P Mlambo-Ngcuka: African Conference on Gender, Transport and Development
during Women's Month

27 August 2006

Honourable Minister of Transport, Jeff Radebe,
Premier of the Eastern Cape, Nosimo Balindlela,
Members of the Executive Council in the Eastern Cape,
Honourable Mayors,
Traditional Leaders,
Honoured local and international guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is indeed my pleasure to address you here and to welcome you to the first
International African Conference on Gender, Transport and Development. I also
wish to express the appreciation of the Presidency and government to the
organisers of this all important event for inviting us to share this experience
with you.

50th Anniversary of the Women’s March

I am glad to be a part of this very important conference. As you are well
aware August in our country is Women's Month, when we celebrate women, their
struggles, and their victories, and when we also take stock of the weaknesses
and the challenges that still face women. This year, being the 50th Anniversary
of the heroic Women’s March on Pretoria, is extra special. So it is fitting for
us to remember women’s courage and dedication to freedom and liberation. The
1956 Women’s March is without a doubt one of the most important events in our
liberation struggle and is remarkable because it merged the relationship
between the national democratic struggle and women’s emancipation.

On 9 August 1956, the women of our country set in motion a train of events
and undertook a form of struggle that was fundamentally about freedom and
empowerment. The march was not just about women refusing to carry passes; it
was also about the resolution of the national question that confronted all
South Africans who were struggling for freedom.

We should never forget the enormous sacrifices made by women in our struggle
for freedom; they played a critical role in many struggles that have shaped the
direction of our struggle. They were part of the Passive Resistance Campaign in
the 1940s, the Defiance Campaign of the 1950s, managed to draft their own
blueprint in the form of the Women’s Charter which hugely influenced the
Freedom Charter, when the liberation movement was banned they became part of
the armed struggle, many served long term sentences for their beliefs, and were
part of the mass democratic movement of the 1980s. All these indicate the
centrality of women in the struggle for our freedom.

Challenges of gender equality

South Africa faces three most important issues when it comes to gender
equality:

* the full socio-economic and political emancipation of women
* ensuring the full integration of women into the labour market free from
discrimination
* ensuring that public sector service delivery is gender sensitive.

The recently released Country Self Assessment Report, which was done for the
African Peer Review Mechanism also confirms this state of affairs, when it
notes:

“A key challenge is ensuring that women participate equally in the South
African economy. Women face higher levels of unemployment across the country
and those who are employed on average receive lower incomes from work, fewer
opportunities or training and promotions, and are concentrated in poorly-paying
occupations, such as domestic work.”

Women, transport and the Constitution

Our understanding of the role of women in transport must be informed by our
history of struggle for gender equality, by our constitutional obligations and
by our vision of creating a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous
South Africa.

In 1994, as the first democratically elected government in the history of
South Africa, we had to simultaneously dismantle discriminatory and oppressive
apartheid legislation and enact progressive and socially just legislation that
would enable the democratic state to realise its goal of the empowerment of
women. Central to this commitment was the passage of the supreme law of our
country – the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of
1996).

The Constitution protects and advances the rights of all South Africans.
Chapter 2, of the Bill of Rights, provides all citizens with the legal basis to
protect their fundamental rights, including the right to equality. The equality
clause states that ‘Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal
protection and benefit of the law….the State may not unfairly discriminate
against anyone on one or more grounds including gender, sex or pregnancy.’ The
state may if it chooses, undertake legislation and undertake policies and
programmes that advance women to “protect or advance persons, or categories of
persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination”. This is about making both
public and private institutions representative of the people being served by
these institutions. The question would be how are we using these laws to
advance women within the transport sector?

Impact of transport in development

Both separately and jointly, we have all worked for some time now on the
relationships, which hold between gender, transport and development, both
within the developing and developed world. From our research, it has become
abundantly clear that women’s greater domestic responsibilities coupled with
their poor access to household resources have significant consequences for
their transport and travel status.

Transport deprivation results in an increase of burden for women to complete
their daily tasks and also limits their choice in respect of usage of modes of
transport. Women’s journeys tend to be multi-purposed resulting in greater
travel anxiety, whereas men’s journeys are more often than not characterised by
a single purpose. Alternatively, it may take the form of customary constraints
on women’s rights to travel or to use a particular mode of transport.

The implications of this situation for transport and travel have largely
gone unconsidered by the powers that be. Attempts to remove the constraints
around women’s access to transport and travel are few and far between and with
a few notable exceptions, developing women-friendly transport and travel
services has generally held a low priority status in policy-makers’ thinking,
in both the developed and developing world.

Transport and gender equality and achievement of Millennium Development
Goals (MDG)

I have read with interest various articles on the topic of gender equality
and transport, one of which made a profound impact on me, is an article on
gender equality and women’s empowerment by Naila Kabeer, Professorial Fellow at
the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Kabeer rightfully
points out that gender equality and women's empowerment is the third priority
of the eight Millennium Development Goals. It is universally recognised that
transport is a necessary prerequisite for the attainment of the Millennium
Development Goals. However, transport should be viewed as a means to an end,
rather than the end in itself.

A well-maintained transport infrastructure, although not the only dynamic,
is fundamental in assisting countries to meet the Millennium Development Goals
by reducing poverty, increasing access to basic services, and improving the
socio-economic environment as a whole. Any endeavour, therefore, to tackle
poverty systematically must, no doubt, address gender disparities in access to
opportunities and resources, like transport.

Kabeer refers to three main links between the transport sector and the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, i.e. poverty reduction and
transport; economic growth and transport; and governance and transport.
Evidence clearly suggests that the improvement of the rural community’s access
to transport reduces poverty. In our own country, as in other developing
countries, many of the poorest villages are located some 15 to 20 kilometres
from the nearest roads. The resulting isolation could well be likened to
imprisonment.

Those who are held captive inside these villages are in actual fact
marginalised as they cannot reach basic services such as schools, hospitals and
markets, or participate in the political activities of their communities and
country. To be disempowered implies to be denied choice. For there to be a real
choice, certain conditions must be fulfilled, for example, there must be
alternatives. Poverty and disempowerment generally go hand in hand, since an
inability to meet one’s basic needs – and the resulting dependence on powerful
others to do so – rules out the capacity for meaningful choice.

This absence of choice is likely to affect women and men differently, since
gender-related inequalities often intensify the effects of poverty. It is
widely acknowledged that gender often operates through the unquestioned
acceptance of power. Thus, women who accept violence at the hands of their
husbands, do so because to behave otherwise is considered outside the realm of
possibility. Although one could argue that this reflects ‘choice’, it is, in
reality, based on the denial of choice. Institutional bias invariably
constrains women’s ability to make strategic life choices.

In Africa, for instance, women and girls are a major transport form, often
head-loading goods from field to market and to other venues, transporting
water, firewood, and so on. Cultural or ideological norms may deny that those
inequalities of power exist or that such inequalities are unjust. Subordinate
groups are likely to accept their lot in society, if challenging this either
does not appear possible or carries heavy personal and social costs.

The exclusion of women from participation in transport systems and service
results in their specific transport needs being ignored. Head-load carrying is
detrimental to health and simple solutions, such as animal traction, wheeled or
rolling devices can be used at relatively low cost.

It could be argued that empowerment often begins from within. Empowerment is
rooted in how people perceive themselves – their sense of self-worth. This in
turn is intrinsically linked with how they are perceived by other members of
society. Policy makers often continue to see the benefits of educating girls
and women in terms of improving family health and welfare, rather than
preparing women for a more equal place in the economy and society.

Women’s lack of skills partly explains why they continue to be confined to
the poorer paid and more casual forms of work. There is also a solid body of
evidence to suggest that access to paid work can increase the empowerment of
women in strategic ways. Ironically, in households where women’s economic
contribution is critical to household survival, women are able to negotiate a
greater degree of respect.

Moving towards economic growth and transport, poverty reduction must be
based on economic growth if it is to be sustainable. This inevitably requires
improved accessibility, greater mobility, and more efficient means of
trade.

Poverty reduction and the role of transport

China, the world’s most populous country, has reduced poverty more rapidly
in the last two decades than most other countries. Between 1990 and 2000, the
number of people living on less than $1 a day in China fell from 360 million to
200 million. The development of modern transportation systems has been
identified as a key factor in supporting the current economic boom in China, as
well as in many other countries such as the United States and Korea.

Transport and governance

The last link concerns governance or public administration and transport.
The transport sector provides many opportunities to improve public
administration and governance. From major infrastructure projects such as
highways, to local initiatives for providing rural access and public transport
services, transport is among the most active, and unfortunately, most expensive
areas of government operations.

Developing funding and maintaining transport systems are among the most
difficult challenges facing institutions in both the developed and developing
world. Consequently, transport as a sector, has a great deal to contribute in
improving governance, public administration, and the management of government
finances.

Needless to say, when transport systems are efficient, they provide
socio-economic opportunities and benefit that impact throughout the economy.
Mobility is one of the most fundamental and important characteristics of
economic activity, as it satisfies the basic need of travelling from one
location to another. In addition, mobility is a reliable indicator of
development: reduced mobility impedes development while greater mobility is a
catalyst for development.

The aims of this conference certainly affirm that we still need to find
practical solutions to many of the problems that women still face around
transport. Our goals over the next few days are ambitious, but, I believe,
achievable.

I wish to emphasise again tonight, that while Government has a critical role
to play, it cannot achieve these challenges on its own. I trust that your
deliberations will assist greatly in the development of gender responsive
transport systems which will, in particular, service the needs of impoverished
women across the world. I wish you well in your conference deliberations. As we
celebrate the 50th anniversary we must rededicate ourselves to empowering women
to be active participants in all sectors of our society and economy, especially
in the transport sector as it provides us with many opportunities to empower
women.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
27 August 2006