Review 3 final 2 - TAU - National Treasury

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE UNIT REVIEW | Gender mainstreaming in governance
• Accelerated empowerment of women; through
a specific programme targeting women on
accelerated learning for specific roles and senior
positions in departments should be introduced by
SAMDI 2 .
• Improve gender representivity profile/recruitment
and promotions in order to change the profile of
government especially at senior levels.
• Family friendly policies; that the DPSA must put in
place a national framework aimed at creating a
more enabling environment and recognise the
importance of providing social benefits to families.
This framework should compel departments to
provide for breastfeeding facilities, flexi-time to
accommodate child caring considerations; and
consideration to be given for child care facilities.
• Leadership and support from Management; that all
senior managers to be capacitated to enhance
gender management skills and raise the general
level of gender awareness to change organisational
cultures.
Other areas that are key in gender mainstreaming and
significant indicators of a progressive approach to
feminization of governance include (Wood Wetzel, J
1996: 221-236; Todes, Sithole and Williams 2007: 34-39;
Quan-Baffour 2008: 57-62):
• Promotion of positive perceptions of women; through
active engagement with men and youth in society,
more work on the perceptions of women’s role in
society should be addressed.
• Gender sensitive data collection techniques and
processes; data on gender related issues needs to
be gathered more vigorously and in particular data
looking at social exclusion of rural women from the
mainstream economy and political processes. More
2 SAMDI subsequently transformed into the Public Administration
Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA)
accurate and up-to-date data is needed.
• Economic self-determination of women; that structural
imbalances that cause women participation in the
mainstream economy must be addressed.
• Valuing of women’s work; as work that is at the same
status as that of men and the proper recognition,
including remuneration, for this should be given.
Typically women’s reproductive labour in society is
undervalued and this has created perceptions of this
work that does not serve a non-sexist and gender
sensitive society.
• Placement of women in decision making positions; as
women have distinct and useful skills to contribute
to decisions, especially relating to poverty alleviation
and development, that affect South African society.
• Investment in women’s health care and education; as
most structural imbalances in society can be traced
back to lack of education, it is vital that women’s
literacy increases and especially those women
without resources to pay for their own education.
Significantly relevant is women’s health and
children’s health because of its intrinsic relationship
to poverty and social exclusion.
• Educating women regarding their legal rights and
other laws pertinent to them; that women understand
what avenues are available for them when their
rights are being violated and that such assistance is
made readily accessible to them.
• Gender budgeting; ensuring that national and
provincial budgets articulate intentions and
programme areas that address the needs of women
and children. This also involves the ability of women
to actively engage the budget processes of provincial
governments to advise authorities on their needs.
Local government budgets need to also reprioritize
to meet the needs of women and children. This is
an area where civil society, the private sector and
government can co-operatively engage each other.
26
page
Enabling change for development