Health
UNICEF is committed to ensuring that every child survives and thrives.
The challenge
Thousands of children die from treatable and preventable conditions.
Since 1995, South Africa has made substantial progress in transforming its health sector, making primary healthcare services available to millions who were previously denied access. Yet access to healthcare remains a challenge, with vital healthcare interventions not reaching the areas and people that need them.
The majority of newborn deaths are preventable
Inequitable access to critical health services places children, newborns and adolescents at risk. In 2018 alone, an estimated 43,000 children under five died in South Africa, and of these, 12,717 were newborns. The vast majority of newborn deaths result from complications due to prematurity, birth complications including a lack of oxygen at birth as well as neonatal infections – all of which are preventable and treatable.
Young people, especially adolescent girls and young women remain vulnerable to HIV
Despite the remarkable progress made in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, there were 14,000 new HIV infections in children under 15 years of age in 2018, and only 63 per cent of children needing antiretroviral therapy were on treatment. Adolescents – in particular adolescent girls and young women – are especially vulnerable to HIV. Over a third of all new infections in South Africa occur between the ages of 15-24 years. Of this group, HIV incidence was three times higher among adolescent girls and young women than their male counterparts.
Child malnutrition is a serious concern
South Africa’s HIV burden and vulnerability is complicated by high levels of malnutrition and obesity. More than a third of children under five are suffering from under-nutrition or are overweight. Food scarcity, feeding infrequency and a lack of dietary diversity are serious impediments to healthy levels of child nutrition.
The solution
UNICEF is committed to ensuring that every child survives and thrives.
Our approach to South Africa’s health challenge is three-fold:
- contributing to the evidence-base for policy, advocacy and programming
- delivering innovative programmes with partners – especially in high-burden and low-performing districts
- supporting the Government to develop and implement policies and strategies to take vital action to scale.
Together with our partners in the South African government, civil society, businesses, academia and communities, we are focused on the following priority areas:
- Ending preventable newborn and childhood mortality.
- Eliminating transmission of HIV through the Last Mile Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission Plan.
- Implementing the multisectoral National Food and Nutrition Security Plan, which aims to tackle undernutrition and child obesity while addressing malnutrition in all its forms.