South Africa: Gender Audit to Assess Water, Forestry Projects

September 5, 2007 – (AllAfrica) The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry is conducting a gender analysis audit, to assess the efficacy of their programmes specifically for women.

The audit, which kicked off in July and will conclude at the end of September, will show the impact the department's projects have had on ordinary South African women.

Speaking at a committee meeting on Women in Water and Forestry Wednesday, the department's Deputy Director-General Nobubele Ngele said this was an important piece of work that looks specifically at gender issues.

"We will be able to see what impact as well as the extent to what women have been affected by the department's projects and strategies," she said.

The department will have a clearer idea of capacity, economic development and information management when it comes to women.

"We will see where projects and programmes are happening, how many women are involved, how sustainable they have been for women and how they have affected women's lives."

Many projects and programmes have been implemented in forestry, water and sanitation, but the impact this has had on women has not been specific, she said.

In April the department began looking at a strategic framework specifically for gender and women empowerment. "For the first time we will be specifically talking to women within a strategic framework. Once completed, the strategic framework, which includes gender policy, will be forwarded to the minister for consideration."

The department, she said needed to look at a broad strategy of intent and then focus on specific strategies for gender. She cited the location of building of toilets, where the department needed to be gender sensitive to women, elderly people and children who are sometimes required to walk long distances.

While women occupied senior positions within the department and ministry, it was important that this positive gender aspect impacted on the lives of ordinary women in South Africa, she said.
Managers amongst others, at the Working for Water Programme, are working on interventions to take women to the next level so that the programme can have a long term effect on their lives.

"We find that the women have a two-year contract and that after that they are not specifically taken from the second economy to the first economy.

"We want to start seeing things like this happening. The programme is not a long-term solution and we need to find ways that it can have a long term effect on the lives of those involved in the two-year project," said Ms Ngele.

Working for Water is a poverty relief programme implemented by the department, to tackle a range of environmental and social problems associated with the spread of invasive alien plants. When undertaking a project in a community, Working for Water approaches the nearby settlements and recruits locals, giving them an opportunity to gain financially and also provides them with much-needed skills development.

It was one of the programmes and projects that the department was looking at in order for them to take people, specifically women, to the next level of progression. The department would return to the committee within two weeks to report on the progress and impact the programme has on the lives of women.

From:http://allafrica.com/stories/200709050766.html