What we are reading...

This report examines child poverty in South Africa using the MODA approach, measuring multiple deprivations beyond income. It finds slight improvements from 2015–2023, but over half of children remain poor. Poverty is shaped by inequality, geography, and household conditions, with persistent disparities despite gains in income-based poverty reduction.

This report shows that child poverty remains widespread and complex, with hundreds of millions of children living in extreme or multidimensional deprivation across health, education, water and sanitation, nutrition and protection. It emphasises that poverty undermines survival and development, highlights stalled progress and intersecting crises (conflict, climate, funding shortfalls), and calls for urgent policies social protection, public services, decent work and rights‑centred planning to end child poverty globally.

A report by UNICEF Innocenti which explores nine core capacities such as empathizing, observing, listening, and inquiring that are foundational for children’s living, learning, and well-being. It synthesises evidence on how these skills develop and how education systems and broader social policies can nurture them to improve children’s growth and potential worldwide.

This is a 2025 UNICEF global report on progress in parenting and early childhood development. It highlights how supporting parents with strong policies, services and programmes enables nurturing care that promotes children’s health, learning and well‑being. The report reviews progress, challenges and offers recommendations to strengthen parenting support worldwide.

This report highlights South Africa’s ongoing school dropout crisis, showing that up to 4 in 10 learners leave before Grade 12. It argues that school dropout is driven by cumulative psychosocial issues like poverty, violence, poor mental health, hunger, weak support and unsafe environments, and stresses embedding psychosocial support into schooling to keep learners engaged and improve retention.

This policy brief reviews evidence from 16 randomized evaluations of adolescent girls’ life skills programmes in low‑ and middle‑income countries. It shows that life skills training strengthens girls’ “power within” confidence, aspirations and gender attitudes enabling them to make choices that improve education, labour, health, and empowerment outcomes. The brief also outlines key behavioural mechanisms and design insights for effective life skills programming.

This is a UNICEF Innocenti strategic framework that identifies key research priorities to close critical evidence gaps for children with disabilities and ensure their full inclusion in policy and programs. Developed through extensive global consultation, it promotes disability-inclusive, participatory research, outlines priority topics (e.g., education, protection, social support), and calls governments, donors and researchers to act on evidence for real-world impact.

This is a 2018 guideline setting standards for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI). It recommends screening, diagnosis and intervention timelines for infants, aiming for hearing screening by about six weeks, diagnosis by four months and intervention by eight months, to support timely identification of hearing impairment and promote optimal child communication and development. The guideline adapts international EHDI standards to South Africa’s health context and emphasises audiologists’ roles and systematic EHDI service delivery.

This is a technical guidance handbook designed to help countries plan and set up evidence‑based hearing screening programmes across the life course. It builds on the World Report on Hearing by advising public health planners and ministries on how to screen newborns and infants, school‑age children, and older adults, including who to screen, tools and protocols to use, follow‑up pathways and integration with health systems to enable early identification and intervention for hearing loss and ear diseases.

This book explores early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) in African contexts. It reviews identification, diagnosis, and intervention for childhood hearing impairment, highlights unique challenges in low- and middle-income settings, and offers culturally responsive, evidence-based practices, policy insights, and case studies aimed at improving outcomes for children with hearing loss across the continent.

This report highlights global hearing loss as a major public health issue, urges integration of people‑centred ear and hearing care into health systems, and promotes cost‑effective interventions to prevent and address hearing loss across the lifespan.

This article explains how strengthening South Africa’s alcohol excise tax structure can reduce alcohol‑related harm. It argues that increasing taxes above inflation and using narrower, alcohol‑content‑based tiers can raise prices, cut consumption, and encourage lower‑strength products, ultimately lowering deaths, injuries and healthcare costs.

This report shows that South Africa has high alcohol consumption, averaging 27 litres of pure alcohol per person in 2019 about five glasses of wine, beer, or spirits daily. Rethink Your Drink, a DGMT project, targets excessive drinking to reduce social and health harms. It uses strategic litigation, carefully chosen legal cases against the industry or government, to create broader societal change rather than resolving individual disputes.

This report from Movendi International reveals how multinational alcohol companies coordinated global interference throughout 2025, intensifying political lobbying, narrative control, and digital promotion to delay evidence-based alcohol policy. Based on 1,300 monitored cases and 77 studies, it exposes systematic tactics that protect industry interests at the expense of public health and equity.

The Blueprint presents a practical pathway to align and mobilise the entire early learning ecosystem, from government, communities and early learning programme (ELP) providers, to families, NGOs and funders, to move at scale, with speed, and sustainability, so no child is left behind

This standards document provides developmental expectations and learning goals for children from birth to age four. It supports curriculum planning, caregiver preparation, monitoring of early learning programmes, parenting, school-readiness assessment and the improvement of teaching and caregiving quality by outlining key developmental domains and appropriate activities.

This paper explores the concept of “mattering” the feeling that one is valued and has something to contribute and explains why it’s crucial in early childhood development. It argues that this sense first emerges in infancy and shapes lifelong health, emotional wellbeing, resilience, and social skills. Feeling that they matter helps children build confidence, cope with stress, and develop positive relationships. The authors provide scientific insights and practical strategies for caregivers, educators, and policymakers to foster mattering in young children’s lives and environments.

This publication outlines key principles for designing and implementing effective parenting programmes that support nurturing care in early childhood. It discusses the role of such programmes in improving child development outcomes, essential components (e.g., content, delivery, caregiver engagement), measurement and monitoring, and policy implications for scaling interventions that strengthen family and community support systems globally.

This report argues that investing in early childhood development is one of the most effective ways to improve human capital and economic growth. The report outlines evidence-based interventions in health, nutrition, early learning, and caregiving, demonstrating how targeted investments generate substantial long-term social, educational, and economic returns.

This study by UNICEF in South Africa assessed parents’ and caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) about the role of play in early learning. It found that while most caregivers recognise play’s developmental importance for language, cognitive and socio-emotional skills, many face barriers such as limited time, stress and lack of confidence. The findings informed programmes, including the #PowerOfPlay campaign, to strengthen play-based learning at home.

This report summarises global research showing that digital devices are increasingly used to comfort babies and support parents during the first 1,001 critical days of life. Screen use among infants is widespread, sometimes used for sleep and soothing, despite guidance discouraging it under age two. While technology helps manage parenting stress, high early screen exposure is linked to potential developmental risks, highlighting the need for balanced, informed use and stronger support for families.

This study by UNICEF in South Africa assessed parents’ and caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) about the role of play in early learning. It found that while most caregivers recognise play’s developmental importance for language, cognitive and socio-emotional skills, many face barriers such as limited time, stress and lack of confidence. The findings informed programmes, including the #PowerOfPlay campaign, to strengthen play-based learning at home.

Early Childhood Matters is a global storytelling platform connecting voices and ideas that advance collective thinking on early childhood development. It aims to ignite conversations and widen perspectives on what we can do to ensure a good start for all babies, toddlers and their caregivers.

This study by UNICEF in South Africa assessed parents’ and caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) about the role of play in early learning. It found that while most caregivers recognise play’s developmental importance for language, cognitive and socio-emotional skills, many face barriers such as limited time, stress and lack of confidence. The findings informed programmes, including the #PowerOfPlay campaign, to strengthen play-based learning at home.

Give your child the best start! Early childhood development thrives when children receive nurturing care, a loving home, and a caring community. From pregnancy to preschool, support services and extra care for families help children grow, learn, and reach their full potential.

This guide outlines good practice elements for parenting support programmes linked to Early Childhood Development (ECD). It describes core areas programme design, common topics, delivery models, monitoring and evaluation, state support systems, and centralised information—and offers tips for engaging parents/caregivers and addressing their needs in diverse contexts.

This is a UNICEF South Africa report using a pilot benchmarking tool to assess how well national policies support universal parenting. It reviews strengths and gaps in South Africa’s legislative, institutional and programmatic landscape, noting solid foundations but recommending stronger coordination, sustained funding, and integrated monitoring to scale parenting support.

This report is a 2016 study showing how South African experts, policymakers and the public think differently about early childhood development (ECD). It highlights where views overlap and diverge, especially around the age when key development happens, and offers suggestions for better communication to build wider understanding and support for early-childhood policies.

This is a UNICEF guidance document providing a framework for multi‑sectoral support to parents of children from pregnancy to age 8. It outlines strategies, entry points, and delivery platforms to strengthen parenting support across health, education, and social sectors, aiming to enhance child development and overall family well‑being in Europe and Central Asia.

This playbook outlines how digital innovation can strengthen support for parents and caregivers through accessible, inclusive, and evidence-based services. It emphasizes using technology to improve parenting support, child development, and family wellbeing. The framework encourages collaboration, ethical digital design, and equitable access to ensure vulnerable families benefit from transformative digital solutions globally.