Understanding fatherhood and father involvement in South Africa: insights from surveys and population cohorts

Calls for research on men’s roles in families in sub-Saharan Africa, especially as fathers, and for greater efforts to engage men in family-based interventions and policy requires detailed data on family functioning, parenting and parenthood. However, in resource poor countries within the region few family or birth cohort studies have been conducted and household and population-based studies continue to be the main sources of empirical data about families. In this brief report, we review the data on fathers and father involvement collected in South Africa (e.g., national household surveys, household panel surveys, demographic surveillance systems, birth cohort) and suggest ways to improve ongoing empirical data collection efforts.