Outline of the presentation

1. The Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities’ Strategic Plan 2012/13 – 2016/17:Perspectives, comments, critiques and recommendations. A presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People withDisabilities. 17 April 2012

2. Outline of the presentation Note: Presentation prepared with reference to the Strat Plan 2012/2013-2016/2017 AND APP 2012-2013 • General comments • Specific comments on Programme 2: WEGE • Advocacy and mainstreaming • Monitoring and Evaluation • Institutional support and capacity-building

3. General Comment 1:The Strategic Plan itself • Strat plan identifies 7 strategic priorities: • Advocatingfor the promotion and protection of the rights of women, children and people with disabilities; • Monitoring and evaluating gender, disability and children's rights by ensuring that the national compendium of macro-indicators • Integrate targets for women, children and people with disabilities; • Ensuring that mainstreaming of gender, disability and children's rights happens at Cabinet, FOSAD, cluster, departmental, Provincial and local government levels, as well as public funded institutions, the private sector and the community at large; • Strengthening institutional capacity to deliver quality service; and • Strengthening participation in strategic bilateral and multilateral initiatives that contribute to the empowerment and equality for women, children and people with disabilities. • Resources problematic, and correctly identified as a risk factor. • Overall, plan lacks detail: maternal health programme in place, but no mention of such programme in the APP for current financial year… • Hard to talk about the strat plan without reference to how it plays itself out in APP…

4. General comment 2:The role of the Gender Equity Bill • In aligning itself with the 12 delivery outcomes of govt, the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD) strategic plan specifically looks to the enactment of a Gender Equity Bill • We caution against the following: • The Bill attempts to cover too many topics for one piece of legislation • It repeats what is already in existing legislation, eg. EEA • It would be simpler to beef up existing legislation to better effect • NB: Considering the size of the DWCPD budget, where will it find the financial resources for the Bill? • NB: There is no one “super body” to oversee implementation by different departments, with the power to impose sanctions for non-compliance. • Ministry not suitable for this role, as it is a project in the presidency and not an independent body • The CGE could potentially play the role, but then there will have to be clarification of the CGE’s mandate and removal of duplication from the CGE Act

5. General comment 3:Existing legislation • The DWCPD has an important role to play in monitoring the implementation of the numerous existing legislative instruments already in place: • Employment Equity Act: mandates affirmative action to benefit women • Pepuda: remedies for unfair discrimination • Sexual Offences Act: protection against gender-based violence, and national directives to SAPS, NPA and DoH • Domestic Violence Act: protection against intimate partner abuse • Recognition of Customary Marriages Act: protects women’s resource rights in relationships • DWCPD’s strategic plan recognises that its mandate partly originates from these instruments.

6. General comment 4:How will DWCPD assert itself? • The relationship between the DWCPD and other national departments and provincial government is critical. • Part A of the APP states that “a key challenge will be to coordinate with other role players, internally in the Department, as well as externally with government”. • Coordination can only happen in terms of mutual agreement, or with recognised authority – commitment of other depts must be recorded in some way (MOU?), and strat plan does not enlighten the reader as to how this will be achieved. • Strat plan also does not clarify the over-lapping duties of DWCPD and Chapter 9 institutions, eg. The CGE. (except to say CGE is beyond its operational framework) • Strat plan in risk assessment identifies “lack of compliance and accountability”, incorrectly identifies gender equity legislation as solution. • DWCPD must be able to not just monitor, but participate and make input into debates and issues strictly in the realm of other departments: • The Traditional Court Bill, Sexual violence in schools, The NSP 2012-2016. sanitation rights

7. General comment 5:GBV • Strat plan states that the DWCPD wants to achieve “transformation of power relations between women and men”. Gender-based violence is one of the primary, most entrenched and pervasive ways in which girls and women are, in the language of the APP, oppressed, dominated, subjugated, subordinated and excluded. • The APP contains very little on the DWCPD plans to combat gender-based violence (GBV) • The activities outlined in the APP contain only one campaign that is aimed at preventing GBV • The DWCPD has an important oversight role to play in terms of making sure that the mechanisms in place to assist victims of GBV work smoothly, and are publicised in areas where women need the knowledge the most. • GBV has a place in the work of all social cluster depts, and the DWCPD has an important role to play in terms of facilitating and monitoring coordinated efforts.

8. Sub-prog 1: Advocacy and mainstreaming SO 1 • Tools: • National Policy Framework for WEGE • Draft National Gender Mainstreaming Strategy • Better potential than Gender Equity Bill to help the DWCPD in achieving its strategic priorities • Resources allocated can be linked to M&E, as comparatively little resources are allocated to M&E itself. • How will cooperation of depts be guaranteed? • Suggestion: Prioritise certain depts.

9. Sub-prog 1: Advocacy and mainstreaming SO 2 • The engendering of the New Growth Path is critical! • Concern over Labour Force statistics read together with job creation in infrastructure development, ie sectors not easily accessible to women. • Mining, construction • Advocating for 50% of the Job Fund for women an exciting target. • Programme on strategy for rural women’s development: aimed at provinces. How will this be achieved, and thereafter sustained, given separation between spheres of govtito programming and budgeting?

10. Sub-prog 1: Advocacy and mainstreaming SO 3 • Exciting advocacy and social campaigns in the APP • Increasing women’s economic opportunities: At whom will the campaign on increasing economic opportunities be aimed? Suggestion: A campaign should link public with govt funding • National Women’s Month • Preventing GBV: one quarter-long campaign, focussed solely on prevention, is not sufficiently aggressive to send a message of condemnation to perpetrators, raise awareness in the public, and give information about recourse to survivors. • Awareness of Human Rights among women: awareness of rights is not enough, women must be empowered to enforce them.

11. Sub-prog 2: M&E SO 1 • M&E of WEGE is the DWCPD’s core oversight function, yet very little resources allocated to SO 1. • Suggestion: Prioritise the national depts that are monitored on WEGE • Dept of Education • Dept of Social Development • SAPS • Dept Justice and Constitutional Development • Dept of Rural Development • Dept of Health • Dept of Labour and Dept of Public Works • Dept Cooperation and Traditional Affairs • Implementation of gender auditing tool is good initiative, and will hopefully be made public. • How will cooperation of provinces be assured? • Suggest to prioritise EC over Gauteng, and Limpopo over WC

12. Sub-prog 2: M&E SO 2 • Data bases are crucial, and extremely useful, but the budget allocated to this item is wholly insufficient for database administration, which is a technical computer-based skill requiring great precision, constant management, and accuracy. • Excellent that priority has been given to provincial databases of labour forces that women do not find easy to access, but how will cooperation of provinces be guaranteed? • Construction • Mining • Agriculture • Tourism • The budget allocated for monitoring visits also seems very low, considering that monitoring visits is how: • Govt becomes visible to the people • Officials get to hear fist-hand accounts of women and girls’ every-day lives

13. Sub-prog 2: M&E SO 3 • The budget for SO 3 far exceeds that of monitoring visits… However, an important role of the DWCPD, and requires on-going engagement, which can be costly. • The reports on on-going compliance with national commitments by depts are focussed on job creation and economic activity. • Important report: Impact of the national focus on infrastructure development and funding for job creation on women • Given that job creation is a top priority, this is understandable, but we cannot afford to become fatigued with equally important everyday battles: • GBV – crime generally going down, but GBV is on the rise… • Women’s Health – maternal mortality rate remains high • Education of women and girls – what challenges do girls face at school?

14. Sub-prog 3: Institutional support and capacity building SO 1 and 2 • SO 1: • Given the budgeting of items, ie relatively small amounts, how does it differ from: • SO 1 in Advocacy and Mainstreaming? • SO 1 in M&E? • SO 2: • Exciting to see that Gender Machinery is included in the strategic plan – as cooperative governance structures they have great potential to facilitate the programmes of the DWCPD at all levels of govt. • Mention of “green economy” empowerment initiatives: how do these relate to institutional support and capacity building?

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