This article presents some of the legal, social, cultural, and practical constraints facing women who attempt to enforce their right to maintenance (child support) payments in southern Africa. It is based on research by the Women and Law in Southern Africa Trust, a network of women who research women's legal rights in six countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Statutes in all countries in the region provide that a man must support his legitimate and illegitimate children; there are, however, weaknesses in the laws on the books. The social and cultural constraints that influence the enforcement of maintenance laws include women's lack of knowledge of the law, attitudes toward child support influenced by customary law, allegations of women's abuse of maintenance payments, financial and practical problems, and fear of physical violence or other forms of retribution. Maintenance laws are relevant to family planning in that if such laws were more effectively enforced, so that the financial burden of children were more equally shared between women and men, men would have a financial stake in controlling their fertility.
PIP: This article describes the limitations of maintenance laws for children based upon the research of the Women and Law in Southern Africa Trust (WLSA), a network of women who research women's legal rights in 6 countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. All 6 countries have district maintenance laws requiring a man to support his legitimate and illegitimate children. The laws (and hurdles: short time periods for filings, frequent and expensive trips, small maintenance awards, difficulty enforcing the order) and customs of a woman's community (fear of jeopardizing a possible marriage proposal, fear of violence, reticence in "airing dirty linen in public," unawareness of the law) make seeking and receiving maintenance payments for children difficult. Programs aimed at alleviating these limitations would benefit children and women (who do not have the same economic access as men) and would have a significant impact on family planning efforts in the region. The new wage/money economy has meant the expense of having children is increasing, and while men once saw children as an economic advantage, and contributed to their support, they may now see children as an economic liability. The findings have indicated a need for the following: 1) legal education campaigns to educate women about the law, and about how to enforce the law; 2) legal assistance and support for women attempting to enforce maintenance through the courts; 3) "attitude" campaigns to reinforce the traditional obligation to maintain one's family and to counteract destructive attitudes toward maintenance law; 4) strengthening women's legal rights in other areas of the law, to empower them to enforce their maintenance rights ; 5) improving the efficiency of the court systems enforcement of maintenance payments, increasing the number of courts, eliminating court fees, making hearings less threatening; 6) improving enforcement mechanisms, better tracking systems; and 7) improving the laws.