What we are reading...

This article examines South Africa’s Child Support Grant as a tool shifting from child-focused relief to broader women’s empowerment. It shows how grants improve household welfare, strengthen women’s financial control, and support livelihoods in rural areas, while highlighting ongoing structural challenges that limit transformative impacts on poverty and gender inequality.

This study computes comparable child stunting rates for 122 countries across the 20th century, extending our understanding of child stunting much deeper into the past. Countries that have eradicated stunting could provide further evidence on how to eradicate child stunting today.

This is a research article examining how South Africa’s policy and enabling environment for young child nutrition has evolved since 1994. It finds that despite improved nutrition policies, persistent malnutrition and governance gaps remain. It highlights political commitment, coordination barriers, and implementation challenges shaping child nutrition outcomes at national and provincial levels.

This is a UNICEF summary on violence against children in South Africa explains how children experience abuse and violence at home, school, in communities, workplaces, and the justice system. It highlights physical, sexual, emotional abuse, bullying, corporal punishment, neglect, and cyberbullying.

This is an analytical report examining how child predation and sexual exploitation narratives are spreading on South African social media. It finds troubling trends like the normalisation of adult‑minor sexual relations, coded grooming language, proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and online discourse that blames victims or trivialises exploitation. The report highlights urgent needs for stronger platform accountability, law enforcement action and public awareness to protect children online.

This is a summary of an ATNi policy brief on South Africa’s retail food sector, highlighting how retailer practices affect diets. It calls for stronger policies to promote healthier products, improve affordability and availability, enhance transparency, and encourage responsible marketing to support better nutrition and public health outcomes.

This is a summary of an ATNi country report assessing South Africa’s retail food environment, examining how major retailers influence access to nutritious foods through product availability, pricing, and promotions. It finds most products are unhealthy, healthier options are less accessible and affordable, and stronger retailer policies are needed.

This report is part of the Blue Umbrella Day campaign, which focuses on raising global awareness of sexual violence affecting boys an under‑recognised issue. It explores harmful social norms, barriers to reporting and support, and how attitudes toward masculinity can silence boys’ experiences. The report calls for improved data, tailored services, community education, and advocacy to better protect and support boys affected by sexual abuse

A handbook providing practical guidance for policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders on selecting, designing, implementing, evaluating and scaling evidence‑based parenting interventions. It offers step‑by‑step tools, templates and examples to support effective programme delivery across settings, emphasising stakeholder engagement, monitoring and sustainability. The resource bridges research evidence with real‑world practice to strengthen parenting support and improve child development outcomes globally.

This is a practical synthesis summarising lessons from various caregiver support programmes to help philanthropic funders in South Africa understand what works in supporting caregivers and families. It distils key insights on approaches, outcomes, implementation challenges and effective practices, guiding funder decisions to strengthen caregiver services and impact.

This quality assessment tool offers a structured checklist of key service delivery qualities for early childhood programmes. Designed to rate aspects of parenting support delivery (home visits or group sessions), it highlights provider behaviours linked to effective outcomes and helps monitor and improve the quality of early childhood service interactions.

This document outlines a global advocacy initiative by the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Consortium promoting WHO/UNICEF‑recommended multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) with 15 essential vitamins and minerals for pregnant women. It equips advocates, policymakers, and donors with evidence, messaging, and tools to scale MMS in antenatal care to improve maternal and newborn health worldwide. MMS is shown to enhance pregnancy outcomes, strengthen economies, and support healthier futures for families and communities.

Micronutrients are vital for healthy growth and pregnancy, yet many women in low- and middle-income countries face deficiencies. Daily requirements rise during pregnancy, making prenatal multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) essential for preventing deficiencies and promoting healthier maternal and fetal outcomes, now recognized by WHO as essential.

The South African Child Gauge 2024 focuses on early childhood development from conception to school start, analysing progress, challenges and evidence to guide policy and practice. It highlights the science of ECD, gaps in services like immunisation and early learning access, and calls for strengthened systems, financing, leadership and data to ensure young children thrive and contribute to national development.

This book examines the system‑level and contextual barriers to preventive ear and hearing care in Africa, including challenges in early hearing detection and intervention programmes, workforce limitations, data systems, cultural factors, infrastructure and policy gaps. It highlights how health system constraints and sociocultural diversity affect preventive audiology delivery and offers evidence‑based recommendations for sustainable improvement.

OCLC: 1482701165

This edited volume examines how parents and caregivers shape educational outcomes across South Africa. Drawing on research, policy analysis and case studies, the book explores challenges facing families, schools and communities, while highlighting practical strategies for collaboration. It emphasises that stronger parental involvement can improve educational equity, learner development, school relationships and long-term academic success.

The Road to Health Book helps record a child’s growth, immunisations, and health interventions, and provides caregivers with practical health, nutrition, love, protection, healthcare, and extra‑care information to support their child’s development. It also encourages collaboration between caregivers and health workers and is available as a digital app (eRTHB).

This report provides the first globally comparable data on children with disabilities, estimating nearly 240 million children (about 1 in 10) have disabilities. It shows they face greater disadvantages in health, nutrition, education, and protection than children without disabilities, highlighting widespread exclusion and calling for inclusive policies, better data, and equitable services to uphold their rights.

This handbook provides practical guidance for planning, implementing and monitoring vision and hearing screening programs for school‑age children. It offers evidence‑based steps, tools, and strategies for countries and health/education planners to integrate screening into school health services and improve early detection and referral of eye and hearing problems.

This policy brief outlines the integrated, people‑centred approach to ear and hearing care across the life course. It emphasises prevention, early detection, rehabilitation and inclusion within health systems, advocating for coordinated services that are accessible, affordable and equitable. The brief highlights the need to strengthen policies, data, workforce and resources to address hearing loss globally.

In this book international experts compile evidence supporting Universal Newborn Hearing Screening and Early Hearing Detection and Intervention services. The book examines essential programme elements, global performance, and required resources, making a compelling case for stronger recognition to improve outcomes for deaf and hard-of-hearing children.

This report estimates the global costs when hearing loss goes untreated, including health, education, productivity and social care impacts, and evaluates how early detection and cost-effective interventions (like screening and hearing aids) can reduce this burden.

This examines young children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development across participating countries. The report highlights the importance of supportive home environments, quality early childhood education, and equitable learning opportunities, showing how early experiences shape well-being, school readiness, and long-term life outcomes.

This report compiles updated evidence, country case studies, and practical resources to support introduction and scale-up of multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) for pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries. It summarizes benefits of MMS compared with iron-folic acid, explores implementation barriers and enablers, and highlights policy and programmatic lessons to improve maternal and newborn outcomes.

This is a toolkit helping countries adapt evidence-based antenatal and postnatal care recommendations to their local context. It guides policymakers and health planners in reviewing WHO guidelines, developing appropriate maternal and newborn care packages, and updating national policies to improve pregnancy and post-birth experiences for women and families

This Activity Book is aimed at a wide age range of young people interested in learning more about the right to foods for a better life and a better future. Although the general target age is 8-12 years, it could also be used to teach both younger and older students.

This is a summary of ATNi’s Retail Assessment 2025, evaluating how global food retailers shape consumer diets through product portfolios, pricing, placement, and promotions. It finds retailers often prioritise less healthy options, with limited commitments to nutrition, and urges stronger accountability, transparency, and strategies to improve access to healthier foods.

This is a media statement outlining that the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) will convene a National Investigative Hearing into South Africa’s food systems during Human Rights Month in March 2026. The hearing will examine persistent hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity despite the country’s food production capacity.

This article discusses how South African men are actively involved in caregiving, often as social fathers (uncles, grandfathers, stepfathers or mentors) even where public policy still assumes caregiving is a maternal role. It argues for recognising and supporting diverse fathering roles, updating policies and services to be father‑inclusive, and moving beyond outdated assumptions about father absence and breadwinning toward shared, nurturing care.