Photo courtesy of Cedric Nunn |
Vision: The National Programme of Action (NPA) seeks to create and build an environment where children are nurtured and can grow to be the best they can be, and The NPA seeks to develop a new culture where children can be given the priority they deserve in all walks of life namely, at home, at school and in the community, The NPA’s vision is articulated in this simple statement: Put Children First. |
Mission:
To advance the best interests of the child in all matters affecting them, and
To promote and enable the realization of child rights to survival, development, protection, and participation,
There must be the mobilisation of resources at all levels.
Introduction
At Orlando stadium in Soweto on 16th of June, 1994, President Nelson Mandela was presented the outline of the National Programme of Action (NPA). It was a momentous occasion because on that day Mandela pledged his government’s commitment to South Africa’s children. His recognition that the needs of children in South Africa be paramount – that essentially, children be “put first” – was an important step in the process to develop an integrated programme of action for children. It wasn’t, however, the first step of this new phase.
Developed by a broad movement of children’s rights advocates, activists and development workers, the NPA process began long before government stressed that the needs of children be supreme. It developed, organically, after years of struggle and organizing, and after many conferences and countless gatherings, both within and outside the country.
In 1990, in response to the worsening conditions for children and women throughout the 1980s in South Africa, over 200 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), along with UNICEF met in Botswana. At this gathering, the National Children’s Rights Committee (NCRC) was formed. Their aim, as an umbrella organisation working with and for children, was simple: to advocate for the rights of children.
Three years later, at a major conference in Thembisa, the Thembisa Declaration was issued and endorsed. There was, as discussed at the conference, “a pressing need to alleviate the plight of South Africa’s children.”[1] The Declaration identified nine main areas of action, one of which was to coordinate the development of a National Programme of Action.[2]
At the time of the conference, it was clear that need to address children’s issues was urgent.[3] During the struggle, the situation for children in South Africa was nothing short of a war on children. South Africa’s children were instrumental in liberation, but they paid a heavy price for their freedom.
Since then NPA continues to develop as a programmatic response – with provincial action, national and provincial process and structures, underpinned by a partnership between government civil society and UNICEF – to the idealistic vision of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the South African Constitution (Section 28). [4]
The Constitution established that “a child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child.”[5] It is a guarantee that has far-reaching implications. The “matters” that concern children are extensive – housing, education, electricity, water, sanitation, food, health, peace, and the list goes on. And there are a host of related environmental, social, economic and political factors that shape the institutional, community and household environments that enable or impede development.
An environment of poverty, for example, directly undermines the well being of children throughout the country, particularly in rural areas and informal urban settlements. Because poverty is manifested in all sectors, it deserves special attention from a child rights perspective. What this means in terms of the NPA, is that mechanisms linking socio-economic policy initiatives from all sectors of government must be put in place.
Much has happened since that day in Orlando Stadium. The government ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on 16 June 1995. The NPA, in 1996, was officially launched by the government. A Provincial Programme of Action (PPA) was launched in several provinces, and Local Programmes of Action (LPA) are being developed in some municipalities. And, the rights of children are entrenched further in the South African Constitution (Section 28). However, today in South Africa, the call to “put children first” remains just as urgent.
Every year, thousands of children die from malnutrition and disease in South Africa. Almost 25 per cent of schools do not have water within walking distance, and 57 per cent do not have power.[6] Fewer than half of South African households have running water.[7] Some studies estimate that hundreds of thousands of children between the ages of 10 and 14 are engaged in various forms of child labour.[8] Recently, the number of homeless children has risen dramatically. Among those living on the street, substance abuse, glue-sniffing and prostitution remain a regular part of life.
There are shockingly high incidents of rape, child abuse, gender-based violence, and femicide among the girl-child. In some areas, the girl-child is withdrawn from school at an early age in order to prepare her for marriage.[9] For those who do remain in school, the chances of sexual abuse or assault are high. The situation for the country’s children is nothing short of a silent crisis, leaving little doubt as to whether a programme as comprehensive and holistic as the NPA is necessary.
Since 1994, the NPA has continued to develop amidst an ever-changing political, social and economic environment. Years of planning, meeting and consultation have gone by. Departments, provincial governments, and in some areas local authorities, have been mobilised. The structure has been debated, and the implementation process has begun.
The period of the assessment represents the end of a political term. And with the government elected for a second term, it has been an ideal time to assess the NPA process: To look back and take note of where we have come from and, more importantly, to look forward and sharpen approaches and strengthen the mechanisms of implementation. This report examines the challenges that the NPA has faced and looks at how the NPA should meet those challenges.
It is time to share the strategy that will take the NPA through the next five years. It is time to closely examine the NPA approach of “mainstreaming” – an overarching strategy that seeks to have the NPA integrated into the governance and development of each sector or government department. This report is designed to assess the progress of the NPA. To assess whether creating strategies and programmes throughout various spheres of government is an effective way of implementing a programme of action for children.
This report is an evaluation of the process. It is not an impact assessment. Nor does it look directly at how the lives of children have changed on a day-to-day basis. That analysis – based on a broad-based survey of the actual conditions of children – will come at a future date.[10] The purpose of this report is to document the on-going process of the NPA, to scrutinize it, and to improve and build upon it.
Many people and organizations have contributed to the NPA and this assessment provided a forum for them to voice their concerns and their hopes. To those who have been involved in the NPA, it asked the important question: How do you, as a participant, see the process?
A group of NGOs and other critical organs of civil society helped give birth to the NPA process, and then handed it over to democratic government for implementation. It’s time now, as the government moves forward with the continuing task of creating an enabling environment for the fulfillment of child rights, to build on the experiences, lessons and comparative advantages of both government and NGOs. It’s time for government and civil society to sharpen their strategies, and re-pledge their commitment to the future of the programme of action – the NPA 2000 & Beyond.
Of course, all sectors – NGOs, government, community-based
organisations, international institutions and the public-at-large – must be
involved on a multitude of levels. Only then will children really be “put
first.”
On Methodology
As mentioned in the introduction, this document is not an impact evaluation. Rather, it is a process evaluation. It seeks to assess the NPA process – essentially, the workings of the structures and mechanisms of mainstreaming, the challenges that lay ahead and the strategies that should be implemented.
An assessment, according to the dictionary, judges the worth or importance of something.[11] There are various ways that one can judge the worth of the NPA process. There is clearly a need to state goals, objectives and targets of activities. And it is important to understand why such objectives were chosen and what methods were used to assess the success or failure of the NPA process. Put more broadly, this assessment seeks to understand and assess the process of mainstreaming. Mainstreaming has been the path chosen to realize the NPA goals. And fully understanding that process, looking at how and where it failed, and how and where it succeeded, will allow the process to move forward. [12]
This section is brief discussion outlining how and why certain methodology was used in order to assess the NPA. It should be understood in the context of the NPA being a social development programme.
Projects, which focus on process rather than on an end product, are difficult to evaluate using conventional methodologies.[13] Because the NPA is a process which does not emphasize production, new methods need to be devised in order to conduct the assessment – methods which will provide more appropriate ways of understanding the effectiveness of the NPA process.
Conventional evaluations rely heavily on the quantification of data. They emphasize a cost-benefit paradigm. But because social development is, essentially, a process, it is difficult to neatly fit it into a cost-benefit model. Social development projects do not exist in a vacuum. They are part of a larger political, social and economic context, and such variables mean that it is difficult to quantify results. This is not to say that things can’t be measured. Indeed, when looking at a programme to protect the rights of children, there is a host of numerical data that one can call on to support the existence of a programme. But the very nature of social development programmes means there must be other indicators to assess their effect and effectiveness. Numbers alone do not tell the whole story. Imagine, for instance, if the development of a human child was assessed only in terms of indices such as his or her physical health, grades in school and eventual financial earnings. It’s an example Indian activist Muhammad Anisur Rahman cites.[14] Such a “well-developed” person may very well be a social nuisance or a very miserable person, even in a normal social environment. “Most indicators of personal development are not quantitatively measurable,” Rahman writes. “There is no reason why the notion of development should be different.”[15]
Even in the scientific world – one which traditionally relies heavily on numerical and quantitative evaluations – researchers are, more and more, using qualitative methods in order to seek a deeper a truth.[16] Qualitative methodologies, often referred to as a “soft” science, are being used “largely because quantitative methods provided either no answers or the wrong answers to important questions.”[17]
Organisations which are committed to human rights development are openly admitting that it is difficult, maybe impossible, to find out through any kind of evaluation, what the result or impact of their activities has actually been.[18] Even in the most ideal conditions, it is an enormous task – to assess, in a measurable way, the changes that have been brought about because of a programme of action. And when you add variables such as a changing political and social environment, changing actors and goals, it seems ridiculous to even want to try to place a fixed assessment.
Development cannot, and should not, be defined merely as economic growth. It must also be seen as the realization of human potential. And the evaluation of a social development project must reflect that concept. It must be recognized that one cannot readily and objectively measure human potential. Our growth is dependent on thousands of factors and how those variables affect us as individuals, as communities, cannot be reflected only through numerical data. One’s growth, as a child, as a human is a creative and dynamic process. So, too are the activities we engage in and the institutions we create. The social development programmes designed to encourage that growth must also reflect that creativity.
There is a time and place for a rigid quantitative assessment. Indeed, an exercise to collect baseline data on the current conditions of, and services provided to South African children is badly needed.[19] But this report is not that exercise. (It is, however, the first step in conducting an impact assessment.) Assessing the NPA process, looking at the effectiveness of mainstreaming, is the core of this report. As a process assessment it is based on structured and unstructured focus group discussions. It places importance and value on the experiences and thoughts of those who have been, and continue to be, involved in the process.[20] The process encourages awareness raising at the national and provincial levels and within the broad community of service providers.
Just because this assessment focuses on the subjective views of those involved does not mean that it does not provide critical information. Each element is highly scrutinized. The NPA assessment places the subjective experiences of the actors involved, among other documentation and data, within the larger political context.
The purpose of this assessment is to look critically at the evolution of the project thus far and to look at the concrete ways in which the programme should move forward. It looks at exploring how the NPA can be most effective in conscientizing the public and mobilizing the various stakeholders in order to ensure that the rights of children are both promoted and protected.
In order to ensure that the assessment process was thorough and inclusive, the following guiding principles were adopted. The process should be focused, thus the project should not examine every component of the NPA, but rather should focus on the structures, mechanisms and overall processes. It should be consultative; hence the use of participatory workshops based on focus group discussion which ensured that a broad range of understandings were gathered.
This assessment attempts to stay as close as possible to what the evidence – documented and communicated otherwise – can tell us about the NPA process up this point in time. This is done through interviews with key actors, documented evidence, institutional evidence, policies and action of government departments, and NGO initiatives. By tapping into the collective memory of the NPA steering committee, further insight is shed on the process.
The NPA, as mentioned, is an ongoing process, and this report should be seen as part of that process.[21] It is not an unrelated judgment. Rather, it is part of the continual, and interactive “triple A” exercise of assessment, analysis and action.
Contextualizing the NPA
It is worth contextualizing South Africa’s NPA because it is a unique entity, nationally and internationally. By definition, the NPA is a policy framework and an on-going process, not a programme, per se.[22] The basic principles which guide the NPA are derived from South Africa’s Constitution and from the Convention on the Rights of the Child.[23] When it was established, the NPA did not seek to duplicate or replace plans for reconstruction and development that were being created in South Africa. Rather, it was to supplement and integrate the social development components, and unite them by providing a holistic framework for the integrated programming, organisation and implementation of inter-sectoral programmes for the betterment of the situation of children.[24]
Other countries have their own NPA for children, but in most of those countries the NPA tends to be stand-alone programmes that are not integrated into the regular governmental system of planning, budgeting and implementation. This has had adverse implications to sustainability and regularity. In South Africa, a consensus was reached that the NPA process would need to be immersed in the broader system of governance and development. That such a programme had to be related to the legislative branch, through structures such as portfolio committees, in the governance and monitoring of the NPA.[25]
Initially, the NPA was coordinated nationally through the Department of Health. But, because the NPA is a process of “mainstreaming” – that is, the NPA seeks to provide a framework in which all departments integrate children’s issues in their agendas – it was felt that central coordination should not come from one specific department. In 1998, it was decided by Cabinet to relocate the coordination of the NPA from the offices of the Department of Health to the Office of the Deputy President (TM Mbeki). This institutional arrangement of centralised coordination has further strengthened the NPA process.
Another unique factor of South Africa’s NPA is the extensive involvement of NGOs and civil society. Only after initial development by these sectors, was the NPA handed over to government for further development. After being formally accepted, government was further called upon for operational needs.
Because the process came from the mass democratic movement and various NGOs, and because South African children during the liberation struggle seized space and demanded that they be heard, the NPA strongly encourages the participation of children. (Participation of children is also in line with the CRC.) Thanks to their outspokenness, children’s voices were listened to during the transition period, and children continue to play an important role throughout South African society, and in the NPA.
The South African political system, being unique in itself due to it’s newness and progressive laws, means that the NPA is in an interesting position. International experiences can be helpful in providing guidance, but in many ways the NPA stands to break new ground. It is an innovative approach, where the objective and hypothesis are known, but the conclusion remains to be seen. It has the potential, like all noteworthy innovations, to a have an immense impact on all those around it.
The “Mainstreaming “Approach
The concept of mainstreaming means that each government department incorporates children’s issues in their respective portfolio. It calls upon each department to reflect their commitment to South African children with corresponding budgetary allocation. With this approach, there is no “children’s budget.” Rather, children’s issues are part of every department’s internal budget.
Mainstreaming is an innovative approach that requires one to re-conceptualise how children’s issues are addressed by government. Often, children are thought of as a welfare issue, or as a concern that does not affect each government department. Indeed, when the NPA was coordinated through the Department of Health, many assumed that children’s issues would be fully dealt with by this one department. The NPA seeks to alter this perception.
Many government departments think about what they deliver (or what service they provide), and not who they are delivering to. If the citizen on the receiving end is to be considered, then it is clear that children are part of the equation. Children require, and receive, services from every single department. For example, the Department of Transport is responsible for roads in the country. What the department is delivering seems unconnected to children. But, in order for a child to get to school or to a hospital, she or he requires the use of the roads that are in the country. Furthermore, as one considers the roads being used, so too should one consider the method of transport being used on that road: Is public transport available for that child to use? Is that public transport affordable for that child? Thinking about service delivery in this way clearly illustrates that children are served and affected by this department. Every department has a responsibility to children, and every department must reflect that responsibility in the delivery of their services, and through a concrete budgetary commitment.
Mainstreaming the NPA is a holistic approach to implementing a programme for children. It is based on broad goals, agreed upon and adopted by a wide range of actors and stakeholders from civil society and government. A mainstreaming approach means that the NPA has great potential for sustainability. Because all departments budget for children’s programmes within their internal budgets, an enabling environment for service delivery is created. Implementation of programmes is not ad hoc. Policies, programmes and implementation come from both directions, as well as horizontally and vertically.
STRUCTURE OF THE NPA
The NPA framework was specifically developed as a process for mainstreaming goals for children. The mainstreaming approach – to create development strategies and programmes throughout the various spheres of government – was taken in order to integrate goals for children into existing mechanisms and processes of public programme planning.
President Mandela appointed an Interministerial Cabinet Committee to oversee the translation of the NPA Outline into sectoral policies and departmental programmes.[26] It consisted of all relevant ministers of major child-related concerns. The coordination of the NPA takes place from the Office of the Deputy President TM Mbeki.
There is a technical Steering Committee, which is a coordinating and monitoring body. The Steering Committee has had the responsibility of developing and coordinating the implementation of the NPA. It is made up of the directors-general of the eight nominated ministries, representatives of the nine provincial governments, together with the National Children’s Rights Committee, the Human Rights Commission, the Youth Commission and UNICEF.[27]
Since, its inception, the NPA Steering Committee has been meeting regularly to oversee the co-ordination, monitoring and implementation of the NPA. The committee has cross-sectoral working groups on health, juvenile justice, education and welfare to prepare and implement detailed integrated plans.
There is also a technical working group to develop databases and systems to monitor the NPA process. It liaises with the Interministerial Committee on Young People at Risk and the National Committee on Child Abuse.[28] And there is a communications working groups which seeks to inform and educate the public about issues of childhood and children’s rights.
The NPA provides an operational framework that identifies goals, major programmes and strategies, along with supporting development institutions. It provides a mechanism for giving children political, and therefore “resource” priority.
The seven policy priority areas of the NPA are: infrastructure, special protection measures, education, child and maternal health, nutrition, leisure and recreation, and peace and non-violence.[29]
The medium- to long-term goal has been to have local
committees for children. The first step toward this was the establishment of
Provincial Programmes of Action (PPA), which have their own structures to
oversee and ensure child-friendly processes of development, implementation and
monitoring. Provincial Programmes of Action are instrumental to the
implementation of the NPA, and assessment of the PPA process was an integral
part of this assessment. Although, some general concerns regard the PPA and LPA
processes are made with the view to strengthening the broader process, specific
conclusions on individual provinces are not in this report. Provinces are
encouraged to evaluate the specific workings of their own provincial and local
processes.
Assessment
a. Outcomes of the Consultation Process
General Challenges
The National Programme of Action Steering Committee (NPASC) and various stakeholders at provincial and local levels participated in extensive workshops during 1998 to discuss the NPA process. This consultative process is the basis of this assessment.
A number of general issues about the consultation process were raised at that time, and these are outlined here. First of all, there was consensus that there needs to be substantial improvement with respect to the workings and effectiveness of the NPA process. This relates to the role of the NPA with respect to contributing to, and reviewing, government policies. The NPA has not been involved in reviewing government White Papers or other policies, and this is an area that needs to be addressed. Lack of effectiveness also relates specifically to the process of mainstreaming goals into each government department’s programmes and strategies.
To use mainstreaming as the implementing strategy for the NPA is an enlightened approach based on the lessons of national and international development. The outcome of this approach is, however, an unknown. When one considers the number of stakeholders that need to be involved – and not just superficially, but in a real and committed way – to make mainstreaming effective, it is not surprising that difficulties will be encountered. How mainstreaming relates to, and enhances, service delivery is a pressing issue.
The concept of mainstreaming – that is, each department incorporating children’s issues into their internal budget allocation and service delivery plans – is an excellent theoretical concept. In practice, there are numerous considerations, many of them practical. It is not only a question of departments’ embracing the mainstreaming approach. Rather, the issue of how to make sure that mainstreaming is effective is vital. Making sure mainstreaming is incorporated into each department’s operational process poses many unforeseen challenges. Even when departments have incorporated mainstreaming, inter-sectoral collaboration is often overlooked. For instance, collaboration among nutrition, early childhood education and child abuse has been weak.
Secondly, it was noted that when the NPA goals were being formulated in 1995 and 1996, the data that was used to create many of the policy priority areas was either not available or not reliable. At that time, up-to-date baseline data outlining the specific situation for children in South Africa was sketchy. Where data was available, it was racially biased, therefore making it unusable. So, although it was clear for all priority areas that something needed to be done to improve the condition for children, such objectives could not be based on specific data.
For example, a priority area might set out to reduce the number of cases of child abuse by a certain percentage, which, on the surface seems a reasonable enough goal. But when you consider that there was no data on child abuse, it becomes an ambiguous goal. How does one know if a programme has been successful in reducing the number of cases of child abuse if one never knew how many cases were reported in the first place?
Envisioning goals based on “percentage reduction” is still probably the best way to implement the process. But without baseline figures that allow one to measure the impact of the goal, problems arise. It should also be noted, that as changes in the structure of the NPA were made, other priorities were given greater attention. ???
In the area of reporting and analysis, evaluation and monitoring, the NPASC has done important work in the past three years. Systemic monitoring is an important area as it affects the processes of decision making, implementation, and effective management of service delivery. This work has included the production of a comprehensive report on children, poverty and disparity reduction, the preparation of the first State Report on CRC Implementation, and a milestone progress report on the NPA process.
Although there has been progress in the area of reporting and basic research, there have been gaps in other areas. For instance, critical activities such as the development and maintenance of national and provincial data-bases on children and the development of a coherent framework for the systematic monitoring of the NPA and children’s rights are only now being addressed through the critical review and strategy development process of the present NPA Evaluation.
The major problem has been the weakness in the structure of the Monitoring Task Group (now Data Collection and Monitoring Project Group), that has been set up as a grouping of individuals outside of a coherent institutional framework. As a result, critical monitoring activities were delayed, while others – such as the initiation of provincial and local institutional monitoring processes, the systematic collection of national child rights data on children, and the development and support of community-based monitoring systems – were not undertaken.
Furthermore, detailed guidelines for actual implementation and capacity building have not been identified. This affects the output at provincial and local levels around critical issues.
There is a general absence of practical knowledge of child rights programming. The issue of what does it really mean to implement child rights in a country is still a hotly debated one, nationally and internationally. Because debate around this issue continues, it is difficult to implement an all-encompassing strategy. It is difficult to have a coordinated information campaign, for example, if the content of the campaign is not agreed upon. Public awareness of child rights, broader development issues, and the capacity within the NPA are three key areas that are strongly linked. This link has not been properly recognized, and in order for the NPA and its programmes to be effective in the promotion of child rights and children’s issues, all three areas must be addressed in a co-ordinated and related manner.
As mentioned earlier, PPAs and LPAs informed this assessment, but they are not the core of this report. However, both are instrumental in the implementation of the NPA. Therefore, it is relevant to outline a few key challenges facing both the provincial and local structures.
Challenges facing Provinces and Local Structures
b. Key Challenges
Along with the general concerns about the NPA process (outlined above), a number of key areas were also identified as having contributed to blockages. Eight key areas, which deal with specific issues, are identified below. Each area faced specific obstacles, and these are stated below. In order for the NPA to move forward, suggestions have been made on how to meet those challenges. These key challenges relate to matters of structure and the functioning mechanisms of the NPA.
1) Co-ordination
Findings & Challenges: One of the biggest challenges facing the NPA at all levels is the lack of effective coordination. An assumption that national and provincial structures could operationalise the objectives of the NPA overlooked the fact that there is a lack of a coordination culture in the public service.
There has been an unclear working relationship among the three spheres of government. What this relationship should be should be in line with constitutional requirements, and should be clearly articulated
The initial NPA document did not conceive of local involvement. As the NPA has developed LPAs and municipal participation has been encouraged. But without a clearly defined framework that incorporates local participation, it has been difficult to conceive what local participation really entails. The issue of how should local authorities be involved in service delivery has not been sufficiently addressed. Nor has the issue of which local authorities sit on the NPA Steering Committee.
In many provinces, the PPA is located in the Department of Welfare. This means that there is no full-time coordinator whose sole responsibility is to facilitate the functioning and implementation of the PPA. Coordination coming from one department also poses other problems. The Department of Welfare does not have the authority or political power to mobilise other departments. So, commitment and cooperation from other departments is inconsistent, sometimes even non-existent. With participation from all departments, the PPA becomes ineffectual. Furthermore, on a provincial level it is felt that the PPA is simply a national concept that is not grounded in provincial structures. Without a sense of ownership, and with poor overall coordination, implementing PPAs remains difficult.
Inter-sectoral collaboration – that is collaboration among various structures of civil delivery – has been poorly coordinated. At a provincial level, roles and responsibilities have been insufficiently defined. Programming is discussed separately, by province rather than by sector. Without the knowledge of what other sectors are doing, planning becomes fragmented. Fragmented planning occurs because there is a lack of a framework to guide coordinated planning at an institutional level. Each individual institution plans its programs in a relative vacuum. This is largely influenced by individual departmental constraints, irrespective of decisions taken at a larger level. This does not in any way ascribe to ill-intent or suggest poor results by departments. Rather, it emphasizes the need for a coordinated framework. With a more coordinated framework, objectives and decisions can be communicated between sectors.
There is a concern among departments as to how to coordinate regionally. The Department of Justice, for example, is very involved on a national level, but there is no equivalent department at a provincial level. Because some national departments do not have provincial structures, the question of how they should be coordinated remains unanswered.
Action: The new structure of the NPA must take into account the involvement and participation of local municipalities. Their involvement must be properly and efficiently coordinated. On a national level, the NPA is located and coordinated from the Office of the Presidency. On a provincial level, PPA coordination should come from the Premier’s office, rather than the Department of Welfare. This will create a more coherent system of planning, implementation, and service delivery. It will allow for greater and more consistent participation from all departments and provincial institutions.
Greater emphasis must be placed on inter-sectoral collaboration at all levels of government. This will affect how participants work together on projects, and how they report on progress of projects.
In terms of the involvement of departments without provincial structures with PPAs, it is necessary for such departments to be integrated within existing provincial structures. This will mean tapping into regional structures and coordinating their participation through the provincial framework. This challenge remains primarily with the provincial coordinator.
2) Reporting
Findings & Challenges: The issue of reporting is strongly linked to the issue of coordination (see above, page 18). Because there has been poor coordination, reporting has also been inconsistent. Reporting at a national level has generally been strong, with reports documenting the various developments within the NPA. However, the way in which reports are given is flawed. In the current structure, reporting is being done by department rather than by priority areas. This makes for a piecemeal discussion of priority areas. So this results in a priority area like nutrition being discussed by each department, bit by bit, at separate meetings.
Action: As overall coordination – nationally, provincially and locally – strengthens, reporting will improve.
If reporting is structured according to priority area rather than by sector, the current problem would be solved. This would enable each sector to understand how their input complements the input of other sectors. And more importantly, the desire to create a more holistic approach would be realized.
The structure of reports should be set out beforehand. Clear objectives and common terms of reference that will impact reporting should be devised. This will ensure that reports outline the inputs, outputs, and targets against set objectives. From the outset the following should be made clear: Who is reporting what, and to whom is it being reported to? Clarification on this point, will enhance the reporting that is done at all levels.
The NPA and PPA should be reported to the proper respective political bodies (legislature and the intergovernmental forum). This will not only raise accountability, but it will also increase awareness of the programmes. A reporting system, which regularly captures the process of the NPA and PPA, should be instituted. This will culminate in an Annual Report.
3) Representation
Findings and Challenges: The NPA was established as a mechanism that would promote and facilitate the holistic development of the child through integrated approaches. It was designed as a process that would bring together members of civil society with various organs of government in order to work together in a coordinated manner. But the absence of a framework to guide the collaborative nature among government, NGOs and civil society has lead to misunderstandings among these stakeholders.
There are many complexities within the issue of representation. There are issues of regularity of participation in the NPA and PPA structures, seniority of participation, and quality of participation in terms of participants reflecting institutional efforts. The two main groups that are referred to are civil society representation and government representation.
a) Civil Society—Initially, NGO representation, and hence, civil society representation, was channeled through the NCRC. Although the NCRC, as an umbrella NGO, broadly represents civil society, it is now felt that greater participation from society at-large should be sought. And current mechanisms to facilitate such participation have proven to be weak. To date, there is inadequate representation from civil society. (This refers specifically to participation from adult civil society, as child representation is addressed later in the report.) There has also been a bias toward representation from urban centres. This means that representation cannot be truly reflective of society at-large. Participating members do not represent constituencies (ie. rural areas) that require attention. Considering that in some provinces, such as the Eastern Cape, the majority of the child population resides in rural areas, this is a major challenge.
Because there is a lack of civil society participation, there is a perception that the NPA is simply a government programme that does not involve or affect the general public.
b) Government—The present structure is not fully representative of the major government departments involved in the delivery of services to children. With respect to the departments, which do participate, there are still problems. With some departments, there is a lack of consistent participation, or those who do participate know nothing about the NPA. Other times, those who do participate are not mandated with the authority to make decisions. This slows down the process, and in some cases hampers it altogether.
There is also not a system or framework in place which facilitates the participation of local authorities.
Action: Not all members of civil society are represented through the NCRC. The NPA should facilitate the participation of other sectors of civil society, as well. This includes among others, religious institutions, traditional leaders, professional organizations, businesses and parents. Within the NGO sector, a framework needs to be developed with respect to representation within their organisations.
Government departments must send representatives who have some knowledge of the NPA. The representatives should be regular and consistent in their participation, and they should have some sort of decision-making authority or mandate. They should, in essence, be dedicated and delegated.
Representation in terms of rural versus urban centres must be examined. All efforts must be made to ensure that the participating members of the NPA are not only from urban areas. Mechanisms to encourage the participation of local authorities must be put in place. Their participation and involvement will be indispensable.
4) Communication and Information
Findings & Challenges: The raising of awareness around issues and rights of children is crucial for the NPA. If the mandate is to put children first, then all sectors of society – government, NGOs, civil society – must be aware of the current situation for South Africa’s children. The NPA must work to raise the level of awareness among the public. If the public is to be fully conscientised, then rights of the child must be popularized and aggressively promoted. It’s not that there is a lack of awareness. Rather, the awareness of children’s rights is uneven. Many members of society, for example, are very aware of issues of immunization and immunization programmes.
Without a strategy, the NPA remains unknown, and links with relevant actors cannot be made. Because civil society has not been made aware of the NPA and PPA, they cannot effectively participate in the process.
Action: A communications strategy should encourage and include child participation, and community involvement. It should include issues of advocacy, lobbying and mobilisation. And it should be wide-reaching and seek to be informative and educational. It must take into account provincial differences, and rural/urban differences. The goal should be to find a way to indigenise children’s rights, so that the protection and promotion of child rights is not seen as a western concept that is being pushed onto South Africans. This goal fits nicely with the President’s broader concept of African Renaissance. Many rights are already protected, promoted and fulfilled. A communications strategy should build on this. It should be localised and contexulaised.
A communications strategy, however, should be more than a public information campaign. The strategy should encourage a culture of open dialogue about children’s rights, and healthy debate within communities about children’s issues. The NPA should seek to create space for such debates.
In order for children’s issues to be given prominence, there should be participation by all forms of media and communication sectors in the country. Popularising the existence of an NPA should be part of the communication strategy. The NPA should be promoted as the tool to implement child rights, and this promotion should be integrated in the larger strategy. Greater awareness among the public of the NPA will help facilitate the process of mainstreaming.
5) Evaluation and Monitoring
Findings & Challenges: One of the major problems is that there is a lack of disaggregated baseline data, including monitoring and evaluation systems. The lack of baseline data has affected the NPA in numerous ways. For example, what do you base an information campaign on if there is no current data on the current situation of children? It is difficult to improve service delivery without any research and monitoring of impact. No monitoring system, regulating quality and quantity of service delivery, is in place. There is also no system in place to facilitate feedback between service providers and those who receive services. The absence of systematic research and information collection is a major constraint to moving forward. The “before” and “after” status of the NPA can only be established if baseline data is collected.
Provincially, few provinces have undertaken comprehensive situational analysis, so there is not a keen understanding of what is happening in individual communities. This has lead to a high dependency on outside development agencies to articulate local problems and solutions.
Action: To address the lack of data available, there needs to be in place mechanisms for the collecting and development of baseline data. There needs to be an Evaluation and Monitoring framework that looks at the conditions of children. National, provincial and local child-centre databases for systemic monitoring should be created. Provincial and local communities need to be involved in the process, so that they can help conceive of the solutions for their own constituencies. A national survey to collect data on the current situation of children should be undertaken.
6) Capacity Building
Findings & Challenges: There are substantial capacity gaps in the current system, in all spheres of government. These gaps are a reflection of the historical legacy of the country. Whereas the pre-transition economy stressed a vertical and sectoral non-community based approaches, new approaches tend to emphasize a multidisciplinary, and horizontal, approach to social development as it affects children. Through capacity-building the tensions between these two approaches could be eased.
Capacity is lacking, particularly in the field of coordination and inter-sectoral development. While national departments and provinces were expected to adopt a new developmental and holistic approach to child development, little consideration was given to put in place mechanisms to build capacity. This means old strategies are employed to address new problems. The reality is that in order to address these new problems there needs to be a complete transformation and paradigm shift.
Without strong capacity, other areas of development within the NPA are affected. There can be no monitoring and evaluation programme within communities, for example, unless capacity is developed in those communities.
Action: The challenge is to create an environment that will build capacity and encourage people who are in new roles in both public and private sector to perform effectively. The skills gap for existing practitioners needs to be addressed and trainers need to be provided with information about the changing needs of the NPA. Training should be made available to participants, service providers, key personnel, volunteers and NGOs.
Inter-sectoral capacity must be built as well. This will improve the coordination of the NPA. In the past participants have only been evaluated in terms of their function in the NPA process and not on the extent to which they participate. The extent of participation must be evaluated as well.
7) Child Participation
Findings & Challenges: While the NPA has been designed to serve the needs of children (and parents), there is not strategy for the participation of children in the programme. Often there is talk about the desire to encourage child participation. But, it has not been properly addressed. Children do not effectively participate within their families and communities, and there is little or no involvement of children at policy development level. It has become imperative to include children in processes and projects aimed at their development.
Children’s participation entails informing children about their rights, empowering them in terms of the services government and civil society are providing to improve their status and to enable them to act when their rights have been compromised or violated. Children need to be informed on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which spells out responsibilities the government has and what commitment has been made in terms of delivering on their basic needs.
Child participation also means that children (age appropriate) must take on the responsibility of educating their peers and the public. This process will equip children with the competence to represent their issues on a national and international arena. This will ensure that policy makers (including the President) are accountable for the promises made to them.
Action: Active child participation will assist in informing processes and prioritising programmes geared toward their development. Mechanisms must be put in place to encourage their participation, and existing child-friendly mechanisms should be tapped into. For example, Student Representative Councils are part of every school, in every province. The NPA should work with that existing structure in order to find provincial and regional child representatives.
Children’s participation should be a key element of any communications and information strategy. They should be involved in the development of the strategy, and they should be participants in any interactive programming. The NPA is accountable, in the end, to children. A monitoring and evaluation system should be put in place so that children can access the effectiveness of the NPA.
Debate and discussion around how to encourage young child participation (or whether young children should even be part of the policy process) should be facilitated by the NPA.
8) Resource Mobilisation
Findings & Challenges: The fact that there are no dedicated resources for NPA programmes is a major obstacle. Budgetary cuts are often targeted at children’s programmes, with no consideration on impact. The budgeting process is accessible to only a few, and is not transparent.
There is no information or guidelines on resource availability in government or private sector. Any mechanisms that are in place by departments for the allocation of resources favour urban communities. Hence, little activity is taking place in rural areas.
Action: The NPA needs to develop a resource mobilisation to support its programmes. Guidelines on how to acquire resources needs to be developed and available to all partners, specifically local governments. The distribution of resources must be decentralised, so that rural communities have access to the resources. The role of the private sector in terms of resources must be explored. Budgeting systems should be transparent and participatory.
Recommendations/Discussion
There is no reason to start afresh. There is a need to build on past investments by putting in place a comprehensive transformation process. By focusing on the transformation process, the NPA can move to the forefront of promotion and protection of children’s rights.
By addressing the above-mentioned issues, there will be greater understanding of the current the weaknesses of the structure. One major action that should be taken is to change the current operating structure of the NPA (see section f). A change in the structure will allow the steering committee to build on old strategies, and create new strategies can be channeled through the already existing priority area groups. Other challenges will be met through project groups. With the establishment of activities, or project groups, key areas of importance will be addressed. (See section d for more detail.) For instance, there is clearly a need for baseline data – an issue that will now be addressed by members of the Research, Reporting, Policy Review and Evaluation group as well as the Data Collection and Monitoring group. Project groups, with their focused mandate and clearly outlined activities will be able to meet the challenges that face the NPA in a concrete manner. This will be a crucial step in taking the NPA forward in a meaningful manner.
Some challenges must be approached holistically. All members, committees and the Secretariat must seek to improve and build new mechanisms to enhance overarching issues, such as capacity building, and coordination. Overall, there must also be clear leadership and direction from the Steering Committee so that the NPA can become an effective vehicle of service delivery.
c. Objectives
Before outlining the current objectives of the NPA 2000 & Beyond, it is helpful to look back from where we’ve come. Below are the objectives that were set out in July, 1996 by the NPASC.[30] Comparing the objectives of the NPA then and now, allows us to see what has already been accomplished and what remains to be done. This gives us insight into how the NPA process has changed and developed, and how it continues to grow.
NPA 1996 – Main Objectives
NPA 2000 & Beyond – Main Objective
The main objective of the NPA is to facilitate, coordinate and monitor collaboration within government and civil society at all levels in initiatives aimed at promoting and protecting the rights of the child.
Intermediate Objectives
d. Activities and Project Groups
In order for the objectives to be translated into a programme of action, a number of activities have to be undertaken. To meet the intermediate objectives, these strategic activities, through the four project groups will be implemented. By meeting the intermediate objectives, the main objectives can be achieved.
Each of the intermediate objectives calls for the implementation of one or more activities, which will form an integrated management system involving all stakeholders. Though four different project groups have been created, they are not necessarily isolated. At times, all four will work together in order to meet the objectives and vision of the NPA.
Below, are the four main project groups – Communication and Information; Advocacy, Participation and Mobilisation; Research, Policy Review, Reporting and Evaluation; and Data Collection and Monitoring – that should be implemented in order to realize the NPA objectives.
1) Communication and Information:
Central to the NPA agenda is the continuous effort to develop mechanisms to promote and protect children’s rights to survival, development, protection and participation. The Communication and Information strategy of the NPA aims to use communication to promote and protect the rights of the child.
Communication provides means for exploring, affirming or denying national norms and standards. It helps create debate around policy and practices. And it provides a mechanism for informing the public at-large.
The NPA communications strategy will address how people perceive childhood and children, promote the rights of children, and it will seek to conscientise the public in order to create a culture whereby all children are put first. There will particular focus on the causes and environments which undermine their well-being.
The communications strategy will utilize all mediums: print, broadcast (TV and radio), and interactive technology.
This objective will be achieved through the development of a communications strategy with the Communications Task Group consisting of people working with children. There will be numerous activities of the Task group.
Some activities will be:
2) Advocacy, Participation and Mobilisation
Children’s rights in South Africa are mostly viewed in a negative light and as a challenge to parents who view the terminology as challenging and bound to erode their parental powers. This is due to a lack of knowledge pertaining to the terminology and what is actually referred to with the term “children’s rights” in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
It is therefore imperative for government and NGOs dealing with children’s rights to embark on educational and awareness campaigns in order to facilitate the understanding of the phrase, the implementation thereof, and ignite public participation through which the perceptions that exist can either be rectified or intensified. To meet this goal, we must mobilise the public and advocate for the rights of children.
To advocate for children means to plead in their best interests and well-being. The betterment of children should be seen as an investment for the future of the country. Political institutions, NGOs and civil society need to mobilise the public at large under the common objective of improving the lives of children. It is an objective that is ethically based.
Advocacy, participation and mobilisation is closely related to communication and information. This means, firstly, that print, radio and television must be utilised to increase public awareness. Workshops and seminars must be set up to educate all sectors and professions. Secondly, policy makers must be lobbied to take children’s issues into consideration when drawing up policies and drafting legislation. This will result in greater societal consciousness of children’s rights. Thirdly, children themselves must be mobilised. This means encouraging them to learn and know their rights, so that they can advocate for the protection and promotion of their well-being.
The project is participatory in nature. Children, parents, community organisations, and various professions dealing, directly and indirectly, with children will be targeted.
Activities will include:
3) Research, Policy Review, Reporting and Evaluation
In order to have a better understanding of children’s rights and the national status of children, an evaluation of the rights of the child and an impact assessment of interventions, easy access to child-related information, and informed policy-making for children, a comprehensive strategy is required.
There is a need to assess and comment constructively on government policy initiatives that seek to affect the betterment and development of children in all sectors.
Furthermore, the office on child rights will facilitate the undertaking of child-focused research. This will provide various levels of scope on child rights. In order to respond to the cross-cutting nature of children’s issues research strategies must be integrated. Children and children’s issues must be thought of holistically, and within a developmental context.
The research strategy must also include longitudinal and/or surveillance studies. Studies must be both quantitative and qualitative in nature.
There is a need to demystify research, and build and maintain relationships between key stakeholders, particularly researchers, policy makers, policy implementers and communities. There is also a need to involve children in the research, at the enumeration stages of data collection and as the target population.
Research, Reporting and Evaluation are closely linked with Data Collection and Monitoring, hence the two groups will work closely together.
A few key activities are:
4) Data Collection and Monitoring
South Africa’s constitution, the CRC and, more specifically, South Africa’s NPA commit South Africa to a continuous process of action aimed at progressively fulfilling the rights of children. An integral element of this process of action is the systematic monitoring of progress in the fulfillment of children’s rights. Child focused research and evaluation is also an essential element in the process of action, as these activities support the related process of decision making, implementation and effective management of service delivery (see above, Project 3).
In the past three years, the NPASC has done important work in this area. This work has included the production of a comprehensive report on children, poverty and disparity reduction, the preparation of the first State Report on CRC Implementation and a milestone progress report on the NPA process. Although there has been progress in the area of reporting and basic research, there have been gaps in other areas.
This project group will work closely with the Research, Reporting and Evaluation group, as there are many points of overlap and intersection. In order to learn from past shortcomings and to look forward, the following activities in the area of monitoring, data collection and evaluation are foreseen for the next two years:
e. Core Recommendations
The NPASC has made the following recommendations in respect to the implementation of the NPA.
f. Coordination and Operational Structures of the NPA
Structure of old NPA
The original structure of the NPA is seen to have contributed to some of the obstacles faced by the NPA. Before outlining the new structure of the NPA, it is important to look at the how the NPA was initially set up.
Structures and Stages in the NPA Process, 1994[31]
Initiates Process
Establishes National Goals, Framework and Methodology
Brings in Non-Governmental and International Organisations
Prepare Reports and Carry out Regional and Local Consultation
Define Strategies and Priority Activities, Costs and Agencies to be Involved
Considers, Refines and Harmonises Reports
Reviews Reports, Revises Costs, and Develops Plans for Implementation and Resource Mobilisation
Approval and Launch by Head of State/Government
Publication and Popularisation
Implementation and Decentralisation
On-Going Resource Mobilisation
Monitoring, Evaluation and Revision of Plans
Structure of the NPA 2000 & Beyond
The new NPA will be organised around sectors, which are in line with the seven priority areas listed below.[32] Each priority area group is made up of representatives from appropriate government departments, representatives from NGOs and members of civil society.
The NPA (and priority area groups) will be supported by special project groups in the following areas (see above, Section C, for more detail):
Additional projects will be established as and when a need arises.
Please see attached organogram (Appendix A) to conceptualize the operational structure.
g. Priority Area Groups:
These seven priority area groups cut across specific departments. Below, are the terms of reference for these seven priority area groups.
1) Infrastructure
This includes access to safe drinking water, effective sanitation facilities,
access to energy sources, housing, clean and safe environment (smoke-free,
chemical-free), safe and reliable modes of transport.
2) Special protection measures
Priorities under special protection measures includes child protective
measures, such as: children in the criminal justice and civil justice system,
including issues of maintenance and custody; all forms of absence exploitation
civil justice including sexual, physical and emotional abuse; all forms of
commercial exploitation, including child labour, pornography, prostitution and
child trafficking. This area must also look at safety measures in schools, homes
and the environment in which the child lives in victims of violence.
Special protection measures also encompasses children with special needs. This includes, children living in difficult circumstances such as children who are living and working on the street; children living in poverty; orphaned, physically and mentally challenged children; victims of violence; refugee children (or unaccompanied minors); and those affected by HIV/AIDS.
3) Education
This policy area will include: early childhood development activities;
access to basic education; acquisition of skills and knowledge required for
better living by both children and their parents.
4) Child and maternal health
Consideration of childhood diseases such as poliomyelitis, neonatal tetanus,
measles, diphtheria, pertussis, tuberculosis and other respiratory disease, the
issue of infant and child mortality, substance abuse, maternal health,
reproductive health, teenage fertility and pregnancies. The group will also look
at the state of maternity hospitals.
5) Nutrition
This policy area will include: child-focused community-based nutrition
monitoring system, undernutrition and malnutrition, low birth weight, iron
deficiency anemia, iodine and vitamin A deficiency, breastfeeding, mother and
child friendly hospitals, and weaning practices and household food security.
6) Leisure and recreation
This policy area deals with issues pertaining to the provision of leisure,
recreation, sporting activities and cultural activities for all children.
7) Peace and Non-Violence
South Africa is a country with a violent past, and the legacy of that
violence continues. Children have grown up, and are still growing up, in this
environment. In this context, it is critical to break the cycle of violence by
teaching our children a peaceful and non-violent way of life. By place value on
peace and democracy and teaching conflict resolution we can create a culture of
non-violence.
Operational Mechanisms for Priority Area Groups
Co-ordination Responsibilities
The Presidency, through the Office of the Presidency, is responsible for the monitoring and coordination of all sectors of the public service. In this role, the office is expected to have an overview of how the different public sector departments are pursuing their respective goals and objectives in relation to the national goals.
The Office is therefore expected to regularly inform the Presidency on how the country, and the public sector in particular, is performing with respect to the status of children in South Africa. It is within this understanding that a regular State of the Children Report from the NPA Secretariat will be conducted and reported.
The Secretariat
The NPA will be supported by a secretariat that will be responsible for the day to day operations and management of the NPA activities.
The Secretariat is expected to undertake the following responsibilities:
Structure of Priority Area Groups
Each priority area group will have a series of “theme groups” according to relevance and specialization. Each will have a co-ordinator. These groups will meet at least once a month. They will elect an overall co-ordinator.
Any person or group who has a stake in a priority area group will be invited to be a member of the group. Participation, and number of participants, will be open.
Support and other logistics will be provided by the NPA secretariat located within Office of the Presidency.
Reporting Guidelines for Priority Area Groups
Reference groups will work under the direction and support from the NPA Secretariat (see Secretariat responsibilities, above). Quarterly reports based on work-plan will be submitted and presented by representatives of each reference group.
Inputs from all members of priority area groups will drawn using the following format:
Reference group inputs will consist of theme groups, each of which will have a Coordinator. Coordinators will establish a Coordination Committee, which will be a formal structure of the group. The Committee will elect one member who will be a member of the Coordinating and the Steering Committee.
At the Steering Committee meetings, priority area groups will be expected to bring all members of the Coordinating Committee from respective sectors.
Part of the NPASC is the Function Group Committee. Function Group Committees will work closely with priority area groups in the co-ordination of specific needs that cut across sectors. They will develop overall NPA plans, such as a plan for capacity building.
Priority Area Group reports will culminate to South African Status of Children Report that the President will present to the nation on the 16th June, annually.
h. The Way Forward – Taking the NPA Beyond 2000
As we approach the new millennium, it is an appropriate time to assess the NPA process thus far. Through the consultative workshops with participants it has become clear that there are obstacles facing the NPA. But what has also become clear in those workshops is that the NPA has great potential to meet the needs of the children of South Africa.
Not only is there strong political will to carry on in this new phase of the NPA, but there is also renewed commitment from stakeholders, participants, NGOs, government, international agencies and civil society. In order to overcome impediments, all groups must work together. However, it is worth noting that in order to overcome structural and operational constraints, it is the three spheres of governments that must work in close cooperation.
Nationally, the government needs to provide effective leadership and clear direction. The strategies of the NPA must be seen within the context of the national agenda and the Constitution. Provincially, the governments of all nine provinces should establish structures along the similar principles. Coordination and leadership for Provincial Programmes of Action should come from the Premiers’ Office. And, locally, governments and metropolitan authorities should work toward the establishment of Local Programmes of Action (LPA). In order to see this to fruition, the necessary capacity should be developed on a local level. With strong local leadership, LPA’s can be an effective means of ensuring that the rights of children are promoted and protected.
The process of mainstreaming means that all spheres of government and society must be actively involved. The NPA must seek to build capacity, collect research, implement mechanisms for monitoring and create mass public awareness about the issues that affect the development of our children. We must work to create a dynamic atmosphere for growth and enabling environment for service delivery. All efforts must be collective and holistic in approach. So that in whatever policies are designed and programmes created, children will always be first.
[1] See Mothole Motshekga’s opening address to the conference in Towards a National Programme of Action for Children in South Africa, Report of the Consultative Conference. 11-13 March 1994, pg. 2
[2]Following the recommendations of the Conference on the State of the African Child and The Thembisa Declaration, the NPA process, in collaboration with UNICEF, began in all 14 regions.
[3] At the conference, there was consensus that there was an urgent need to improve the well-being of families and children in South Africa. Considering that at the time of the conference over 90 per cent of the world’s children’s were living in countries in which national programmes of action had been finalised or where in draft form, testified to the urgency of a NPA in South Africa. Towards a National Programme of Action for Children in South Africa, Report of the Consultative Conference. 11-13 March 1994.
[4] Section 28 of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of South Africa states that every child has the right to, among other things, basic nutrition, to be protected from maltreatment and neglect, protection from exploitative labour practices, and that “a child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child.” The NPA should be seen within that context. It is the affirmation of the government’s commitment to children. The NPA has become the primary vehicle to be used to ensure that the rights outlined in Section 28 do not become meaningless.
[5] Section 28, the Bill of Rights of The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.
[6] Census in Brief, Statistics South Africa, 1998.
[7] Census in Brief, Statistics South Africa, 1998.
[8] Summary of the Findings on the Situation Analysis of the Girl-Child in South Africa, Linda Vilakazi-Tselande.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Specifically, a broad-based survey will come at the end of 1999, when an end-decade survey on progress toward goals will be undertaken.
[11] Collins Paperback English Dictionary, 1986.
[12] The time period that this assessment focuses on January, 1996 to August, 1998. The majority of workshops, however, took place from mid-1998 to November, 1998.
[13] Evaluating Social Development Projects, edited by David Marsden and Peter Oakley. Oxfam, 1990. pg. 1.
[14] Muhammad Anisur Rahman, “Qualitative Dimensions of Social Development Evaluation: Thematic Paper,” in Evaluating Social Development Projects.
[15] Ibid, pg. 41.
[16] Trisha Greenhalgh and Rod Taylor, “How to Read a Paper: Papers that Go Beyond Numbers.”
[17] Ibid.
[18] “On Concepts and Methods,” in Supporting the Movement for Children’s Rights and Development in South Africa, Karl Eric Knutsson and Pauline O’Dea, UNICEF South Africa, 1998, pg. 13.
[19] An impact evaluation on the state of South African children is to be conducted in 1999, and will be completed for the year 2000. It will be a baseline-data millennium survey on children and poverty.
[20] Participatory methodologies, in the form of workshops and focus groups, were used. These were conducted throughout the country. This process targeted all stakeholders of the NPA and PPA to ensure that the outputs of the exercise were a reflection of the broader societal views.
[21] Evaluating Social Development Projects, pg. 7.
[22] Towards a National Programme of Action for Children in South Africa, pg. 4.
[23] The Convention on the Rights of the Child provides the standards and principles against which to test laws, policies and practices affecting children. The CRC allows for empowerment at various levels, hence it becomes a way to know what’s going on locally. It ensures non-discrimination (Article 2), promotes the best interests of the child (Article 3) and supports the child’s right to participation in decision-making (Article 12), Supporting the Movement for Children’s Rights and Development in South Africa, pg. 75.
[24] Towards a National Programme of Action for Children in South Africa.
[25] Supporting the Movement for Children’s Rights and Development in South Africa, pg. 76.
[26] The Interministerial Cabinet Committee appointment came after 16 June, 1994.
[27] For a complete list of NPA Steering Committee members, see Appendix C.
[28] Supporting the Movement for Children’s Rights and Development in South Africa, pg. 74.
[29] Originally, the seven priority areas of the NPA were: nutrition, child health, water and sanitation, early childhood development and basic education, leisure and culture, social welfare development and child protection measures.
[30] The meeting, held on 18 July 1996, was a Task Group on the functions of the NPASC, NGO representation and interaction with commissions. In attendance at the meeting were: Prof M Jacobs, Dr G Mtshali, Dr. R Mhlanga, Ms R September, Mr N Memon, Ms H de Klerk, Mr D Naude.
[31] This structure is outlined in Figure 2, “Structures and Stages in the NPA Process.” A National Programme of Action for Children in South Africa: An Outline, 16 June 1994.
[32] In some materials, priority areas are also referred to as Reference Groups. The titles are synonymous. For consistency, this report will refer to the structures as priority area groups.