Gendered analysis of the working for water programme: a case study of the Tsitsikama Working for Water project

Governments have attempted to mitigate the effects of high unemployment in various ways, particularly through targeted interventions such as public works programmes. The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) of the South African government aims to address unemployment by creating labour intensive jobs through government expenditure. This paper pays specific attention to a project of the Working for Water (WfW) programme - the Tsitsikama project. Both the EPWP and the WfW focus strongly on the employment of women, and given the reality of women’s position within South Africa, this paper conducts a gender analysis of this WfW project.

A gender analysis is concerned with the social roles and interactions of men and women in society, their access to resources, remuneration for work, exercise of authority and power, and participation in cultural, political and religious activity. It is widely accepted in the discourse on development that the needs of poor women must receive particular attention, i.e. development must be informed by a gender analysis.

In conducting a gender analysis of the Tsitsikama project, the paper first provides an overview of the Working for Water programme. A framework for analysing the gender dimensions of a WfW project is then developed. Following a review of the case study – the WfW Tsitsikama project – the gender analysis framework is applied to determine the extent to which gender has been mainstreamed at project level.

Some of the critical issues identified by this paper include:

• administrative systems need to become more effective and efficient
• poverty targeting mechanisms need to operate to ensure that there are checks and balances in the worker selection procedure
• when targeting vulnerable groups, consideration should be given to the vulnerabilities that young women and disabled women face
• community participation with regard to Advisory Committees requires capacity building for community members
• for the social development component to be implemented at project level there is a requirement for dedicated staffing.

The lessons from the WfW programme for the Expanded Public Works Programme are the following:

• objectives of the programme should be clear and limited
• there should be a clear understanding of current capacity as well as the capacity constraints
• institutional location is important as well as efficient systems to facilitate the implementation of the programme
• short term public works should have a good quality, accredited training programme
• long term public works programme might be a better option to maximise impact on poverty, the two year limit should be revisited
• the social development component of the programme should be well thought through and there must be capacity to implement this objective.

The paper concludes that successful gender mainstreaming has to be premised on a programme and projects that are well managed and that have systems that work well within a gender framework.