Protecting children from nutritional and medical neglect in sub‐SaharanAfrica: A five‐country study

This study critically considers the applicability of conceptions of child neglect that have been theorised by B ritish and A merican scholars and promulgated in A frican countries through the domestication of the C onvention on the Ri ghts of the C hild. The child protection legislation of five sub‐ S aharan nations was compared in order to examine the presumptions embedded in their provisions concerning child neglect. These were then appraised in relation to the socio‐economic conditions pertaining in each country. Food insecurity, over‐reliance on staples and high infection rates among children in conjunction with hard to access health care and poor quality services contest the validity and relevance of dominant A nglo‐centric definitions of child neglect and methods for detecting it. The study concluded that greater congruence between national child protection legislation and the socio‐economic challenges faced by families in sub‐ S aharan countries would better protect children against neglect. Key Practitioner Message : ● Child neglect is an ethnocentric concept that requires interrogation to test its relevance before applying it to developing country contexts. ● In sub‐ S aharan countries, conditions of absolute poverty and grossly inadequate public services profoundly affect the ability of parents or guardians to meet their children's basic needs. ● Laws that frame child protection systems need to recognise the inter‐relationship between public services, poverty and parental care in the neglect of children.