Financing South Africa's National Health System through National Health Insurance

Possibilities and Challenges (Colloquium Proceedings)

In 2002, the Human Sciences Research Council was commissioned by the WK Kellogg Foundation to develop and implement a five-year intervention project focusing on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in southern Africa. In collaboration with several partner organizations, the project currently focuses on how children, families and communities in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe are coping with the impact of HIV/AIDS. The aim of the project is to develop models of best practise so as to enhance and improve support structures for OVC in the southern African region as a whole.

Policy governs many aspects of the professional lives of educators. It is also central to their and the sector's response to crises such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As such policy can contribute directly to curtailing the attrition of educators, by encouraging and providing protection against threats such as HIV/AIDS, and by creating a positive and supportive working environment. This study examines workplace and HIV/AIDS policies from the Department of Education (DoE) and the HIV/AIDS policies of two trade unions, as part of a broader study looking at the attrition of educators. The policies themselves were found to be well written and if implemented, would create a good environment for educators. A number of successes were noted, particularly in terms of the transformation of education structures. The findings suggest that problems are centered on a lack of policy implementation, resulting from disjunctures between the national office and provincial and district offices, as well as a lack of resources and inadequate planning and preparation for implementation.

Zip Zip My Brain Harts is the result of collaboration between Buckland (a photographer) and HSRC researchers concerned with disability issues. Angie Bucklands remarkable photographs, interspersed with challenging text, are a unique expression of the fullness of human experience, with all its joy, pain and confusion.

In the last decade, South Africa has made significant progress in reducing child and maternal mortality rates. Although progress has been made in improving levels of maternal and child morbidity and mortality, it is important to indicate that data used are based on varied sources and systems that sometimes yield conflicting data.