The Child Survival Project was aimed at contributing to research and advocacy on child survival in South Africa.
Given the large amount of preventable child deaths, the project aimed to harness evidence needed to aid integrated planning between sectors whose efforts could potentially improve child survival in South Africa. The project made available information on child deaths to key decision-makers to:
- place children’s health issues on the national agenda by lobbying for an annual child death inquiry; and
- lobby for an integrated approach across all sectors to reduce child deaths at national, provincial and local levels.
The project identified measures by the South African government could potentially impact on child survival. These were analysed using a refined and detailed version of the ‘reasonableness test’ developed by the Constitutional Court in past cases that dealt with socio-economic rights. These measures were examined to assess the extent to which the State is fulfilling its baseline obligations to children’s rights of survival and development.
Further reading
Rights in Brief: Children's right to survival and maximum development
Dutsche M & Abrahams 2006
Child Survival roundtable report
Abrahams K 2006
Hosted in Cape Town, 23−24 March 2006.
Facts about 'Invisible' and Excluded Children (2006)
Matthews T
Child Count − Abantwana Babalulekile fact sheet number 4 of 2006.
Making a case for child survival in South Africa's 'Age of Hope'
Abrahams K 2006
Children's Institute working paper number 4.
Facts about child deaths in South Africa (2006)
Abrahams K 2006
Children Count - Abantwana Babalulekile fact sheet no. 1 of 2006.
Antiretroviral roll-out in South Africa: Where do children feature?
Shung-King M & Zampoli M 2005
Save the Children Sweden & Children's Institute.
Ten years of democracy: Reviewing child deaths
Lagerdien K 2005
In: Child Rights in Focus, issue number 3, June 2005.
Deaths at the Red Cross Children's Hospital 1999 - 2003
Grandin W, Westwood A, Lagerdien K & Shung-King M 2005
Children's Institute & the Department of Paediatrics, Red Cross Children's Hospital & School of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town. Tags: Child health services Child poverty