Review 3 final 2 - TAU - National Treasury

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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
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE UNIT REVIEW | Gender mainstreaming in governance South Africa has managed to tackle some of these with a significant set of results for efforts made, however there are still areas that require more resources and actions. Issues of social exclusion and power in society are critical to consider when evaluating whether or not this new way of governing has had any significant benefit to women’s needs. The South African network society, as other network societies, has a means of including certain groups and excluding others; by virtue of their means to ‘rightly associate’ or pull together human and financial resources that are sufficient for them to gain power to deliberate. It is therefore vital to analyse the women’s agenda, not by how many institutions alone have been able to enforce their thinking into the public policy arena, but as well as whether all women, and in particular those poverty stricken and in rural areas, are able to access powerful networks as well. Lastly considerations from the African Peer <strong>Review</strong> Mechanisms, and in particular the June 2006 CSAR 3 , are also critical to point out, and in particular those related to ‘Democracy and good political governance.’ The 3 Country Self-Assessment Report assessment found the following as concerning areas that need further interventions (African Peer <strong>Review</strong> Mechanism 2010: 341). • Competition for limited resources between citizens and non-national seeking political and economic stability in South Africa is a potential source of conflict. • Violence against, and in particular the trafficking of, women and children is a source of concern. • The ability of the public sector to deliver services is constrained by a lack of both skills and capacity. • Many people, particularly those living in rural communities and children from other countries (for example refugees), have poor access to justice, education and health care. • Parliament lacks the capacity to exercise its oversight role, particularly in considering proposed legislation concerning finance. • Corruption affects public access to services, and the protection provided to whistle-blowers is inadequate. • The number of children in detention is increasing. • There is active discrimination against vulnerable groups including non-nationals. The latter raises concerns about xenophobia. page 27 Enabling change for development
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Review 3 final 2 - TAU - National Treasury

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