EASTERN CAPE REPORT ON ACHIEVEMENTS, CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 8 P

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EASTERN CAPE REPORT ON ACHIEVEMENTS, CHALLENGES
AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
8 PRINCIPLED PLAN OF ACTION IN THE PROVINCE

• PRESENTATION BY
• MS. ZUKELWA MLAKALAKA
• DATE 21 AUGUST 2009
• VENUE ELANGENI HOTEL, DURBAN

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INTRODUCTION

• This presentation aims to
• Give a brief overview of the background and
  context of the 8 Principled Plan of action.
• Share achievement on the implementation of the
  plan.
• Share the challenges in the implementation of the
  plan.
• Give recommendations and map the way forward.

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BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

• The commitment to transformation and a better
  quality of life for all by the democratic
  government which came into power in 1994 is well
  documented.
• The famous inauguration speech by President
  Mandela which spelt out his governments
  commitment to non racism, non sexism and equality
  for all in our country in a clear unambiguous
  manner (Freedom can not be achieved unless
  women.), forms part of our proud history.

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BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

• Different policies, legal frameworks and
  international, regional and national agreements
  and gender instruments, including our
  Constitution have long been adopted and signed.
  However, fifteen years later we are still
  concerned about non compliance to all these noble
  commitments to gender equality. We are still
  concerned that systems are not in place to enable
  us to deliver effectively on gender equality.
• This is what persuaded the former Minister of
  Public Service and Administration, Geraldine
  Fraser-Moleketi to invite the governments
  highest officials, the Directors General and
  their Gender Focal Points as well as other
  partners and stake-holders to a high profile
  round table discussion on gender equality in
  August 2007.

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BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

• Concerned about a disturbing report produced by
  the Public Service Commission in 2006 on lack of
  commitment to implementation of the National
  Policy on the Empowerment of Women and Gender
  Equality as well as other gender policies within
  the public service and lack of support to this
  need by top management, she felt that an open
  discussion on the findings of the study was
  critical. There also had to be agreements on
  binding commitments as a way forward to address
  this concern. The outcome of those deliberations
  was the now famous 8 Principled Plan of Action
  which had to be signed by all the top managers at
  the end of those discussions.
• The top managers were charged with ensuring that
  8 Principled Plan was implemented and to report
  back on achievements on an annual basis from
  2008.

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ACTION TAKEN BY THE PROVINCE

• Within a week the Provincial OSW prepared a
  Cabinet Memo on the 8 Principled Plan which was
  endorsed by the cabinet cluster.
• A presentation to the Heads of Departments and
  other senior managers was done.
• As part of International Womens Day in March
  2008 Heads of Departments were asked to sign a
  pledge of commitment to the plan by the
  Provincial Gender Machinery.

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ACTION TAKEN BY THE PROVINCE

• In June 2008 the OSW started including training
  on understanding the 8 Point Plan and the
  Provincial Policy framework on Gender Equality
  and the Empowerment of Women in the training
  package on Gender analysis for senior management
  as well as the departmental gender focal points.

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ACHIEVEMENTS

• TRANSFORMATION FOR NON-SEXISM
• Achievements on this principled plan vary across
  departments.
• It also needs to be stated that some departments
  have made some strides in the sphere of
  employment of women with disabilities at SMS
  levels.
• There is a provincial Sexual Harassment Policy in
  place. Some departments have also developed
  theirs, e.g. Education, Health, Social
  Development, DEDEA. Others are in the process of
  doing so.

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CHALLENGES

• Transformation for non-sexism commitments are not
  linked to the broader transformation plans e.g.
  HR Plans
• As a province, whilst we have employed persons
  with disabilities, we are lagging behind the 2
  target for people with disabilities, particularly
  women with disabilities.

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RECOMMENDATION

• Commitment to transformation for non-sexism must
  be linked to both the provincial transformation
  and Strategic plans.

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ACHIEVEMENTS

• ESTABLISHING A POLICY ENVIRONMENT
• The province endorsed the Provincial Policy
  Framework for Gender Equality and the Empowerment
  of Women in 2007. Two departments have developed
  their Sector Specific Gender Guidelines
  (Department of Economic Development and
  Environmental Affairs and Social Development)
  Some are in the process of developing theirs
  (Education and Public Works)

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CHALLENGES

• Non-compliance of Departments to their own
  policies

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RECOMMENDATION

• The Ministry needs to ensure that monitoring and
  evaluation needs to be strengthened, together
  with penalties for non-compliance by provinces

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ACHIEVEMENTS

• MEETING EQUITY TARGETS
• Departments including the Office of the Premier
  have had varying levels of achievements in
  meeting the targets. Some have sadly regressed
  pulling the provincial average down to 38. The
  highest achieving department in meeting its
  targets is Department of Social Development with
  women at senior management currently at 47.

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CHALLENGES

• Monitoring mechanisms need to be strengthened

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• The Provincial transformation units needs to
  ensure vigorous monitoring of equity targets and
  report on a quarterly basis on deviations
• EE plans to indicate challenges in implementation

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ACHIEVEMENTS

• CREATING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
• Most departments ( 7) have appointed gender focal
  points
• Some departments have revived the gender forum
  Senior Managers and MMS levels to look at issues
  of women advancement and development within the
  department.
• Seminars were held for women officials which
  created a platform for them to network about
  their upward mobility within the department.
• OSW has supported Departments in the development
  of gender core competencies

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• The identification of target groups that need
  upskilling is urgently required.

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ACHIEVEMENTS

• GENDER MAINSTREAMING
• Capacity building organized for all gender focal
  points, senior managers in gender analysis,
  gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting. This
  has resulted in the following provincial outputs
• The Department of Social Development has
  established a Womens Development Directorate to
  further entrench economic empowerment of women in
  Province with the budget of R24 million, 48 women
  cooperatives were funded in the Province under
  Women Development Directorate in the financial
  year 2008/09.

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ACHIEVEMENTS

• The Department of Social Development has set
  aside an amount of R29.7 million for women
  development programmes in 2009-10 financial year
  which is broken down as follows

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Gender Mainstreaming
An additional R5million budget has been set aside
for funding 10 new Womens projects in deep
rural areas , in partnership with Traditional
Leadership under the Imbumba Yamakhosikazi
Akomkhulu, with a view to ensuring centrality of
traditional authority in poverty alleviation
initiatives. Below is a breakdown of the
allocation
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ACHIEVEMENTS

• GENDER MAINSTREAMING
• The Boys Education Movement in the Department of
  Education- Gender training on masculinity under
  the Safe Schools programme
• Departments have also been trained in gender
  auditing. Two Departments (DEDEA, Health) have
  cascaded this by auditing their Supply Chain
  tendering processes
• Departments set targets for allocation of tenders
  to women owned businesses within Supply Chain
  Units. An example of this is the Department of
  Social development where the following has been
  achieved
• An amount of R 10 387 594.59 of the Departmental
  tenders were awarded to women entrepreneurs in
  2008/9 financial year.
• An amount of R37,433 116 of the Departmental
  tenders were awarded to women entrepreneurs
  from April-July in the 2009/10 financial year.

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CHALLENGES

• Most gender focal points starting with the Office
  of the Premier still do not sit in key decision
  making structures where they should be making the
  impact. As such Gender becomes an add-on after
  key planning processes and engagements have begun
  in earnest. This limits the impact on gender
  mainstreaming. The recent outreach in the
  province is a case in point. Major challenges
  were identified during the outreach. Afterwards
  the OSW is expected to develop a plan that will
  address gender imbalances in the province based
  on second hand information.
• Few Senior managers attend gender training
  courses.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• The new Ministry would need to clearly spell-out
  the roles and responsibilities, including lines
  of accountability for the Provinces, which would
  include the levels of both the co-ordinating
  functions and the implementers
• Gender Budget to be ring-fenced within 1 of the
  skills budget to ensure funding available for
  capacity building programmes

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ACHIEVEMENTS

• Bridging the gap
• The provincial Department of Education has the
  techno-girl programme where champions of Industry
  have committed to supporting the girl-child by
  participating in a mentoring and coaching in 15
  educational districts out of 24 by providing
  coaching and mentoring in fields like engineering
  and commercial fields like finance, accounting
  and economics.
• The Department of Roads and Public Works has 414
  Students contracted in the artisan training
  (Accelerated Professional Trade Competency. In
  addition, 40 bursaries which constitute 55 were
  awarded to females, in the following Technical
  Skills Quantity Surveying, Building Engineering.
  

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RECOMMENDATION

• An integrated, inter-governmental and
  inter-departmental approach to addressing scarce
  skills and intervention strategies to be
  developed and implemented with clear targets

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CHALLENGES

• Despite the strides, the intervention is a drop
  in the ocean, given the need in the province

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PROVIDING ADEQUATE RESOURCES

• CHALLENGES
• Very limited number of departments have managed
  to provide adequate human and material resources
  which enable optimal service delivery in this
  area. Budgeting as a whole needs to be gender
  responsive. Budgets need to be ring-fenced.
• Most gender focal points are responsible for
  youth, HIV and AIDS. There is still a lot of
  focus on campaigns rather than womens
  empowerment and gender equality

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MONITORING AND EVALUATION

• ACHIEVEMENTS
• Provision of sex disaggregated data
• Some departments ( eg. DEDEA and Social
  Development) have developed sector specific
  monitoring and evaluation tools
• Monthly and Quarterly reports are submitted by
  all departments
• Comprehensive reports are submitted on
  implementation of major instruments eg. SADC

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RECOMMENDATIONS

• ME units to be tasked with analysis of the data
  and feedback provided for further implementation

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Thank you !EnkosiDankieSIYABONGA