INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

In Uganda, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including UNICEF, Concern
Worldwide, and TASO have introduced the practice of training children’s rights
advocates how to defend a child’s right to an inheritance. (Caruso & Cope, 2006) In
Ghana, more traditional systems of power have been merged with contemporary NGO
regulations in order to assign responsibility for child rearing after parents have died.
(Drah, 2014) Many other countries across the region with similar low life expectancies,
limited infrastructure, and the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases have similar
policies which assign NGOs with a societal role to care for orphaned children in some
capacity, including Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. (UNICEF, 2003).
The assignment of the responsibility for OVC care to NGOs ultimately leaves
much of the burden of carrying out such duties on those who fund the organizations.
Most NGO policies are determined, or are at least strongly influenced, by the
constituency that makes up the bulk of its supporters. (AbouAssi, 2013) Most NGOs are
heavily dependent on a support base of individual donors that provides the organization
with the financial resources they require in order to execute their mission. One of the
areas of frequent criticism towards the NGO sector is that the organizations themselves
can easily become devices used to further the agenda of its donor base, as was observed
on occasion by religiously affiliated relief organizations that limited their services to
those willing to convert. The nature of having to appease a wide audience of donors can
often create volatility behind an organization’s main source of funding. (Brouwer, 2000;
Degnbol-Martinussen & Engberg-Pedersen, 2003)
In spite of the critiques often directed towards a systematic reliance on NGOs,
these organizations have often been the more consistent providers of public services than
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