Time to Protect and Prioritize
Manifesto for Every Child in South Africa 2024
Thirty years since the dawn of democracy in South Africa and in a year of national elections, the ‘Manifesto for Every Child in South Africa 2024: Time to PROTECT and PRIORITIZE’ calls for children and young people – the nation’s largest and greatest resource – to be put front and center in the country’s development.
Three decades ago, hope was pervasive, especially for children looking towards a safer, fairer, and better future. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was the first international treaty that South Africa ratified on 16 June 1995. Since then, despite challenges, much has been achieved, through the passing of child sensitive policy commitments and through actions, such as reducing maternal mortality, improving birth registration rates and tackling the scourge of HIV.
To drive a renewed sense of urgency and action to protect the rights of and improve the wellbeing of children, and of the nation, we call for a renewed focus on children and a commitment to prioritize tackling the core issues affecting their lives and futures – only then can we in-turn accelerate progress towards achieving development targets.
The timing is right – not just for the reasons stated – but to implement the strong recommendations from the Committee on the Rights of the Child who in early February this year released their concluding observations on South Africa’s latest periodic child rights report that was delivered to the Committee in late 2023.
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UNICEF in action
What needs to happen
UNICEF’s ‘Manifesto for Every Child in South Africa 2024’ calls on all partners, from government to private sector, academia to civil society, parents and children and young people themselves, to strengthen efforts to ensure every child, including those living with disabilities, and migrant and refugee children, can survive and thrive to help build a safer, fairer, and better South Africa for every child – for everyone.
To achieve this, urgent action and a focused response across sectors is needed to do everything we can to:
What needs to happen
To save lives and improve mental wellbeing
- Promote positive and nurturing parenting, through scaling-up access to parenting empowerment resources.
- Commit to budgeting violence prevention and early intervention work to tackle issues at their core and provide vital care and support for the most vulnerable children.
- Promote a safer and kinder online experience by educating and engaging learners and youth, as well as working with technology companies to strengthen protection mechanisms.
To transform education and improve literacy and numeracy outcomes
- Improve access to inclusive and quality learning from a young age to build stronger foundational literacy and numeracy with relevant competencies to develop throughout life.
- Strengthen teachers’ capacity to deliver quality and innovative education, including science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects so learners develop relevant skills.
- Update and implement the ‘School Safety Framework’ and continue the roll-out of the ‘Care and Support for Teachers and Learners’ approach for a more nurturing learning experience.
To scale-up access to routine childhood immunizations
- Ensure every parent is empowered through the ‘Road to Health’ booklet to monitor their child’s health and follow-up on needed vaccinations.
- Prevent vaccine stock-outs at healthcare facilities by implementing effective vaccine management.
- Tackle vaccine hesitancy by communicating the positive impact of 50-years of the expanded programme of immunization in South Africa in protecting millions of young lives.
To support and promote healthier and safer lifestyles
- Ensure that all learners, adolescents and young people have access to confidential and child-friendly sexual and reproductive health information and effectively implement the ‘integrated school health policy’ and ‘comprehensive sexuality education’.
- Empower adolescents to act as peer mentors and engage in open and productive dialogues on sexual and reproductive health.
- Improve the healthcare experience for mothers, children and adolescents and ensure that pregnant mothers, every child, and young person who requires treatment is receiving it.
To mitigate the impact, adapt services and to empower children and youth to respond
- Invest in adapting essential child services through climate resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene services and renewable energy in schools, ECD centers and healthcare facilities.
- Commit to the meaningful participation of children and youth in shaping and influencing climate and environmental policies to ensure child specific considerations and references.
- Empower children and young people by engaging them and their ideas in practical climate and environmental action, including opportunities linked to the emerging green economy.
To reduce stunting that impairs the youngest children and obesity that affects and increases health risks among adolescents
- Improve the cross-sectoral response to tackle malnutrition, through safe water and sanitation, nutritious food in schools and homes and early health care when needed.
- Promote and increase exclusive breastfeeding rates to improve nutritional status and the wellbeing of the youngest children.
- Implement effective approaches to improve the food environment for children and youth by ratifying the draft ‘Labelling and Advertising of Foodstuffs Regulations in South Africa’.
To support the most vulnerable children and to provide opportunities for the most marginalized youth
- Commit to reducing child multidimensional poverty through child sensitive budgets, policies and laws, alongside greater investments in social security and effective monitoring of child wellbeing.
- Scale-up access to relevant digital learning, tech skills and financial literacy training to build relevant skills for the job market and enable a smoother learning to earning transition.
- Nurture young entrepreneurs and provide exposure to job shadowing and work mentorships, including in the green economy, to help realize career opportunities.
What we can all do to make change happen
Together, with all partners, including children and young people at the center, we can transform the lives and futures of children and young people across South Africa.
For children and youth
For parents and caregivers
UNICEF South Africa thanks all its partners and donors for their shared engagement in working to protect the rights of and improve the wellbeing of every child in South Africa, including: Accenture; Astra Zeneca; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; BMW Group; Capgemini; Capitec; CDC; Chery; Discovery Vitality; Elma Philanthropies; Governments of Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan and USA; Hapag Lloyd; Hempel Foundation; Johnson & Johnson; LEGO Foundation; Momentum Insure; PwC; SAP; Ster Kinekor; Tiso Development Trust; USAID; and Zenex Foundation, among others.