Experts welcome South Africa's new strategy for children and call for increased focus on mental health

NSAAC proposes several nutrition-focused measures. These include restoring the child grant to the food poverty line for infants, introducing a maternity grant, strengthening breastfeeding support, improving early detection of malnutrition, and tightening regulation of marketing for infant formulas and ultra-processed foods.

Stoffberg emphasized that these commitments recognize pregnancy and the first two years of life as the best opportunity to improve lifelong health and development for children. She stated: 'Reducing stunting is not just a health goal; it is an investment in South Africa's future workforce, educational outcomes, and economic growth.'

Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA) also welcomed the strategy's emphasis on improving child nutrition. Angelika Kruger, Advocacy Manager at HEALA, reported that the organization supports commitments to regulating the marketing of unhealthy food and infant formulas while making nutritious food more accessible. Nevertheless, she insisted that implementation must include the final approval of warning label rules on the front of packaging for high-sugar, high-salt, and high-saturated-fat products.

Kruger added that children can be protected by simple measures such as a warning label system on packaging, noting that ongoing delays allowed unhealthy products to remain insufficiently regulated.

Although mental health is recognized throughout the strategy through commitments to strengthening developmental screening, referral pathways, and integrated child and adolescent health services, pediatric psychiatrist Dr. Alicia Porter, associated with the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), wished for psychological well-being to be more purposefully included across the entire structure.

Porter noted that this strategy is an important chance to change not only what is done for children but also how children are treated. She welcomed the strategy's recognition of the dependence of child well-being on the collaboration of health, education, families, and communities, but stated that South Africa must transition from crisis intervention to prevention and earlier identification of behavioral and developmental issues.

'One of the biggest shifts we need to make is moving from the question: 'What is wrong with this child?' to the question: 'What is this child trying to tell us?'', said Porter. She suggested that children's behavior often signals distress long before they acquire the language to explain it. She recommended that emotional and developmental well-being should ultimately be tracked alongside physical health using tools like a Health Journey Book.

Furthermore, Porter called for increased investment in parents, teachers, community health workers, and primary care physicians, arguing that supporting caregivers is one of the most effective ways to improve children's mental health.

Implementation issues also raised concerns for the early childhood development organization Singakwenza. Julie May, Founder and Director, noted that the strategy identified many correct priorities but questioned whether existing state structures are ready to ensure their execution. She stated: 'The strategy, like most South African policies, looks very good on paper.'

May pointed out that responsibility for young children remains fragmented among the Departments of Health, Basic Education, and Social Development, which hinders coordination. She stressed the need for a coordinated governmental approach regarding children's issues.

NSAAC also acknowledges that improving child outcomes requires closer interdepartmental cooperation and proposes new governance mechanisms, including enhanced political oversight, improved monitoring, and official partnership with civil society through a national 'Accelerator' designed to support implementation.

Environmental health and climate change resilience were also reflected in responses to the strategy. While NSAAC includes measures against lead poisoning, air pollution, environmental monitoring, and child participation in environmental decision-making, the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) stated that climate change resilience must be more explicitly integrated into the implementation process due to its growing impact on child well-being.

Tandenda Mponde, a lawyer at CER's Advocacy and Training Program, noted that climate change already affects children's nutrition, health, education, and safety. She stated: 'The strategy rightly prioritizes reducing child poverty, ending stunting, and preventing violence. However, its limited attention to climate change and environmental health creates a significant policy gap.'

Mponde added that droughts, floods, and extreme weather exacerbate food insecurity, damage schools, and increase children's vulnerability to disease, displacement, and protection risks. She concluded that integrating climate-resilient child protection into implementation—including climate-resilient schools and early childhood centers, enhancing disaster preparedness, and climate-sensitive health services—would better protect children's rights and well-being.