This article investigates inequalities in school attainment in South Africa using community-based data collected in 2008 by the National Income Dynamics Study. Schools-based research has concluded that poor children, who are mostly African, remain disadvantaged by the continuing low performance of former African schools. In contrast, this analysis finds that most educational disadvantages of African children, including their low matriculation rates, are accounted for by household poverty and their mothers' own limited education. Thus, earlier studies may not have adjusted fully for pupils' backgrounds or the performance of former African schools may have improved since 2000. I.
The Sustainable Development Goals include a target on eliminating child marriage, a human rights abuse. Yet, the indicator used in the SDG framework is a summary statistic and does not provide a full picture of the incidence of marriage at different ages. This paper aims to address this limitation by providing an alternative method of measuring child marriage. The paper reviews recent data on nuptiality and captures evidence of changes in the proportion married and in the age at marriage, in 98 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Using data collected from nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, survival analysis is applied to estimate (a) age-specific marriage hazard rates among girls before age 18; and (b) the number of girls that were married before age 18 in 2020. Results show that the vast majority of girls remain unmarried until age 10. Child marriage rates increase gradually until age 14 and accelerate significantly thereafter at ages 15–17. By accounting for both single-year-age-specific child marriage hazard rates and the age structure of the population with a survival analysis approach, lower estimates in countries with a rapid decrease in child marriage and higher estimates in countries with constant or slightly rising child marriage rates relative to the direct approach are obtained.
This research explores the life circumstances of older persons (aged 60 years and above), focusing on the sociodemographic and socioeconomic conditions of those who live alone. We situate the living arrangements of older persons within the global context of changing household structures in 76 countries from all regions of the world. Older persons who live alone are among those most likely to need governmental and other forms of social support. The analysis presented here is crucial for supporting policy responses to the needs of older persons, including the special attention they require during the current COVID-19 crisis. It also supports the operationalization of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA)(United Nations, 2002), the realization of United Nations Principles for Older Persons (United Nations, 1991), and the broader framework of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development(ICPA-POA).
This study examines spatial differentials in childhood mortality in South Africa using data from the 2001 population census. Of the complex routes of geographical area hierarchy maintained by South Africa, one route links provinces to Magisterial Districts (MDs). There are in all 354 MDs and nine provinces. Our analyses are conducted mainly at the level of MDs. The results show that provincial level indicators mask huge disparities in child health experienced by certain segments of the population. Children born in MDs such as Tabankulu, Lusikisiki, Bizana, Flagstaff, Libode and in the Eastern Cape Province in general are the most threatened early in life. Under prevailing mortality conditions, more than 10% of the children born in these districts are unlikely to celebrate their fifth anniversary. Most of the high mortality MDs form clusters that sometimes cut across provincial boundary. As it is to be expected, most of these high risk districts are among the poorest in the country as measured by average monthly expenditure. However, the worse-off districts, health-wise, are not necessarily the poorest and similarly, the best child health achievers are not necessarily the most economically well-off. On the basis of these findings, implementing policies targeting such high risk districts would seem a more rational way to help close the withincountry disparities in child mortality and thereby speed up progress toward the MDGs target.
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