South Africa has ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This obliges the State to give effect to the CEDAW provisions and report on progress in this regard every four years. The South African State most recently submitted a report covering the period 1998 to 2008 in 2010. A number of civil society organisations developed a shadow report which was submitted in response to the State Report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against women in January 2011.

The Shadow Report observes that, despite the State’s commitment to modify social and cultural behaviour patterns which are based on stereotyped notions about the roles of men and women and to engage in advocacy to raise awareness of and promote common responsibilities of men and women in the upbringing and development of their children, South African women carry significantly disproportionate parent burdens. The Report notes that almost half of the men in South Africa are absent fathers who, by virtue of their physical absence, cannot and do not share full parenting responsibilities with the mothers of their children. The Shadow Report further notes that the State report is silent on this phenomenon and the steps, if any, by the government to promote the recognition and assumption of the parenting roles and responsibilities of fathers.

The Shadow Report refers to a study by the Human Sciences Research Council which estimates that in South Africa, 57% of children under the age of 15 do not live with their fathers. Only 11.5% do not do so because he is deceased; 45.8% of children’s fathers are alive, but absent. The racial and rural bias is strong. Less than 40% of African children lived with their father, compared to almost 90% of white children. African children in rural areas are the worst affected: 55% of them do not live with their fathers, and a further 12.5% of children’s fathers have died.

A small-scale study on absent fathers in KwaZulu-Natal suggests that the majority of absent fathers do not only fail to provide material or emotional support to their children, but do not see the benefit of forming permanent relationships with the mothers of their children.

The United Nations Population Fund and others have developed a toolkit to support advocacy efforts to engage men and boys in gender equality and health. The toolkit has a chapter dedicated to promoting male involvement during the pre-natal, newborn and early childhood periods.

The starting point of the chapter on “Men in maternal, newborn and child health” (MNCH) starts with the proven premise that the involvement of men during these crucially important stages can lead to positive outcomes for fathers, mothers and children. One such outcome is the likelihood that the father will continue to participate in the case of his child throughout the child’s life.

The Toolkit describes how men can contribute in these early stages to the health and well-being of the mother and child and provides guidance on how to engage men in your MNCH advocacy initiatives. Advocacy efforts must adopt a range of strategies, including service-based reform, education and community outreach efforts. At a service level, the staff, spaces and services must be more welcoming of men; at a community level, there must be advocacy to change men’s attitudes and to raise their levels of knowledge of these stages, the roles they can and should play and the value that their contribution can make to the well being of children.

WEB LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE

CEDAW Shadow Report

UN Population Fund and others: Toolkit