Analysis of the Children’s Sector in South Africa

Save the Children South Africa commissioned a mapping of the children’s sector in South Africa as of June 2014 to provide an information platform to inform its strategic reflection and planning process. The brief for the mapping exercise, the results of which are documented in this paper, was to work within Save the Children’s global strategic framework of priority rights and breakthrough outcomes to identify:

• Catalytic issues impacting on children’s constitutional rights to health and nutrition, education, protection and child rights governance;
• Who the various actors are that are working on the issues and what issues are currently being pursued by the sector; and
• Where the strategic gaps are that Save the Children South Africa should fill. That is to say, what catalytic issues are being inadequately addressed or not addressed at all.

The analysis finds that the slippage of the political prioritization of children in South Africa alongside the reduced resources and capacity of the children’s sector requires a child rights champion in the country.