Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

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Department of Home Affairs (ii) This process is likely to be changed to become more onerous once the Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Bill becomes law and the relevant Regulations relating to the application procedures for registration are promulgated. See discussion later in this chapter with regards to the proposed Bill. (iii) The Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Bill makes provision for the designation of undertakers running funeral parlours, upon application, for the purpose of registering deaths and requires that the Director-General of Home Affairs keeps a register of all designated undertakers (Article 8). Some key policy and service delivery gaps It is a well-established fact that vulnerable children are particularly at risk of not being able to access their enabling documents. This aggravates their vulnerability. This review will explore some of the policy and service delivery disjunctures contributing to this risk for three particularly vulnerable groups of children: children living in poverty, very young children, and children affected by HIV/AIDS. Children living in poverty Over the past eight years there has been a general increase in the number of birth registrations in South Africa. In 2009, the births of 85 per cent of children were registered in the year of their birth (Stats SA 2010b: 2). This was an increase from 25 per cent in 1998. However, these improvements conceal pockets of poor registration in impoverished, especially rural, communities. Those who are poorest continue to have the poorest access to enabling documents. There is a provincial and local variability in the proportion of children whose births are not registered, with a strong correlation between poverty and poor birth registration rates. The provinces with the greatest proportion of poor children have the lowest proportion of births registered in the year of birth. The situation is particularly severe in predominantly rural provinces. For example, in KwaZulu-Natal in 2005, only 62 per cent of births were registered in the year of birth, compared with 97 per cent in the Western Cape (Giese & Smith 2007; Stats SA 2006). In KwaZulu-Natal, the birth registration rate is worst in the more rural areas. A survey conducted in 2005 in the rural Umkhanyakude district showed that between 10 per cent and 45 per cent of children attending primary school did not have a birth certificate and between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of children at high school did not have birth certificates. In 2003, a survey conducted by the Media in Education Trust of 35 schools in the rural areas of Mt Ayliff, Dudumeni and Flagstaff in the Eastern Cape revealed that 51 per cent of learners did not have birth certificates (in Giese & Smith 2007: 28). Reasons for poor access to enabling documents ● A tendency by local community members and caregivers not to recognise the intrinsic importance of birth registration and enabling documents. 13 ● The multiplicity of supporting documents that are required to effect a late birth registration (after the age of one), the difficulty of obtaining these documents and the complexity of the types of documents that are required inhibit birth registrations (Giese & Smith 2007). ● The cost of transport to travel to Home Affairs (which is aggravated by the need for multiple visits), the cost of obtaining supporting documents, the cost of photocopies for certification purposes and the cost of photographs (Giese & Smith 2007). 13 This finding is supported by three separate research reports: Giese and Smith (2007), Peters and Williams (2009) and Save the Children UK (2006). 13
Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable children in SA ● ● ● ● There is a lack of accessible sites of service delivery in rural areas. In addition, both permanent and mobile service delivery sites in rural areas lack essential and basic resources. Both the Save the Children UK (2006) and the Peters and Williams (2009) reports document the lack of basic equipment in rural service centres, such as computers and photocopying equipment. Poorly trained and supervised staff, especially at Home Affairs service points in rural areas, create an obstacle to speedy and efficient processing of registrations and applications for certificates (Giese & Smith 2007; Peters & Williams 2009). Fraud and corruption by Home Affairs staff who extort money from already impoverished clients is a further obstacle to poor and vulnerable people obtaining their documentation. At present, there is only half the number of recommended sites of delivery required to meet demand in South Africa. 14 The existing sites do not all offer a full complement of Home Affairs’ services. Services are currently available through a five-tier service delivery structure: 1 Regional offices (42 across the country) 2 District offices (120 across the country) 3 Permanent service points and Thusong centres (99 across the country) 4 Mobile units (109 across the country) 5 Hospital registration sites (101 across the country) Birth registration is the only service that is available at all five tiers. Late birth registrations are only available at regional and district levels. 15 Services in rural areas The Thusong centres, mobile units and hospitals are intended to address the reach of services into rural, impoverished areas. Thusong centres Previously known as Multi-Purpose Community Centres, the Thusong centres were established in terms of the Thusong Service Centre Programme in 1999. The objective of the centres is to extend government services, in an integrated manner, into rural and outlying underserviced communities. The services offered at the centres include accessing birth certificates and identity documents, grants and housing applications. 16 However, there are not enough Thusong centres in the targeted communities. As a result, the travelling distance and cost involved remain barriers in some of the communities serviced by these centres. In addition, the centres are insufficiently resourced. For example, the study conducted by Peters and Williams (2009) in the Ratlou district in the North West province found that there was only one Thusong centre in the district. It was at least 10 kilometres from the closest villages. The cost of transport for those closest to the centre is R7, which is a significant sum of money for the impoverished community members of Ratlou. Furthermore, there is only one staff member staffing the centre and the centre has no computer facilities, so all applications have to be sent to district offices to be processed. 14 The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was commissioned by the DoHA to review its ‘footprint’. The working assumption was that people should not have to travel more than 30 minutes to their closest service point and mobile units should serve communities of less than 20 000 (in Giese & Smith 2007). 15 Acting Deputy Director-General: Civic Services, 2008; available at http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20080801-accesseducation-children-special-needs-birth-certificates-and-id-doc 16 Thusong Service Centres, Business Plan 2006–2014; available at http://www.thusong.gov.za/documents/establish_ rollout/business_plan/reports/thusongbusplan.pdf 14
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Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

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