Rethinking Child Rights Governance and Well-Being in Southern Africa

This book examines why child rights governance in Southern Africa delivers reports but not results. Despite strong laws, ratified conventions, and SDG-aligned national plans, child well-being in Southern Africa remains compromised by poverty, violence, and under-resourced protection systems. The book challenges dominant Western-centric approaches to child rights, offering a nuanced understanding of child rights in southern Africa through a decolonial lens. It provides context-specific solutions for promoting child well-being, centring African perspectives and experiences, and discusses these against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030. It sheds light on the complex issues surrounding child rights in southern Africa, including the impact of colonialism and imperialism on child rights discourses. The book highlights the importance of indigenous knowledge systems, cultural sensitivity, and community-based initiatives in promoting child rights in the region. Its main themes include decolonising the child rights discourse, southern African perspectives on child rights, and how policies and solutions speak to the SDGs, namely poverty (SDG 1), health (SDG 3), education (SDG 4), and violence (SDG 16, particularly SDG 16.2). By rethinking child rights in southern Africa, this book offers a fresh perspective on promoting child well-being and achieving the SDGs. This is a valuable resource for researchers and scholars in child rights, development studies, and African studies, as well as policymakers and practitioners working on child rights and the SDGs.