Purpose & Approach

The South African National Child Rights Coalition (SANCRC) has been established to provide an effective platform for coordinated, collective advocacy by like-minded civil society organisations and activists to advance the realisation of children’s rights.

Vision

South Africa has a child-centred rights-based national governance system that:

Ensures that children’s rights are recognised as a national, rights-based development imperative
Ensures children’s rights are realised through state-wide action by every organ of state and non-government partners, through the development of strong systems
Ensures universal realisation of the right of every child to survive, develop, be protected and participate, especially the most vulnerable and marginalised.

Mission

To facilitate coordinated civil society communication and advocacy for a stronger national child rights governance system that ensures that children’s rights to survive, protection, to develop to their full potential and participate are recognised and advanced as a national rights-based, development priority by all role players.

Goals

South Africa has a child-centred rights-based national governance system that sustains a developmental national child care and protection system that:

Ensures compliance with child and human rights treaty obligations
Ensures that children’s rights are recognised as a national, rights-based development imperative
Ensures state-wide action and accountability for realising the rights of every child, especially the most vulnerable and marginalised, to survive, develop to their full potential, be protected and participate in all decisions that affect them.

Objectives

To strengthen the following foundational building blocks of a child rights governance system:

An enabling legal framework that mandates, enables, and holds all role players responsible for providing the support and services required to ensure the equal and optimal development, protection, and participation of all children.
An integrated programme that provides every family and the children in their care with the complete suite of services and support they need to provide and receive nurturing care across five core domains / rights:
- Health care for survival, prevention or illness and disability and promotion of healthy development
- Nutrition to prevent malnutrition and ensure healthy growth and development
- Responsive caregiving that ensures children receive age-appropriate love, care and protection through positive parenting that responds to children’s needs
  d. Education from birth until a child completes their schooling/ enters post-schooling education
- Security and safety through access to basic services to ensure a healthy environment, birth certificates and identity documents, social protection, and protection from abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Effective mechanisms for identifying all families and children at risk and their needs, and mechanisms to ensure their access to appropriate quality services to enable nurturing care.
Effective mechanisms to ensure government-wide and coordinated planning and provisioning of the required combinations of services to children and their families.
Adequate human, financial and infrastructural resources to plan, provide, deliver, monitor and report on delivery and impact of the required quality programmes.
Mechanisms to secure government-wide monitoring, measurement, reporting on and accountability for access to the required quality services that make an impact on children’s rights.
Mechanisms to ensure ongoing improvement in provisioning to secure universal realisation of children’s rights.

Functions Of The Coalition

To facilitate coordination of civil society for effective realisation of children’s rights.
To facilitate collaboration to amplify civil society’s voice, resources and impact on children’s survival, protection, development and participation.
Provide a unifying, communications, advocacy and planning platform for bringing together a broad-based coalition of organisations to collaborate in advancing a shared vision of a strong national, child rights governance system that realises the rights of every child in South Africa.
Draw on our collective networks, knowledge, expertise and materials to build a stronger civil society movement.
Establish a web-based resource hub for the children’s sector where all relevant information will be housed and can be freely accessed.
Facilitate the sharing of information amongst members, but also between members and government, the media, development partners and business.
Provide regular updates on changes, developments and processes that impact on children to the coalition members using social and other media platforms.
Facilitate the monitoring of responses, identification of critical challenges, and supporting and holding responsible role players to account for appropriate redress.
Enable and facilitate the identification of critical gaps and challenges in current responses through interactive engagement with coalition members.
Establish platforms for collective and inclusive deliberation and advocacy to resolve challenges.
Facilitate civil society participation in international, regional and national decision-making and accountability processes.

Theory Of Change

The SANCR will advocate collectively to address critical systemic weaknesses in child rights governance to secure a developmental child care and protection system that complies with treaty obligations and realises the rights of every child to survive, be protected, develop to their full potential and participate in all decisions that affect them.