Children's Institute, University of Cape Town

Children's Institute, University of Cape Town We advance children’s rights through research, advocacy, and education. Based at Univ of Cape Town.

The Children's Institute provides evidence to assist policy-makers and practitioners to create laws, policies, programmes and institutions that support the best interests of children in South Africa. Established at the University of Cape Town in 2001, the Children’s Institute aims to harness the collective institutional capabilities related to child-focused research, teaching and development. The

essence of the Institute is to bring primary and secondary research and information to bear on the development of laws, policies, programmes and service interventions for children across a number of disciplines. Evidence-based advocacy forms a continuum with research, teaching and development activities, and is the vehicle by which the Institute maximises the impact of academic endeavours on policy and practice.

This week our Director Wiedaad Slemming presented to the Addis International Early Childhood Conference 2026 on how we u...
13/05/2026

This week our Director Wiedaad Slemming presented to the Addis International Early Childhood Conference 2026 on how we use data to advance children’s rights.

As a panelist for a conversation on ‘Data to inform a social movement for ECD’, Associate Professor Slemming presented the projects that enable us to monitor South Africa’s progress in realising children’s rights and to generate evidence to centre their rights in planning and reform processes.

Children Count is among our projects which she spoke to the gathered political leaders, development partners, researchers and practitioners about.

📊 Children Count is our permanent project that analyses national data to monitor the situation of children. The indicators are published annually on our interactive Children Count website and in our ‘South African Child Gauge’ publication. The indicators are also used in shadow reports to human rights treaty bodies and used in advocacy, research and teaching.

Prof Slemming explained that we work with government and civil society on making sure that surveying can happen consistently - that there isn’t a situation in which a survey is done and then focus is lost on what's going to happen next. “It should be a continuous story. Monitoring what's happening for children is a continuous story. It's not something that a survey in itself is going to fix. And so the next step is not just about surveys, but what do we do with that data, and transform and apply some of those things in practice.”

The conference’s stated aims are to drive a shift from fragmented, project-based approaches toward integrated, government-led systems that are embedded in national and city-level planning and financing.

It focuses on four key pillars:
• Political leadership commitment
• Evidence-based decision making
• Systems and workforce development
• Financing and investment for early childhood

Follow African Center for Early Childhood Development for conference updates and catch the recording of Prof Slemming’s presentation.

💻 Access Children Count and key publications providing analysis via our website: https://ci.uct.ac.za/

The newly launched Development Southern Africa special issue prioritises the fight against stunting, calling for South A...
21/04/2026

The newly launched Development Southern Africa special issue prioritises the fight against stunting, calling for South Africa to move beyond temporary relief measures and to invest in structural solutions that address the root causes of stunting at scale. Launched yesterday to an audience of academics, policymakers and practitioners, the special issue frames stunting as a connected, multi-sectoral challenge and makes an urgent case for it to be measured, monitored, and systematically addressed.

"The special issue harnesses local expertise and experience to understand why South Africa, an upper middle income country, is still struggling with stunting," said Associate Prof Wiedaad Slemming, lead guest editor and Director of the Children's Institute, UCT Faculty of Health Sciences. "Stunting rates haven't shifted for over three to four decades in South Africa. This is a pivotal moment for us to look at why that is, and what we need to do to shift that. I think the special issue helps us along that journey."

Providing an overview of the special issue she explained its purpose as:
- Documenting the available evidence on stunting in South Africa;
- Outlining the international and local evidence on interventions and policies that have worked to address stunting; and
- Identifying and prioritising research areas where there isn't enough known.

Read it here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cdsa20/42/6

Also guest editors of the special issue are Dr Gabrielle Wills (Stellenbosch University), Dr Tanya Ruder (University of the Witwatersrand) and Mastoera Sadan (Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, writing in herpersonal capacity).

The other collaborator institutions are North-West University, University of Western Cape, SA Medical Research Council, and Nelson Mandela University. This work was supported by DGMT.

Photos:
1: The associated policy brief, providing a synthesis of 10 papers from the special issue.
2: Prof Slemming and Dr Wills at the launch hosted by Stellenbosch University.
3: Dr Shuaib Kauchali (WITS) and Prof Ronelle Burger (Stellenbosch University, associate editor of Development Southern Africa).
4 and 5: Keynote policymaker perspectives were shared by Prof Julian May (National Planning Commission) and Thulani Masilela (Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation).
6: The convening also heard the insights of the Department of Health's Lesley Bamford.



University of Cape Town

⚖️ The rights of children to basic nutrition 🥦 and basic healthcare 🩺 are not subject to progressive realisation. The st...
20/03/2026

⚖️ The rights of children to basic nutrition 🥦 and basic healthcare 🩺 are not subject to progressive realisation. The state should therefore ensure that goods and services essential to realising these rights (such as food, healthcare, and social grants) are immediately available for children in South Africa.

Even in times of crisis or economic recession, the state has an obligation to protect children and ensure that they are the last to be negatively affected.

The state also has a duty to protect children from harmful business practices 🦈 including the marketing of foods that are harmful to health 🍬

Today at 14:30 we are presenting our child-centred submission to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) National Inquiry into Food Systems.

📄 Read our submission: https://ci.uct.ac.za/articles/2026-03-05-submission-sahrc-national-inquiry-food-systems-south-africa
📺 Watch our presentation via the SAHRC Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/

We have identified 7️⃣ interventions to address the burden of child malnutrition, from their conception 🤰 to their adolescence.
1. Invest in maternal health and nutrition
2. Improve infant and young child feeding practices
3. Invest in early childhood development
4. Expand social assistance
5. Use schools to reach older children and adolescents
6. Protect children from harmful business practices
7. Strengthen leadership and political will

It is important to look beyond individual behaviour to identify and address the systemic and structural drivers 🔎⚙️💵 of...
20/03/2026

It is important to look beyond individual behaviour to identify and address the systemic and structural drivers 🔎⚙️💵 of malnutrition.

While the immediate causes of undernutrition are a poor-quality diet and frequent infections, underlying drivers include poverty, food insecurity and inadequate access to water, sanitation and healthcare.

Similarly, while the immediate driver of overnutrition is an unhealthy diet (high in carbohydrates, non-perishable and processed foods and low in dietary diversity), the food choices of caregivers and their children are shaped in powerful ways by how much money they have to spend on food, by their local food environment and by the national and global food system.

Today at 14:30 we are presenting our child-centred submission to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) National Inquiry into Food Systems.

📄 Read our submission: https://ci.uct.ac.za/articles/2026-03-05-submission-sahrc-national-inquiry-food-systems-south-africa

📺 Watch our presentation via the SAHRC Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/

🥣🧠❤️‍🩹 Stunting is a sign of chronic malnutrition that compromises children’s physical growth and their developing brains in ways that undermine their long-term learning and development, and ultimately their employment prospects. Stunting is also associated with increased risk of developing diet-related non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension in adolescence and adulthood.

Children who are overweight are also at higher risk of developing obesity and other serious health problems later in life including diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, sleep disorders, and liver disease 🫀🫁 Being overweight can also affect self-esteem, mental health, school performance, and quality of life; especially when coupled with stigma, discrimination and bullying.

Today at 14:30 we are presenting our child-centred submission to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) Natio...
20/03/2026

Today at 14:30 we are presenting our child-centred submission to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) National Inquiry into Food Systems 🌱 We argue that the health and development of children are being compromised by a double burden ⚠️ of both undernutrition and over-nutrition – with many young children who are both stunted and overweight/obese.

1 in 4 young children are stunted or short for age – they are getting enough food to take the edge off their hunger, but they are not getting the nutrients they need for healthy growth and brain development 🧠 At the same time, 1 in 4 young children are overweight or obese because they are eating foods that are high in energy, and low in nutrients eg. sugar-sweetened beverages, fast food, processed meats, sugary snacks, fried foods, and refined carbohydrates.

Undernutrition and over-nutrition are two sides of the same coin – and both overweight and stunted children are at greater risk of becoming obese and developing diet-related non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

The challenge of stunting is acknowledged by South Africa’s policymakers, but the rapid increase in overweight and obesity in children under five is not yet well understood.

The most recent World Obesity Atlas states that South Africa has seen the second highest increase in children with high body mass index from 2000 – 2016, and it projects that rates will continue to increase at 6.2% a year – from a baseline of 31% in 2020 to affect a staggering 71% of 5 – 19 year olds in 2035.

In our submission to the SAHRC we emphasise:
💵 The systemic and structural drivers of malnutrition, such as high-income poverty and how individual food choices are shaped by unhealthy local food environments and an increasingly profit-driven broader food system.
⛓️‍💥 The consequences and cost of malnutrition for children, their families and our society.
🏛️ The state has an immediate constitutional obligation to uphold the right of children to basic nutrition.
3️⃣ principles and 7️⃣ steps that will help ensure that child nutrition and children’s best interests are placed at the centre of our efforts to reform the food system.

📺 Watch our presentation via the SAHRC YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/
📄 Read our full submission: https://ci.uct.ac.za/articles/2026-03-05-submission-sahrc-national-inquiry-food-systems-south-africa

Alongside the teens of the Child Centred Governance Academy, and with the support of the Nelson Mandela Childrens Fund, ...
17/03/2026

Alongside the teens of the Child Centred Governance Academy, and with the support of the Nelson Mandela Childrens Fund, we’ve taken the findings and recommendations of the South African Child Gauge 2025, and created social media content 📲that can be used to help young people to understand the relationship between violence against women and violence against children.

The full series of social media cards with the key messages will be shared via the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the Child Centred Governance Academy over the next few weeks – alongside podcasts produced by RX Radio SA.

🎙️ RX Radio – a radio station that is by and for children, based at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital – will be releasing conversations between its young journalists and the Child Gauge 2025 authors, via Facebook and Instagram.



Christina Nomdo Lucy Jamieson Mercilene Machisa Patrick Burton Wessel van den Berg Tarisai Mchuchu-MacMillan Lori Lake

Are we doing enough to protect children from extreme heat? 🥵 Around the world, and in South Africa, temperatures are ris...
04/02/2026

Are we doing enough to protect children from extreme heat? 🥵 Around the world, and in South Africa, temperatures are rising, and activities such as the burning of fossil fuels are driving a rapid rise in the intensity, frequency and duration of heatwaves.

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has issued an urgent call to action to address the impacts of extreme heat and protect the most vulnerable.

Infants and young children are particularly vulnerable, as they heat up more quickly than adults and can easily become dehydrated or go into shock. They are also dependent on adults to regulate their temperature and fluid intake. Yet their specific needs and vulnerabilities are rarely addressed in government policies and heat action plans.

People living in informal housing are at greater risk, as temperatures can be up to 10 degrees higher than outside, with the highest indoor temperatures exceeding 50°C. This threatens the health of children left indoors, as well as those attending the many early childhood development centres housed in poorly insulated shacks or shipping containers. An estimated 1.6 million South African children (8%) live in informal housing, a third of whom are under the age of six.

📰 Read more of the article by James Irlam and our Lori Lake in Daily Maverick: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-11-26-too-hot-to-handle-are-we-doing-enough-to-protect-children-from-extreme-heat/

50% of mental disorders have their onset before the age of 14, so it is vital to intervene early in the life-course to p...
20/01/2026

50% of mental disorders have their onset before the age of 14, so it is vital to intervene early in the life-course to promote optimal mental health. An estimated 17% of South Africa’s children have a diagnosable and treatable mental disorder, yet only one in 10 are able to access care, with specialist child and adolescent mental health services being concentrated in a handful of urban centres.

Therefore, innovative approaches, such as the Western Cape’s child and adolescent mental health service-strengthening project, are required to bring services and support closer to home.

This paper, co-written by our Lori Lake, synthesises the latest evidence on child and adolescent mental health in South Africa, arguing that early investments therein are essential for breaking the intergenerational cycle of violence, poverty, discrimination, and mental ill-health, and identifying opportunities for intervention and systems-strengthening both within and outside the healthcare system.

Read more: https://sahr.hst.org.za/article/142241-putting-child-and-adolescent-mental-health-at-the-centre-building-an-ecosystem-of-support?auth_token=hI6kgUVLXiuUidqDOFIV


South African Health Review Health Systems Trust

🏫 🎒 🫶 How can schools transition from being environments that potentially reinforce violence into sites that disrupt har...
14/01/2026

🏫 🎒 🫶 How can schools transition from being environments that potentially reinforce violence into sites that disrupt harm? Schools are pivotal in shaping attitudes toward gender roles and relationships. Interventions must include a gender-transformative focus from an early age, modelling and promoting gender-equitable norms through curricula on healthy relationships, gender equality, and conflict resolution.

💚 Social-emotional learning is one of the most promising strategies for mitigating the long-term impacts of exposure to violence. Social-emotional learning programmes equips students with the skills required to recognise and manage emotions, develop empathy, make responsible decisions, and handle challenging situations effectively.

🧑‍🏫 Teachers must be equipped with the skills to identify early signs of trauma and abuse and provide initial support to victims. Corporal punishment, which persists despite being banned, and which normalises violence as a problem-solving tool, must be eradicated through adherence to clear, non-violent behaviour management strategies.

📱 Technology-facilitated violence, which includes cyberbullying, intensifies existing harms and demands a systemic response. School safety policies must explicitly embed child online protection and digital safety, treating them as core components, not ‘add-ons’. Essential prevention strategies include media and digital literacy programmes.

Lasting change requires evidence-based, whole-school strategies.

Read more about this in the Child Gauge 2025 🔗 bit.ly/4oqDxv4 or in the opinion editorial 🔗 https://www.news24.com/opinions/analysis/analysis-beyond-punishment-systematic-solutions-to-end-school-violence-20251112-1060

In South Africa, intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence against women, and it is pervasive. Accor...
01/12/2025

In South Africa, intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence against women, and it is pervasive. According to the National Gender-Based Violence Prevalence Study, 24% of women aged 18 and older have experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner or spouse.

Pregnancy can trigger or worsen violence in relationships, often due to changes in power dynamics, financial stress, or a partner’s perceived loss of control.

A longitudinal study in Durban found that 20% of women had experienced at least one form of physical, sexual or psychological intimate partner violence during pregnancy. Another study in Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic capital, found 36.6% of young women reported violence by a partner or spouse, and pregnancy was cited as a key risk period for violence.

Children are directly and indirectly affected by this violence against women. They also experience violence across a range of settings, including their homes, schools and communities. The Birth to Thirty study, a research programme tracking the lives of a group of people in the South African township of Soweto, found that 99% of the cohort had been exposed to at least one type of violence. And 40% had been exposed to five or six other types of violence.

In this piece for The Conversation Africa, our Dr Phiwe Nota and Prof Wiedaad Slemming highlight three approaches that can guide South Africa’s efforts to prevent violence against women and children (based on their Child Gauge chapter co-written with Aislinn Delany).

👶🏽 start early
🔀🏥 work across sectors, with the Department of Health playing a critical role
🌱 transform harmful gender norms

Read more: http://bit.ly/48JivSR

Key messages of South African Child Gauge 2025 💬 Violence can be prevented. South Africa’s efforts to break intergenerat...
25/11/2025

Key messages of South African Child Gauge 2025 💬 Violence can be prevented. South Africa’s efforts to break intergenerational cycles of harm must treat violence against women and children as interconnected crises. 🔃 Violence against women and violence against children often co-occur in the same households, share common risk factors and are perpetuated by societal norms that legitimise or tolerate violence. Government must invest in transforming gender norms, and providing integrated services and trauma-informed care.

🤰👶 Intervening early to break the cycle of violence alleviates the burden on the health, social and criminal justice services. It enhances human capital and social cohesion, and it boosts economic development. Improving coordination at local, provincial and national levels avoids duplication and saves costs, while adopting an integrated approach ensures that no one is left behind.

📚📊📌 Download the full publication, the policy brief, or the poster https://bit.ly/4oqDxv4


UNICEF South Africa Nelson Mandela Childrens Fund Tutuwa Community Foundation; DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, Wits University; LEGO Foundation; Ford Foundation UCT Faculty of Health Sciences

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