The Institute is structured to ensure linkages between all University faculties, departments and research units concerned with informing child policy and practice, and also to maintain linkages between the academic and policy environments.
The quality of Children's Institute research is ensured through peer review and the promotion of cross-disciplinary work.
Housed in the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Institute is led by a director, who in turn is supported by a Governing Board made up of a range of policy-related disciplines across the University, and appointed by the Vice-Chancellor. The Governing Board members are:
- Prof Marian Jacobs, (chairperson), Dean: Health Sciences Faculty, UCT
- Prof Haroon Bhorat, Professor of Economics, UCT
- Ms Judith Favish, Director: Institutional Planning, UCT
- Prof Evance Kalula, Professor of Law, UCT
- Prof Shirley Pendlebury, Director: Children’s Institute, UCT
- Dr Louis Reynolds, Associate Professor: School of Child and Adolescent Health, UCT
- Prof Crain Soudien, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor, UCT
- Prof Danie Visser, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, UCT
The Institute is also guided by an international Board of Advisors:
- Mrs Graça Machel (chairperson), President of the Organisation of Mozambican Children and Chancellor of UCT
- Prof J. Lawrence Aber (deputy chairperson), Professor of Applied Psychology and Public Policy, Steinhardt School of Education, University of New York
- Prof Thokozile Mayekiso, Executive Dean: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
- Ms Nomathemba Mazaleni, Chief of Party: Integrated Primary Health Care Project, Management Sciences for Health, Tswane
- Prof John R. Pinkerton, Professor of Child and Family Social Work: School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Dr Jon E. Rohde, former director of the EQUITY Project, Eastern Cape, and former country UNICEF representative in India
- Adv Tseliso Thipanyane, Chief Executive Officer: South African Human Rights Commission