South African Women as Champions of Change: A Civil Society Programme of Action for the African Women’s Decade Prof Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu Dr Selma Karuaihe Prof Vasu Reddy HSRC/UKZN/UCT: WOMEN’s DAY SEMINAR AND BOOK LAUNCH: 7 AUGUST 2014
Presentation Outline o Background: Project Conception and Book o Thematic Areas o Project Collaboration and Funding o Book Chapters: 5 book chapters; we focus on each briefly and present abbreviated recommendations (from chapter 5) o Poverty eradication in the context of gender o Engendering Early Childhood Development (ECD) o Violence against women o Civil society coordination o Concluding comments
Background: Project Conception o The International Women’s Forum of South Africa (IWFSA) and the South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID) put together a joint proposal: o The objective was to facilitate research in consolidating and advancing the efforts of women leaders and gender activists towards focused outcomes in line with strategic initiatives of South Africa and Africa. o The project that gave birth to this book was one of the projects under this broad theme. Specifically, it was on the exploration of : o A Civil Society Programme of Action for the African Women’s Decade: Best Practices in Civil Society Approaches to Engendering Poverty Eradication, Early Childhood Development, Reduction of Violence Against Women and Civil Society Coordination
Thematic Areas o Four themes were identified as the main issues facing South African women as part of a civil society programme of action for the African Women’s Decade o The four thematic areas are: 1) poverty eradication in the context of gender; 2) early childhood development (ECD) in the context of gender; 3) violence against women; 4) co-ordination of civil society initiatives. 5) a fifth theme which cuts across the others i s employment creation. o This then resulted into a book with four chapters; with chapter 5 focused on conclusions and recommendations.
OUR FUNDERS AND COLLABORATIONS Project carried out by the Economic and Performance Development Programme (EPD) at the HSRC in conjunction with: o The Human and Social Development Programme (HSD) at the HSRC o Wits University
South African Women as Champions of Change: A Civil Society Programme of Action for the African Women’s Decade Authors: Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu; Selma Karuaihe; Vasu Reddy; Shirin Motala; Tracy Morison; Hannah Botsis; Miracle Ntuli and Nthabiseng Tsoanamatsie Web link: www.hsrcpress.ac.za (free downloads) Social science that makes a difference
Poverty Eradication and Engendering Early Childhood Development
o This chapter presents a poverty eradication model for South Africa, based on best practices from other countries. o Since the transition into the post-apartheid era, the South African government has been striving to redress the challenges of poverty and inequality. o Despite these efforts, increasing and persistent poverty remains. o The persistence of poverty among women is often viewed as a tragic consequence of unequal access to economic opportunities, gender biases in labour markets, and lack of control over productive resources (UNDP 1995; Chant 2006; Bennett 2009). o South African poverty rates ranged from 4% (white female) and 11% (Indian/Asian females) to 33% (coloured females) and 72% (African females), while lower rates of poverty were found among male counterparts in all race groups between 1993 and 2008 (Leibbrandt et al. 2010). o This clearly shows that African females carry the brunt of the poverty burden .
Chapter 1: Poverty Eradication Continue Women suffer disproportionately from work–family conflict as they carry the triple o burden of working, household management and child rearing. o This leaves them with minimal time to improve capabilities through investing in human capital, and participating in meaningful economic activities and collective actions to help them improve their economic conditions (McFerson 2010). A proposed best practice model for eradicating poverty in South Africa is a hybrid, o combining various aspects of the best practice models to acknowledge the multidimensional nature of poverty. o The aim is to eradicate poverty from the grassroots following a bottom-up approach. o This entails civil society organisations partnering with small groups of poor people within communities and helping them to take initiative and start self-help income generating projects with in-built mechanisms for monitoring, evaluation, self- expansion and growth. The government should provide support and incentives to entities that support o cooperatives and self-help groups, and skilled individuals who render their services to support the development of these groups.
Recommendations: Poverty Eradication • Public education, awareness-raising and an enabling environment • Government incentives for CSOs to continue contributing to poverty eradication • Strong collaboration between government, CSOs and communities
Chapter 2: Engendering Early childhood Development This chapter focuses on the role of CSOs in the context of engendering ECD o by highlighting examples from South Africa. o The objective of this section is to identify opportunities for civil society to contribute to improving outcomes for children, while at the same time, increasing women’s participation in the ECD sector, o focusing on children aged 0–4 years as part of a broader focus on poverty eradication and reduction of inequality. o Broadly defined, ECD traditionally refers to services to children between 0 and 9 years of age (Children’s Act [No. 38 of 2005]). o However, this chapter focuses on children under the age of 5 years since this is the age category of children prioritised by the South African government as being in greatest need (DSD & Unicef 2005). o The latest national household expenditure survey by Statistics South Africa paints a gloomy picture where less kids attend ECD centres compared to those who stay at home
Chapter 2: Engendering ECD continued o More children in the age group 0–4 years receive no ECD services of any kind than children who do (Stats SA 2012b). o This is partly due to high poverty rates, which affect black women and children disproportionately. o Gender and ECD intersect in several ways to address poverty and social inequity. o However, ECD policy and programming has not adequately recognised this by explicitly integrating gender into the design and outcomes of ECD interventions. o A National Integrated Plan for ECD is currently in preparation and it is essential that the plan should recognise and enhance the contribution of CSOs in expanding access to and quality of ECD. o The plan must address how a responsible scaling-up of ECD can ensure that the most vulnerable children access ECD services.
Chapter 2: Engendering ECD Continued o Rapidly expanding access to ECD programmes and services is a necessary priority: o Given that less than 30% of children aged 0–4 years have access to some form of ECD service. o From pregnancy to early childhood children are best served through multiple interventions targeted at parents, caregivers and children. o Programmes that provide: o Access to primary health care, o social services and protection services, o access to basic needs such as water and sanitation, o cognitive stimulation and economic support, o nutrition and food security, and o stable care environments in which parents are supported, o Are all components of a comprehensive package of services.
Recommendations: Engendering ECD • Providing access to affordable, accessible, comprehensive and holistic ECD services and programmes • Strengthening institutional collaboration between state and non-state role players in the delivery of ECD programmes • Monitoring and evaluation of quality of interventions and their impact • Information and knowledge dissemination • Enhance human resource capacity to deliver ECD services • Support to the NPO sector to contribute to providing ECD services • Engendering ECD practice
Gender Based Violence and Civil Society Coordination
Chapter 3: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN SOUTH AFRICA o This chapter presents the culture of violence that exists in South Africa, which stands, paradoxically, alongside highly progressive legislation. o It analyses civil society efforts in addressing violence against women in general, by highlighting success case studies or models in South Africa.
Recommendations: Reducing Violence • A rights-based perspective • A multifaceted approach within an ecological framework • The adoption of a critical and nuanced view of gender • Gender transformative programmes in dialogue with feminist principles • Locating efforts within broader economic empowerment programmes
Chapter 4: CIVIL SOCIETY CO-ORDINATION o This chapter focuses on the role of civil society co- ordination and how it can facilitate change for women and poor families in the context of gender. It also covers best practice models for civil society co- ordination and identifies opportunities and challenges in doing so.
Recommendations: Civil Society coordination • Regular dialogue • Capacity building and enhancement programmes for women • Incentives and financial support • Donor funding conferences to facilitate and manage funding • Strengthening coordination • Determining criteria for coordination
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