SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM OF MATERNAL ORPHANS IN

SOUTH AFRICA: USING VITAL REGISTRATION DATA (2003 –

Dec 2010)

Purpose of the Presentation

• To share the existence of maternal orphans surveillance system within the national DSD office

• To highlight the creation of maternal orphans between 2003 to Dec 2010 with regards to:– demographic information (age & gender)– geographic prevalence (District Municipality)– how they access children’s grants in RSA

• In 2006, DSD and UNICEF collaborated in implementing a study on the estimation of maternal orphans in RSA,

• Part of the recommendation of that study was to ensure the establishment of a surveillance system

• It was only in 2009 that a surveillance system of maternal orphans was established within DSD

• Since its establishment, DSD has managed to produce seven quarterly reports

• During the launch of the surveillance system by Hon MP B Dlamini (Minister of DSD) in KZN (Nqutu) in December 2010, it was emphasised that the surveillance reports be disseminated and shared with all the stakeholders involved in OVC on a regular basis in order to allow them to develop and strengthen their OVC services in the affected areas (i.e. District Municipalities).

Background

The system was established in order to:• periodically track and monitor the occurrence (in terms of the increase

or decrease) on a quarterly bases

• identify and track maternal orphans by their geographical location (province and district municipality)

• assist Social Development Sector and social development partners in designing & implementing appropriate interventions to a growing number of maternal orphans in RSA

• serve as basis for tracking these children as they progress through different stages of development

• assist Social Development Sector and its parnters to identify risk factors such as missed opportunities (e.g. education, health, abuse and exploitation, etc)

Aims of the system

• The surveillance system uses birth and death registration data from the Department of Home Affairs (DHA)

• Each month Home Affairs provides DSD with 2 files: – File 1: birth file = all births registered in that month with mother's and

child’s ID and province and district of birth – File 2: death file = All deaths recorded with deceased ID and province

and district of death

• These two files are then matched to ascertain:– Mothers dying in that month and the numbers of their children now

orphaned– Children predeceasing their mothers

How the Surveillance System of Maternal Orphans works?

Limitations• We can only account for maternal orphans as fathers

details are optional in the birth registration process thus precluding easy linkage when extracting the data

• Geographical location is available from 2003 and is limited to home affairs office, where registration occurred and not the actual residential address of the orphan

• It appears that most deaths are registered after about 3 – 6 months -delay from date of death and date when death is registered and gets available from the system: implications for quarterly reports

Children population and maternal orphans within RSA

Children’s population Surviving maternal orphans

% of maternal orphans

20,730,800 1,100,013 5%

Data source: StatsSA Mid- year population estimates; Data note: 2010

Creation of maternal orphans and mothers dying by year

Year Number of mothers

dying

Number of orphans created

2003 65,654 101,788

2004 77,404 123,069

2005 84,156 138,262

2006 89,034 150,153

2007 88,986 154,431

2008 89,001 158,805

2009 85,048 154,259

2010 73,948 136,366

Total 653,231 1,117,133

0

20,00040,000

60,00080,000

100,000120,000

140,000160,000

180,000

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Number of mothers dying Number of orphans

Creation of maternal orphans by province and age

Province Total 00 to 04 05 to 09 10 to 14 15 to 18

EC 184,322 50,698 61,271 57,603 14,750

FS 77,825 20,196 25,777 25,146 6,706

GP 173,816 47,865 59,975 53,503 12,473

KZN 290,827 79,378 103,187 87,385 20,877

LP 116,820 27,926 37,219 40,498 11,177

MP 100,586 25,764 34,334 32,663 7,825

NW 81,336 21,999 27,466 25,264 6,607

NC 31,245 8,000 10,842 9,898 2,505

UNk 12,649 1,904 5,379 4,687 679

WC 47,707 12,980 15,852 15,086 3,789

Total 1,117,133 296,710 381,302 351,733 87,388

Distribution of maternal orphans by year and gender

Note: The variation in Male and Female counts is very minimal, suggesting that maternal orphan trends are independent of gender.

  Male Female

Total Total

2003 50,676 51,112

2004 61,252 61,817

2005 68,787 69,475

2006 74,898 75,255

2007 76,719 77,712

2008 79,441 79,364

2009 77,024 77,235

2010 68,034 68,332

0

10,00020,000

30,00040,000

50,00060,000

70,00080,000

90,000

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Male Total Female Total

Prevalence of maternal orphans by province

•

Prevalence of maternal orphans within the KZN

Prevalence of maternal orphans within the EC

Prevalence of maternal orphans within GP

Maternal orphans and social grants

Total Number of Maternal Orphans

Number of Maternal Orphans in SOCPEN

Percentage of receiving

1,100,013 662,812 60 %

Orphans receiving grants by province

Province Total Care Dependency Grant

Child Support Grant

Foster Care Grant

EC 105,177 1,222 55,420 48,535FS 55,422 423 30,521 24,478GP 75,455 815 41,835 32,805KZN 199,696 3,178 121,117 75,401LP 78,282 815 40,697 36,770MP 60,316 647 43,548 16,121NW 53,515 926 30,802 21,787NC 15,971 426 8,566 6,979WC 18,978 271 10,715 7,992Total 662,812 8,723 383,221 270,868

Orphans in SOCPEN by province • The highest receiving province is Free State followed by Kwazulu-Natal.

• Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo, are in the region of 62 % to 68%.

• The Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape are in the region of 52% to 58%.

• The least provinces are Western Cape and Gauteng in the region of 40 % to 44%.

Province Surviving Grants %

EC 182,053 105,177 58

FS 76,033 55,422 73

GP 171,145 75,455 44

KZN 286,763 199,696 69

LP 115,030 78,282 68

MP 98,773 60,316 61

NW 79,805 53,515 67

NC 30,721 15,971 52

WC 47,239 18,978 40

Summary of conclusion

• The rate of maternal orphans creation seems to be slowing down in recent years

• It is however a concern that the number of maternal orphans continue to increase since 2003

• These clearly pose a serious challenge to government, policy makers and

business to ensure a continuous support to this group of children

• To ensure continued support of this group of vulnerable children, it is recommended that those working on OVC services continue to use the surveillance system information to expand and improve OVC services as well as target the most affected areas (District Municipalities)