Promoting healthy public policy is one of the key pillars of Health Promotion as articulated in the World Health Organisation’s Ottawa Charter. Advocacy for healthy public policy is a vital tool in the struggle for health equity and human rights. 

Current trends in health promotion and communication recognize that attempts to shift individual behavior in a vacuum have severe limitations. There are many structural or environmental barriers to prevent individuals from making healthy choices. Health promotion interventions are giving increasing focus to the creation of an enabling environment to help facilitate “healthy choices” and positive behavior change. The role of advocacy in the promotion of healthy public policy is critical in this regard.

In keeping with these trends, the Soul City: IHDC Advocacy Department was created to extend the Institute’s work in social change. A number of campaigns have been embarked upon by the department. These include:

The aim of this campaign was to ensure the implementation of enabling legislation to assist abused women in making substantive changes in their lives and the campaign accompanied the fourth series of Soul City which dealt in large part with domestic violence.

Gender-based violence is increasingly recognised both within South Africa and internationally as a profound violation of women’s human rights and a major barrier to social and economic development. Studies conducted in South Africa indicate high levels of domestic violence. The fourth series of Soul City dealt in large part with the issue of gender based violence.

Formative research conducted in preparation for the fourth series of Soul City identified a major gap in legislation assisting abused women to take action. The Domestic Violence Act of 1998 had been passed a year earlier and was hailed as a ground breaking piece of legislation for the way in which it held the police and the judiciary accountable. However, despite the potential for the legislation to remove major structural barriers preventing abused women taking protective action, there were unacceptable delays in the implementation of the new DVA. Soul City IHDC, together with the National Network on Violence against Women (NNVAW) embarked on a partnership to ensure the speedy and effective implementation of the DVA. (The NNVAW is a national coalition of grassroots organisations and activists from both rural and urban South Africa.)

The campaign was successful in achieving its goal and the DVA was finally implemented in December 1999. Member organizations of the NNVAW are currently monitoring the implementation of the Act to ensure it works effectively.

The fourth series of Soul City itself conveyed substantial information on the new legislation to the general public through its television and radio dramas and through the publication of over 1 million copies of an information booklet on Violence against Women. Building on the popularity and emotions generated by the storyline of the Soul City dramas, the NNVAW coordinated an extensive social mobilisation campaign which helped pressurise government to implement the new legislation. The Advocacy Campaign also involved training for the NNVAW members in advocacy skills and national and provincial advocacy related activities took place throughout the broadcast of the fourth series. Many of the Soul City celebrity actors from the television series spoke out as advocates at the NNVAW’s public meetings. A resource booklet on Violence against Women was developed for journalists to enhance and improve the level of media coverage given to the issue. The booklet was produced in partnership with the NNVAW, the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism and the Commission on Gender Equality. A Media Contact Directory was produced by Soul City IHDC to help the NNVAW generate media coverage on the issue of gender violence and the DVA. The partnership between Soul City IHDC and the NNVAW generated extensive media coverage to advance the advocacy objectives of the campaign.

In South Africa the national estimate of the cost of road crashes is R6-billion per annum. In 1997, 35 500 pedestrians were hit by road vehicles in South Africa. 4000 of these people died and 10 000 were seriously injured. Nearly 205 of pedestrians killed in 1996 in South Africa were children under the age of 16. There are a number of reasons for children’s particular vulnerability:

Soul Buddyz 1, the children’s series aimed at 8-12 year olds deals with issues of road safety in the television, radio and print materials. The material raises awareness of road safety and the importance of reflector material to increase child visibility.

Improving the visibility of children at times of high risk has been shown to reduce the number of child pedestrian casualties. This can easily be done through the use of reflector material on key parts of the child’s body.

Soul City IHDC embarked on this campaign in partnership with Drive Alive, a South African NGO dedicated to promoting road safety in South Africa. The campaign was developed to reinforce the road safety goals of the first series of Soul Buddyz and was accompanied by a social marketing component which aimed to raise awareness around the value of reflector material and to popularise its use. With the support of BP, one of Soul Buddyz’s major commercial sponsors, two million reflector bands were distributed to children across South Africa.

As part of its advocacy work, Soul City IHDC co-founded the Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security (ACESS). Together with ACESS, Soul City IHDC’s advocacy department has played a role in putting children’s rights to social security on the national agenda.

Soul City focus on social security is motivated by the inextricable link between poverty and many of the health and development issues the organization tackles. Eradicating the TB epidemic depends on addressing many of the underlying poverty related co-factors causing TB, such as overcrowding and poor nutrition. Similarly, poverty leads to childhood malnutrition which contributes to the high infant and child mortality and morbidity rates in South Africa. Malnutrition also causes stunting of development and poor school performance with long term dire consequences; lack of access to water and adequate sanitation lead to diarrhea which in turn causes dehydration – one of the major causes of infant mortality today.

Poverty also places people at greater risk of acquiring HIV. Poverty and unemployment, force women into sex work and increase relationships of dependency, making women vulnerable to coercive sex. Single sex hostels, migrant labour, limited health and recreational facilities and lack of access to information all contribute to the spread of AIDS. Someone who is HIV positive and poor may not be able to eat well. This may make the person weak and can contribute to the person becoming sick with AIDS. Poor people usually do not have access to the adequate health care necessary for staying healthier longer.

All this makes children vulnerable. It is estimated that by the year 2021 almost 2 million children will have lost one or more parents to AIDS. The infant mortality rate will double by 2010 and households will become poorer as more and more economically active adults become sick or die. Already children are losing out on their childhoods, taking care of sick parents or actually heading up the households themselves. Without an adequate social security safety net, these children are starving, dropping out of school and getting ill.

A comprehensive social security system for all children is a constitutional right in South Africa and is a theme that cuts across all Soul City IHDC’s work. Without the necessary social security, the health of children is fundamentally compromised.

Soul City: IHDC is a co-founder of ACESS (the Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security www.acess.org.za, an alliance of over 1000 NGOs, CBOs and individuals working in the children’s sector. As part of the alliance’s steering committee, Soul City: IHDC works closely with ACESS to raise debate around policy options and to advocate for legislation to protect children from poverty.

Soul City: IHDC is currently working in partnership with ACESS to impact on government’s review of existing social security provisions to widen the safety net for children.

Soul City: IHDC’s advocacy work in this area includes raising debate around longer-term social security options and in the short term, improving access to the existing child support, care-dependency and foster-care grants for children living in poverty. This work is done by enhancing debate through relevant sector workshops, community mobilization and lobbying, parliamentary submissions and media advocacy. Strategies also include meetings with government and parliament as well as through the coordination of a process of “Children’s Participation” to ensure, as per the Convention on the Rights of the Child, that children’s voices are heard in these deliberations. Soul City: IHDC together with ACESS has successfully impacted on the increasing of the age of eligibility for the Child Support Grant from 7 years to 14 years and continue to advocate for its extension to all children up to age 18 years.

We were also instrumental in ensuring that the independent commission appointed by government to review the existing system accommodated the Children’s Sector recommendations. We are also lobbying the Department of Social Security to review the existing regulations pertaining to burdensome documentation requirements to obtain the grants.

Soul City: IHDC and ACESS worked successfully with the Department of Social Security and the Department of Home Affairs on a large scale awareness and social mobilization campaign to help register children from marginalized rural communities for grants and to promote better intersectoral collaboration between these two government departments jointly responsible for grant delivery. This involved a partnership with the 9 SABC radio stations which broadcast Soul City and Soul Buddyz. Extensive media coverage was generated informing listeners of upcoming events where they could register. Education on the grants was also conveyed. This campaign later extended to television, in partnership with SABC 1 television station, in synergy with its broadcast of the Soul City 6 series. Over a million Soul City educational booklets on grants have been produced and distributed in partnership with ACESS and both the above government departments. A training manual has also been developed to be used in national training workshops to empower community organizations to assist people in accessing the grants.

ACESS is currently working with the Department of Social Security to review the assessment tool used to determine eligibility for the Care Dependency Grant. One of the aims is to ensure this grant is extended to all children with HIV and AIDS. Advocacy to impact on pending legislation such as the Children’s Bill and the Social Assistance Act is also taking place.

In the forthcoming years, the advocacy focus will focus on addressing HIV/AIDS and its mutually reinforcing relationship with poverty. This will involve continued work with ACESS as well as a new focus on the impact of HIV/AIDS on the educational system. Implementing partners will include ACESS, SADTU, the National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB), SANGOCO and the Global Campaign for Education as well as a number of organizations and trade unions working in the field of Education and or HIV and AIDS.