About 13 million children in South Africa live in poverty, despite the estimated R700 billion a year investment made by the government, private sector and NGOs to tackle this.

Government spending on child poverty alleviation programmes constitutes about 97% of the total direct spending on child poverty, while the NGO sector accounted for 0.05% to 3% and the private sector less than 1%, according to a study by the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, launched at the weekend.

NGOs spend between R2 billion and R21 billion on child poverty-related programmes, with most of their income coming from the private sector (27%), followed by individuals (14%), foundations and trusts (14%) and the government (13%). Other donors include the National Lottery (2%).

The study estimated the direct cost of child poverty at about 9% of South Africa’s GDP and the indirect cost or loss of economic potential at 18% of GDP or about R1.3 trillion.

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13 million South African children are still living in poverty