. And, through a forum of concerned paediatricians, UNICEF engaged centres of paediatric excellence nationwide in providing mobile outreach services to districts, which contributed to more than 3,000 children initiating anti-retroviral treatment between August and October. Another success story for 2005 has been the important strides that were made in the implementation of the Thuthuzela Centres and the related comprehensive work to aggressively prosecute rapists while assisting victims to cope with and rebuild their lives. This programme has been carried out with the support of the Danish Government and implemented by the National Prosecution Authority. It has been an unqualifi ed success and has not only been exemplary for South Africa, as plans are now afoot to expand the number of centres from 12 to 18 in 2006/7, but the model has been adopted by 13 African countries and governments as far afi eld as Mexico, Brazil and Thailand. The Girls Education programme (GEM) and the Child-friendly Schools initiative (CFS) continued to make important strides in 2005. As stated earlier, while schools in South Africa remain for the most part diffi cult environments for learning and safety for the majority of children, for girls they are doubly so. UNICEF’s support to the Government’s GEM and CFS hold great promise for making schools safe havens for learning, play and growth and, particularly, empowering places for girls to counteract the deep prejudices and heavy gender biases found in the broader society. In 2005 Government made impressive and important strides by increasing provision of social grants to over 6.5 million children while addressing the critical bottle-neck of birth registration. Equally important, Parliament fi nally passed the Children’s Bill, a piece of legislation that will be very important for children. A great constraint that remained prevalent in 2005 was the dearth of updated baseline and progress statistics. There remains a crucial need to rigorously monitor and evaluate the impact of UNICEF’s and the Government’s work on children’s lives. In the context of the Millennium Development Goals and the Government’s own targets, the lack of proper baseline figures and established, measurable and time-bound targets for children remains a major concern. For example, there is no national target for children access ing anti-retroviral drugs, nor is there a baseline number of orphans and vulnerable children.
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