GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF SOUTH AFRICA AND THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITYMS ROZENDA HENDRICKSE
According to research I have conducted, most literature reveals that the terms "gender and development" are used interchangeably with the terms "women and development" and this created a dilemma for me as the term "gender" in my understanding, refers to the socially constructed differences between males and females. On the other hand the term "woman" refers to a person's biological make-up. What contributed to further confusion is the fact that the Cape Metropolitan Council for example contends that "gender" refers to: "The economic, social and cultural attributes and opportunities associated with being male or female." (Cape Metropolitan Council's Gender Policy, 1999). However, the objectives stated in their Gender Policy document focuses mostly on how to facilitate the advancement of women. For the purpose of this paper and to address the issues adequately, I will move from the premise that the terms "gender and development" refer to "women and development" and "women's issues". BACKGROUND Women are the victims of numerous situations. They have severely suffered under apartheid and still suffer various forms of violence and discrimination. Great numbers of women are restricted to rural areas where there is little access to training or paid work opportunities and where their unpaid labor, indispensable to the survival of their families and the wider economy, goes unrecognized. They bear the burden of poverty more than men do. For example, the lack of tapped water in most rural areas, in addition to causing disease, forces many rural women to spend hours fetching and carrying water everyday. As such they are not afforded an opportunity to develop marketable skills to seek employment. The migratory labor system and official disregard for family life have left countless women as sole providers for their families. (Black Sash Southern Transvaal Region Women's Group, 1992:2) SOUTH AFRICA: GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT South Africa established a "National Machinery" whose aim is to integrate gender into all government policy, planning and activities. As such, the "National Machinery" was in line with the goals of the RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme), namely: the transformation of all institutions, processes and priorities of government. The South African gender machinery has become a model for the African region. (Gender Update, 2000: 1)
The Commission on Gender Equality is perhaps the most visible arm of South Africa's gender machinery. Its composition, powers and functions is set out in the South African Constitution. The primary functions of the Commission is monitoring and evaluating policies and practices of government and private and non-governmental sectors to ensure that they:
(Friedman, 1999: 6) One of the ways the Commission takes the constitutional mandate of gender equality to the broader public is through an ongoing commitment to a more gender sensitive representation of women in the media. As part of this, they have developed an updateable database with gender contacts for the media. The media directory, available in booklet and electronic format, references women who can provide specialized points of view on topics from a gender perspective. They are also involved in a project with Women's Net, an internet-based NGO (non-governmental organization), that employs community radio as a means for achieving gender equality. They have trained community radio stations on how to make their materials gender sensitive, and also trained women's organizations on how to access and produce materials for community radio. (Gender Update, 2000: 2)
Following the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) made a firm commitment to support the implementation of the Platform for Action at a country level. In line with this commitment, UNDP South Africa has formed a strong partnership with the Office on the Status of Women (OSW), which is responsible for integrating gender into the government. Following wide consultations, OSW put forward a project document, which spelled out a programmed to build capacity of the Office starting at provincial level. The activities to be addressed include enhancing the skills base of provincial OSW representatives and integrating the national gender programme into the management system of government through the review of performance management's contacts. (Gender Update, 2000:2) The participation of women in local government and the integration of gender analysis in programming and service delivery are essential to the transformation process of local government. Integral to the difficulties that plague local government is the issues of gender, because effective service delivery by implication means including the needs of those whom it is supposed to serve. While women constitute close to 30% of national parliamentarians, their representation at local level is less than 20%. One of the reasons for the lower representation of women in local government is the electoral system. Only 10% of all ward Councilors are women, compared to 27% of candidates elected through party lists. This demonstrates that the system of proportional representation is more conducive to facilitate women's access to political office, because political parties can actively support and promote women in political leadership positions. The South African Local Government Association's (SALGA) gender working group was formed in 1996, in order to ensure the strategic presence of women and gender issues in local government. The Women's Development Foundation (WDF) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) whose objective is to prepare women to take on positions of political leadership and to support them while in office. These organizations among others, are working to ensure that women are strongly represented in local elections. (Gender Update, 2000: 2)
In April 1999 the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) called on the government to respect the independence of the Commission through making them directly accountable to parliament for their work and their budgets. However, government did not heed this call and continued to allocate the CGE's budget through the Department of Justice. This implies that Commissions must report to the heads of the departments through which their budgets are allocated and as such weakens the independence of the Commissions. The government was further criticized by the CGE for the continued way in which it pays lip service to gender issues but continues to marginalize them in reality. For example, it took a full year for government to find a replacement chairperson for the CGE. The CGE's chairperson in 1999 contended that: "While we are talking the talk of gender equality, we are still not walking the walk." (Respect our independence, respect our independence, 1999: 1) The Commission's strife for independence still continues in the year 2001 as it anxiously seeks to account to a Portfolio Committee in Parliament. The sentiments expressed above is echoed, I could argue, in a speech delivered by Ms Cheryl Gillard (MP: Deputy Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development) at the launch of the Gender Commission's Framework for gender relations on 14 August 2000 where she says that: "Our progress falls far short of the goals we seek. It often feels as if we are only scratching the tip of the iceberg. I believe our impatience is well-founded. The compounded oppression suffered by African-, rural-, working class-, and poor women is our reality check. The continued existence of systematic discrimination and inequalities, particularly in respect of race, gender and disability should be our major concern. We must sharpen our focus to deliver to those who know the meaning of true poverty. We need to come up with innovative strategies to bring our constitutional rights to our women, especially the poor in the rural areas and the many thousands in informal settlements. These historically disadvantaged communities will ultimately be our judges." She goes further to state that the constitution is legally binding us to commit to equality for all South Africans especially women. She says that it is a blueprint for any agenda. She called for continued implementation of programmes at appropriate levels. Policy guidelines, co-ordination and monitoring she maintains are essential components but without appropriate implementation machinery gender relations will remain strained. The primary role of SADC is to:
The approach is to address national priorities through regional action. Each member State has been allocated a sector to coordinate which involves proposing sector policies, strategies and priorities, and processing projects for inclusion in the sectoral programme, monitoring progress and reporting to the Council of Ministers. The SADC Programme of Action is made up of all the programmes and projects approved by the Council of Ministers. (Official SADC Trade, Industry and Investment Review 2000: The Millennium Issue)
The following was taken from the SADC Gender Sector report dated 2000. The responsibility for co-ordinating gender issues at the regional level has not been allocated to one of the SADC member States because gender cuts across all sectors. A policy and institutional framework for mainstreaming gender into the SADC Programme of Action was adopted by the Council of Ministers at its meeting in Windhoek, Namibia, in February 1997. It includes:
A number of important developments have taken place since the decision of Council. The Standing Committee of Ministers met in Gaborone, Botswana in 1997, in Pretoria, South Africa in 1998 and in Lilongwe, Malawi in 1999. The Gender Unit was established at the SADC Secretariat in June 1998. The Unit has the overall responsibility to advise all SADC Programme of Action and Community Building Initiatives. A Declaration of Gender and Development was signed by SADC Heads of States and Government in Blantyre, Malawi in which they commit their countries to the following:
In 1998 an Addendum to the Declaration, the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women and Children, was signed by SADC Heads of State in Port Louis, Mauritius. It contains the following major elements:
A Plan of Action for Gender in SADC was also adopted during 1998. It identifies activities to be undertaken in the following areas:
The Southern African Development Communities (SADC) has since the adoption of various policies and instruments, made impressive achievements in the area of gender equality and mainstreaming:
The 2000 SADC Summit Final Communique reported: On the issue of gender equality, the Summit received a report on the progress made by the SADC Member States towards reaching the target of 30% of women in politics and decision-making structures by the year 2005, which was set in the 1997 SADC Declaration on Gender and Development. It noted that following the elections that were held in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa during 1999, the average percentage of women in SADC Parliaments went up from 15% to 17.9%. Only one Member State maintained the proportion of women parliamentarians while four witnessed an increase in the level of participation of women. Further, as per the Communique, the Summit expressed its concern that the relatively impressive 1999 SADC average of 17% mentioned above, is largely accounted for by three countries, and that half of the SADC Member States are still below 15%, which is far from the 30% target to be reached in less than five years. The Summit, therefore urged SADC Member States to consider enacting legislative provisions for mandatory quotas in order to ensure that the targets set in the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development are met.
The aim of this paper was to provide a brief overview of the South African government's policy pronouncements with regard to gender and development as well as to explore the SADC's regional gender policy. My findings has shown as stated in the introduction that the term "gender" appears to equal "the development of women" at local, provincial and national government policy pronouncements. I get a sense that gender policies in South Africa are put in place "just for the sake of it". This sentiment is echoed by Friedman (1999: 6), who contends that "more women in politics", as is clearly the case in the South African parliament in my view, "does not translate automatically into higher well-being for women and more gender-sensitive development policies." Although several policies are in place with regard to gender, sufficient resources to implement these policies are not available and as such these policies remain political jargon. South Africa has tried, as far as it was practically possible, to keep its gender policies in line with those of SADC's regional gender policy. However, it still has a long way to go to achieve all the goals as set out in the SADC's regional gender policy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 2000 SADC SUMMIT FINAL COMMUNIQUE (2000): Prepared by the Office of the Presidency. Found at: http://www.gov.za COMMISSION ON GENDER EQUALITY. www.cge.org.za FRIEDMAN, M. (1999) Effecting equality: translating commitment into policy and practice. Agenda AGI Monograph 1999 GENDER IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT (2000): Gender Update - United Nations, South Africa, Issue 2, June 2000. Found at: http://www.undp.org.za/misc/genderupdate2.html GILLWARD, C (2000): A speech delivered at the launch of "A Framework for the Transformation of Gender Relations in South Africa" on 14 August 2000. Found at: http://www.gov.za OPEN THE DOORS WE'RE COMING THROUGH: PRIORITIES FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS (1992): Prepared by the Black Sash Transvaal Region Women's Group. Johanesburg: Black Sash RESPECT OUR INDEPENDENCY RESPECT OUR INDEPENDENCE (1999): Issued by The Chief Directorate: Communication Services of the Department of Justice. Found at: http://www.gov.za SADC GENDER SECTOR (1999) Found at: http://WWW.SADCREVIEW.COM/Sectoral%20Reports%202000/gendersector.htm THE CAPE METROPOLITAN COUNCIL'S GENDER POLICY (1999) Found at: http://www.cmc.gov.za/cs/gender/gender.htm
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