Investing in children
Making economic and social policies work for children
Across the world, children are more likely to live in poverty than adults. They are also more vulnerable to its effects. Social protection programmes – like cash transfers, health insurance and school subsidies – help give every child an equitable chance in life. They improve children's access to healthcare and education and reduce the lifelong consequences of poverty.
But global coverage is low. Social services are often underfunded, with available resources neglecting the most disadvantaged families. Local governments – increasingly responsible for providing healthcare and education – may also lack the means to determine why and where children remain left behind.
South Africa has made progress in reducing poverty across all age groups, but this progress has not been equal, and children remain the most vulnerable. Just under half of all children in South Africa live below the poverty line.
South Africa spends significant public resources on children, across health, education, social protection, and child welfare, and has a strong legal framework protecting their rights. Yet outcomes for children remain deeply troubling: 80% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning, millions of children face food insecurity, and inequality continues to limit what is possible for the most vulnerable. The problem is not always the amount of money being spent or the laws in place. It is how resources are allocated, managed, and translated into real outcomes for children, and whether the rights and protections children are entitled to reach them in practice.
UNICEF South Africa’s Investing in Children pillar, a core element of our 2026–2030 Country Programme, brings together three areas of work: making investment in children more efficient, effective, and equitable; strengthening the realisation of child rights; and building social policy and protection systems that reach every child. This is not about channelling funds through UNICEF. It is about using UNICEF’s global expertise, evidence, and convening power to ensure that the resources, laws, and systems already in place produce better, more measurable results for children.
Making every Rand count for children | Children's rights | Social policy
What we do
Together with partners, UNICEF works to give every child a fair chance in life.
We work with government and advocate for the recognize child poverty as a national policy priority and protect children from its most devastating effects. We support government’s efforts to assess monetary and multidimensional child poverty – measures of deprivation that go beyond income – and to address them through regulations, programmes and budgets.
And we help build the capacity of local governments to generate data, plan services, budget equitably and monitor results for children.
Explore our work across these key areas
Explore our work across these key areas
UNICEF South Africa works with partners to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of investment in children, whether from public budgets, the private sector, or other sources.
Child-centred public finance
Working with government to ensure that national and subnational budgets prioritise children and that spending on children is efficient, equitable, and evidence-based. UNICEF South Africa works directly with constitutional and fiscal institutions to jointly strengthen child-centred budgeting and fiscal policy, bringing global expertise in public finance for children directly to bear on how South Africa designs and spends its public budget. This includes supporting evidence-based advocacy, budget analysis, and policy dialogue to ensure that the decisions made in budget cycles translate into real improvements in children’s lives.
Industry-wide engagement
South Africa invests billions of rands each year in social development, through legislated Social and Labour Plans in the mining sector, broad-based Black economic empowerment obligations, and voluntary corporate social investment programmes across industries. These are significant resources, yet their impact on children often falls short of their potential.
UNICEF South Africa works directly with industry bodies, regulators, and individual companies to strengthen the quality, targeting, and measurability of these investments, ensuring that social development spending translates into real, lasting outcomes for children. This is not about companies donating to UNICEF. It is about UNICEF using its technical expertise, data, and convening power to help industries invest smarter and to ensure that children, especially the most vulnerable, are at the centre of those investment decisions.
Innovative financing for children
UNICEF South Africa is exploring and supporting innovative financing mechanisms that mobilise new resources for children, including blended finance, results-based financing, and impact investment models that attract private capital toward child outcomes. These approaches complement traditional funding and unlock resources that public budgets alone cannot provide.
If your organisation, institution, or foundation is interested in influencing how resources are invested in children, not just contributing funds but shaping systems, policies, and financing frameworks, the Investing in Children pillar offers a meaningful and high-impact entry point. Whether you are a financial institution, a development finance organisation, a foundation with an interest in systems change, or a company with significant social development obligations, we welcome a conversation about how we can work together to make investment in children more effective.
South Africa has one of the strongest legal frameworks for children in the world. The country has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Constitution guarantees children’s rights in Section 28, and the Children’s Act sets out how those rights are protected in practice. Yet for many children, these rights remain promises on paper rather than realities in daily life.
UNICEF South Africa works to close the gap between rights in law and rights in practice, ensuring that every child, especially the most vulnerable, can benefit from the protections and opportunities they are entitled to.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Adopted by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. It sets out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of every child, and recognises children as individuals with the right to develop to their full potential and to express their views freely.
The Convention is at the heart of everything UNICEF does. UNICEF is guided by the Convention, and it is the only organisation specifically named in it as a source of expert assistance and advice. Under Article 45, UNICEF supports governments in turning the rights in the Convention into concrete action, including by supporting the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors how countries implement the treaty.
South Africa signed the Convention in January 1993 and ratified it on 16 June 1995. The Convention was the first international treaty ratified by South Africa’s new democratic government, on the day the country now marks as Youth Day. By ratifying it, South Africa committed to putting in place the laws, policies, programmes, services and resources needed to realise children’s rights, prioritising the most vulnerable, and to reporting regularly on its progress to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. These commitments are reflected in Section 28 of the Constitution and in the Children’s Act.
What we focus on:
Strengthening laws and policies
Working with government, Parliament and independent institutions to ensure that legislation, regulations and national policies uphold the best interests of the child, reflect international standards and respond to the realities children face.
Monitoring and accountability
Supporting South Africa’s reporting to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and strengthening the data and evidence needed to track whether commitments made to children are being met.
Child and youth participation
Children and young people have the right to be heard on decisions that affect their lives. UNICEF South Africa creates platforms for them to share their views, engage with decision-makers and help shape the policies and services designed for them.
Every child deserves a fair chance to survive, learn, develop and reach their full potential. Yet too many children in South Africa continue to face poverty, inequality and exclusion that limit their opportunities in life. While South Africa has made significant progress in expanding social services and social protection, many children still experience multiple deprivations, including inadequate nutrition, poor-quality education, limited access to essential services and household poverty.
At UNICEF, we believe that investing in children is one of the smartest and most effective investments a country can make. When children are healthy, protected and learning, communities become stronger, economies become more productive and societies become more equitable. Social policy helps turn this vision into reality by ensuring that laws, policies, budgets and public programmes work for every child, especially those who are most vulnerable.
UNICEF works with government, development partners, civil society and communities to place children at the centre of policy and investment decisions. We support evidence-based policies that reduce poverty, strengthen social protection systems and improve the delivery of essential services for children and their families.
Child poverty
We generate evidence on monetary and multidimensional child poverty to better understand the challenges children face and identify those most at risk. Multidimensional poverty means children lack the essential services, opportunities and living conditions they need to survive, learn, grow and thrive, regardless of their family's income. Measuring multidimensional poverty helps UNICEF and governments understand the full reality of children's lives and identify the barriers preventing them from reaching their potential. This enables more targeted policies and investments that address children's needs across different areas of wellbeing, not just household income.
Social protection
Social protection programmes, including child grants and other family support measures, play a vital role in reducing poverty and improving children's wellbeing. UNICEF supports efforts to strengthen and expand these systems so that vulnerable children and families can access the support they need.
Public finance for children
Budgets are one of the strongest expressions of a government's priorities. UNICEF works with partners to promote child-responsive budgeting and public finance, helping ensure that public resources are allocated and spent effectively on services that matter most for children, including health, education, nutrition and protection.
Data, evidence and advocacy
Good decisions depend on good evidence. UNICEF supports research, analysis and monitoring that help policymakers understand children's needs and measure progress. We use this evidence to advocate for policies and investments that deliver better results for every child.
Why it matters
Investing in children is not only the right thing to do, it is essential for South Africa's future. Policies that reduce child poverty, strengthen social protection and improve public spending help children thrive today while building a more prosperous, inclusive and resilient society for generations to come.
Data and reports
