Abstract Drawing on data generated during my doctoral study that involved using participatory visual methodology to work with 15 girls in a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, I describe and discuss a cellphilm produced by them that focuses on early and forced marriage in their community. I demonstrate how such methodology can enable girls and young women to communicate effectively their complex and nuanced understandings of such marriage and the social and material factors that influence continued support for it. I identify three key learnings drawn from the cellphilm and argue that learning about this practice from those affected by it is invaluable to the design of policy and programming that addresses early and forced marriage in ways that are responsive, relevant, sustainable, and effective.
The legal and policy frameworks governing marriage in many African countries often presume gender neutrality, thereby failing to address the deeply gendered nature of child marriage and sexual exploitation and abuse. Data from UNICEF and other sources consistently show that child marriage disproportionately affects girls, with significantly fewer boys involved in the practice. Far from ensuring equal protection and benefit of the law, many existing legal provisions reinforce gender inequality by allowing exceptions to the minimum age of marriage or by setting a lower marriageable age for girls, thereby legitimising harmful practices against girls by virtue of these legal loopholes. Focusing on South Africa, the paper illustrates how current marriage laws violate girls’ rights to equal protection and freedom from sexual exploitation. For example, girls aged 15 or older may marry without ministerial or judicial consent, whereas all boys under 18 require such approval. This legal disparity leaves girls uniquely exposed and under-protected compared to their male peers, reinforcing patriarchal norms through discrimination entrenched in legislation. Adopting a feminist and intersectional lens, the article also explores how customary practices such as lobolo and ukuthwala continue to legitimise child marriage. These practices, when intersecting with gender-discriminatory laws, intensify the vulnerability of girls and exacerbate systemic abuse. The article critically examines international, African regional, and sub-regional child rights instruments to assess their gender sensitivity and responsiveness in protecting children, especially girls, from early and forced marriage. Finally, the article calls for urgent legal and policy reforms, including the removal of gender-discriminatory provisions and the implementation of substantive equality measures, alongside efforts to empower girls through legal, educational, and social interventions. These reforms must be accompanied by the dismantling of patriarchal structures and an acknowledgment of the diverse lived realities of girlhood, both essential to ending the systemic legitimisation of child marriage and achieving equal protection for all children.
AbstractSystems ensure the attainment of goals at any educational level, including quality early childhood education. Various studies focus on the benefits and components of quality early childhood education, yet none emphasise systems that will support early childhood development (ECD) centres in offering quality education. This study explored existing systems that support ECD centres in providing quality education to young children. The study adopted a qualitative research approach and collected data through document analysis and face-to-face interviews with eight participants purposively selected from four ECD centres situated in Pretoria. The data were analysed thematically. The findings revealed that national policies, internally generated policies and financial systems support the participating centres in offering quality education. However, many of the participants did not know the existing national policies. The findings also revealed that ECD centres in the township area do not have financial systems to help them provide quality education. The study recommends effective implementation strategies to foster awareness and enforce strict adherence to government policies at ECD centres. The study contributes to awareness and adherence to quality early childhood education by suggesting that ECD centres, principals and teachers should engage in relevant and practical training on effectively establishing systems from the available national education policies that will help them offer quality education.Contribution: This study adds to the body of knowledge by filling in the gaps on how ECD principals and teachers understand national policies and translate them into systems that assist them in managing their centres on a daily basis. The novelty of this study is the empirical input from different disciplines (Early Childhood Education and Management and Policies Studies), in a way that enables one to comprehend the role of educational management and policies studies at the early childhood learning centres in South Africa, which is the emphasis of the Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa.
This study explored the challenges and opportunities in the utilization of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for maternal and child health improvement in Vubwi Constituency, Zambia. The study was motivated by the increasing role of CDF in promoting decentralized development and financing community-based health interventions aimed at improving maternal and child health outcomes. Despite its potential, concerns remain regarding the effective utilization of CDF resources and the factors that influence the implementation, accountability, and sustainability of funded health interventions. A qualitative case study design was employed to gain an in-depth understanding of stakeholders' experiences and perceptions regarding the utilization of CDF for maternal and child health improvement. The target population comprised health facility staff, CDF committee members, local leaders, and community members. A sample of 30 participants was selected using purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and focus group discussions and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that the utilization of CDF created significant opportunities for improving maternal and child health through investments in health infrastructure, enhanced access to health services, strengthened stakeholder collaboration, and increased community participation in identifying and prioritizing local health needs. Community involvement promoted ownership of CDF-funded projects, improved transparency, and enhanced accountability in resource utilization. However, the study also identified several challenges that constrained the effective utilization of CDF. These included inadequate awareness of CDF guidelines and processes, limited technical and financial management capacity among stakeholders, unequal participation in decision-making, weak communication between governance structures and communities, delays in project implementation, and insufficient monitoring and accountability mechanisms. The findings further indicated that effective coordination among CDF committees, local authorities, health institutions, and community representatives was essential for ensuring that funded interventions addressed local maternal and child health priorities and remained sustainable. The study concluded that the Constituency Development Fund has considerable potential to improve maternal and child health services in Vubwi Constituency when supported by transparent governance, inclusive participation, effective stakeholder coordination, and strengthened institutional capacity. The study recommends enhancing community sensitization on CDF processes, strengthening participatory planning and monitoring, improving stakeholder collaboration, and reinforcing accountability mechanisms to maximize the contribution of CDF investments to maternal and child health improvement.
The increasing prevalence of depression is a growing global concern, including among early childhood development practitioners. However, there is a dearth of studies on the mental health of these practitioners in South Africa. The objective of this study was to screen for the prevalence and severity of depression symptoms among practitioners. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and a socio-demographic questionnaire were used to collect data from 402 practitioners. Descriptive analysis of the data was performed using Stata 14. The Pearson chi-square test and logistic regression model were applied to explore associations between socio-demographic variables and PHQ-9 scores and to identify factors significantly associated with depression symptoms. Nearly half of the participants (47.26%) tested positive for depression symptoms across various severity categories, including mild (27.11%), moderate (15.92%), moderately severe (3.48%), and severe (0.75%). Key variables such as the location of the center, the number of children living with the practitioner, substance use, the number of practitioners in the center, the number of children per class, and the total number of children in the center were significantly associated with depression symptoms (p ≤ 0.05). The study recommends the development and implementation of tailored interventions to address the mental health needs of practitioners, thereby improving both the academic and non-academic outcomes of learners.
Abstract Research highlights the benefits of singing in early childhood for the development of cognitive, language, emotional and social skills. Grounded in this theoretical framework, this article draws on data from Statistics South Africa’s, The General Household Survey (2023), to examine patterns of parental singing across different socioeconomic groups. This survey does not measure the efficacy of singing in early childhood, but it does provide insights into disparities in the exposure to home singing among young children. Various analytical techniques were used to analyze the data, such as descriptive analysis, bivariate analysis, regression analysis, and multivariate analysis. The findings of the analyses highlight the disparities in music exposure and singing practices across socioeconomic backgrounds and educational levels in South Africa. Children from high socio-economic backgrounds have access to regular singing activities in the home as well as access to better early childhood development programmes that incorporate regular singing activities. The findings underscore the need for policy intervention and structured programmes that promote access to singing opportunities in early childhood particularly for children in low socio-economic communities.
Adequate infrastructure plays a critical role in early childhood development (ECD) facilities providing high-quality early learning services. An ECD facility is a partial care facility that provides an early childhood programme that encompasses early learning and the development of children before they start formal schooling. Hence early learning in South Africa is primarily accommodated in privately owned facilities that range from registered to unregistered facilities. For this reason, the inadequate infrastructure that characterises conditions under which most ECD facilities operate in South Africa has been noted with concern in numerous studies. This paper assesses the state of the physical infrastructure of ECDfacilities in Philippi, an impoverished township in the City of Cape Town in the Western Cape. Owing to the regulatory function of the state in the ECD sector, through which compliance standards have to be met to secure subsidisation, the authors analyse the impact of ECD legislation on the state of ECD infrastructure in Philippi. The analysis shows statistical differences in the infrastructure of 10 registered and 10 unregistered facilities. The infrastructure differs partly due to the registration status and the location in which the facilities are situated. We therefore deduce that the current state’s avoidance of infrastructure investment in ECD facilities amounts to the denial of positive early learning outcomes to these children in Philippi.
Background: South Africa has migrated the responsibility for early childhood development (ECD) centres from the Department of Social Services to the Department of Basic Education. This functional shift has ushered in consultations and discussions on how best to implement ECD, including opportunities the change may bring.Aim: By anchoring the understanding of ECD services in nurturing care, this study aimed to elucidate the provision of appropriate, inclusive services in early childhood development, including early childhood intervention, for children with disabilities in South Africa against the backdrop of the migration of services from one government ministry to another.Methods: This is an analytical article based on South African literature on ECD services, including interventions, with particular attention to children with disabilities, basing our understanding of these services in nurturing care.Results: We elucidate how the ideals of the Nurturing Care Framework can be achieved in the context of children with disabilities in South Africa using five themes: the need to localise services, developing tools and strategies for screening and early intervention, enhancing the efficacy of caregivers, supporting and training staff and collaborations.Conclusion: It is necessary to empower caregivers and professionals to address early childhood intervention and ECD needs of children with disabilities. Early childhood development centres are an important context for nurturing care, providing opportunities to promote and sustain health amongst a large number of children. Considering the function shift of ECD services in South Africa, these centres are well positioned to further nurturing care to children with disabilities through the provision of supportive environments that promote health and well-being.
Amani Karisa, Chantal Samuels, Brian Watermeyer et al.
Introduction:Child malnutrition is a persistent global challenge. It is the cause of nearly 45% of global child mortalities. To ensure positive child health outcomes, integrated multisectoral approaches among families, communities, and government systems to ensure positive child health outcomes are neccesary.Objectives:This study identifies how different care support systems can be linked to ensure optimal childhood nutrition outcomes in South Africa. This is through multisectoral approaches from the early childhood development (ECD) practitioners' perspective.Materials and Methods:We integrated the components of the different support systems and multisectoral approaches. The conceptional framework of the causes of malnutrition by The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recognizes that malnutrition is due to inadequate care services, diet, and care practices influenced by individual, household, community, and structural determinants. While the Nurturing Care Framework, which looks at how policies and services can support families, parents, and other communities in providing nurturing care.Design:A sequential mixed methods approach was used. For the quantitative method, we did a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of 2 966 children who were under-five years' old in the 2017 South African National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) between July and August 2022, we conducted five in-depth interviews with ECD practitioners using this qualitative method, and the data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Data was triangulated to understand the factors influencing children’s nutritional outcomes and to provide the narratives of ECD practitioners. This enabled us to highlight challenges and opportunities in linking children to services they need.Results:This study showed that 22.16% of children were stunted, 16.40% were overweight, and 5.04% were underweight. ECD practitioners reported a lack of support received at health facilities and other social services when making referrals, a lack of parental support in nutrition programmes, systemic challenges experienced in getting ECD centers registered, and the ECD's inability to qualify for subsidized nutrition grants.Conclusion:It is critical for us to understand the challenges and opportunities for multisector collaboration. This understanding will enable strategies and policies aimed at providing efficient and effective service referral and service delivery to improve childhood malnutrition in South Africa.
Abstract Understanding the intricate dynamics which underscore early childhood growth is a pivotal pursuit within child development research. This longitudinal study delves into developmental pathways of grade R and 1 pupils, across five primary schools in Gauteng. Employing an inclusive survey administered to educators, guardians, and healthcare practitioners, the study seeks to capture insights spanning factors such as education, nutrition, health, material well-being, and protection or care dimensions. The sample of 138 participants, encompassing a balanced gender distribution, boasts an average child age of 7 years. Employing advanced statistical techniques, this study employs Exploratory Factor Analysis to unearth distinctive latent factors, thereby constructing a holistic framework for further inquiry. Structural Equation Modelling illuminates substantial correlations between emotional regulation and safety and well-being factors, highlighting their pivotal roles in children's comprehensive development. Acknowledging the evolving nature of child growth, Latent Growth Modelling introduces a temporal dimension, facilitating the analysis of growth trajectories to discern alterations and trends in latent variables across multiple time points. Children's emotional regulation exhibits consistent baseline intercepts, whereas safety and well-being factors manifest baseline variability and nuanced covariances. These findings underscore the intricate interplay between initial levels and rates of change. In addition to shedding light on latent factors that shape child development, this research underscores the importance of advanced statistical methodologies. By influencing evidence-based interventions and policy decisions, the study contributes to discourse surrounding the cultivation of healthy childhoods, fostering a deeper comprehension of multifaceted factors that influence children's well-being.
Arnesh Telukdarie, Godfrey Mpho Nkadimeng, Leila Patel et al.
