T Manuel: World Congress of Rural Women

24 April 2007

Introduction

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to address this
august conference representing a constituency of people who are often amongst
the poorest, most marginalised members of our global village. Rural women are
often the poorest strata in society, they suffer from a range of both formal
and informal barriers to develop themselves and are often prevented from
organising themselves. This gathering and the wide representation present here
today is a victory in itself. I commend you on your ability to organise, to
meet, to talk and make your voices heard. A democracy where the most
marginalised sectors are organised in a healthy, thriving democracy.

At the risk of repeating figures that may not be new to you, allow me to
paint a picture of the conditions that rural women in South Africa face. You've
probably heard of the term triple oppression. Black women and rural women in
particular were discriminated against because of the colour of their skin,
because of their gender and because they were workers. As a result of centuries
of these types of discrimination, black women in rural areas are often the
poorest. In our country they also had to endure the hardships of a land tenure
system that discriminated against them, a migrant labour system that favoured
men and a system of forced removals to homelands that were neither economically
viable nor places suitable for subsistence agriculture.

According to a survey by Markinor (a local survey company) released last
week, only 15 percent of rural women have a matric (or have completed secondary
schooling) compared to 50 percent for urban women. About 16 percent of rural
women have no schooling relative to just three percent for urban women.

Educational qualifications are a good predictor of earning potential. While
about 50 percent of urban women live in households earning more than R2 500 a
month, only 30 percent of rural women live in such households. About 36 percent
of urban women are employed compared to only 20 percent in rural areas. Over 40
percent of rural women are unemployed. According to Martin Wittenberg, a
University of Cape Town academic at peak employment age of 40, just 30 percent
of rural women are employed. For rural men this figure is 60 percent. A survey
by Finmark Trust also pointed out that female unemployment is much higher on
tribal lands.

Poverty amongst rural women also has an effect on children since many rural
women are lone mothers. Let me give you a statistic that surprised me. Let's
see if you can guess which country this is from. In 1997, 56 percent of lone
parent families headed by women were living below the poverty line compared to
24 percent of lone parent families headed by men. That statistic is from
Canada, one of the richest countries in the world. Even in developed countries,
rural women and single mothers suffer much higher rates of poverty and social
exclusion than the rest of the population. Poor, single female headed
households are the least likely to break out of poverty.

Rural women produce about 80 percent of the food grown in Africa, 60 percent
in Asia and between 30 and 40 percent in Latin America. Rural women own just
two percent of all agricultural land and receive only one percent of
agricultural credit. Two thirds of all the illiterate adults in the world are
rural women. These statistics confirm what you know already that rural women
are critically important to our society yet they are often the most
marginalised sector of society.

Today I want to talk about economic growth, the effects of economic growth
on a population and the types of things that government's can do to ensure that
growth is shared more evenly amongst all citizens.

The world has experienced rapid economic growth for much of the past 15
years.

Despite a slowdown in the late 1990s in Asia and in developed countries in
the early part of this century, global gross domestic product (GDP) growth has
accelerated and has averaged over five percent over the past few years. Faster
growth is mainly driven by technological change, rising world trade, the
entrance of new labour forces and consumers into the global market, rising
wealth and consumption in developed countries and industrialisation in China
and India. Commodity prices are higher than at any other period in the past 25
years.

While most countries in Africa experienced declining prices for their
exports in the period 1980 to 2000, today the picture has reversed. Africa
itself is experiencing a prolonged period of economic expansion, driven mainly
by commodity prices but also buoyed by better government, greater access to
global markets and fewer conflicts.

Despite the attention on Sudan, Somalia or Zimbabwe there are fewer
conflicts in Africa today than 20 years ago. In some cases faster growth has
been accompanied by increased donor assistance and debt relief. While oil
exporting countries are doing particularly well, almost all African countries
are seeing the fruits of sound economic management and their noble efforts at
building stable institutions.

Rapidly growing economies such as India and China are drawing tens of
millions of people out of poverty through faster growth and industrialisation.
In South Africa, after years of moderate growth, our economy is growing much
faster and is now creating jobs at a pace sufficient to begin tackling our huge
unemployment rate.

Closer observation of these trends over the past decade show some
interesting features. In some countries that are growing rapidly, the number of
people living in poverty is declining. However, in other countries, despite
high growth there is little impact on poverty. In countries such as Zimbabwe
where the economy is shrinking, the number of people living in poverty is
rising. Rapid economic growth is a necessity for lifting people out of poverty.
However, on its own economic growth will not make the impact we desire unless
governments act in the interests of the poor to ensure that growth is
shared.

A clear feature of the present growth path globally is that the returns to
education are rising and skilled labour has been able to capture a
disproportionately large share of the growth. People who have been denied
access to education or who have a set of skills that is not commensurate with
today's economic structure have not seen their incomes rise and in some cases,
have seen falling real incomes. This observation is particularly pertinent when
in South Africa's case, 85 percent of rural women have not completed their
schooling.

A related feature of growth in the world today is that as incomes have
risen, the level of inequality has also risen. This trend is observable in
countries ranging from the United States of America (USA) to China, India to
Russia, Brazil to South Africa. As India has grown, its middle class has
burgeoned. A similar trend is visible in China. Middle class families are often
urban, educated, have stable incomes, spend on consumer goods, can afford to
travel and are highly mobile in terms of where they can work. However, poor
communities where education levels are low where access to markets are
distorted and transport linkages weak are trapped in poverty.

Without rapid growth, we do not have the ability to lift people out of
poverty. But more importantly even with rapid growth government must play a
countervailing influence on the side of the poor to ensure that wealth is
redistributed and opportunities are shared equally. Only an active state can
provide services such as education, healthcare, public transport and clean
water these services open up opportunities for growth and development.

The hallmark of a successful democratic state is its ability to use the
resources that rapid growth presents to reduce poverty and improve the quality
of life for those who are marginalised. Marketers themselves cannot do this.
Many developing countries, including on the African continent, are witnessing a
boom as a result of high oil prices.
The fiscal position of most African countries, including oil importing ones, is
healthy.

The test is to use these additional resources wisely to invest in education,
in infrastructure, in things that will generate a return well into the future
for when the oil runs out or the price of ground nuts collapses as it most
surely will. Government's spending patterns must be pro-poor.

Markets or the private sector, can generate wealth, spur innovation and
improve the welfare of communities. However, markets fail too. Sir Nick Stern,
advisor to the British government on the economics of global climate change
refers to our pollution of the air as the most spectacular market failure in
human history. It is in no single person's interest to reduce pollution.
However, it is in our collective interest to reduce pollution because global
warming threatens all our livelihoods.

The impact of global climate change will be felt particularly by rural
women. As rainfall becomes more erratic and temperatures rise, it will become
much more difficult to produce food. Africa already experiences long periods of
below average rainfall. We may well see increasing volatility in rainfall
patterns. Rural women know better than any of us that water is life. Without
water their living standards will plummet.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), we presently
have a situation where one in three citizens of the world do not have access to
clean water. At present, waterborne diseases kill more children in Africa than
HIV and AIDS, Malaria, war and accidents combined. Only acute respiratory
infections (which stems from airborne pollution) kill more children. Global
warming will make water even scarcer. Furthermore, one of the consequences of
rapid economic growth without a strong state is that the private sector can get
away with polluting water sources on an unimaginable scale.

Efforts to privatise water markets have, in most cases, left the problem of
access to water for the poor unresolved. Private companies do invest resources
but then attempt to charge a fee for the water those prices out the poor. In
Jamaica, Argentina and El Salvador, the poorest 20 percent of the population
spend 11 percent of their incomes on water. Water is a common resource and a
merit good, in economic terms.

At the full economic cost of water, the poor will not be able to consume
even the limited amount needed for sustenance. Governments have an obligation
to ensure that the poor have access to at least a basic amount of clean water
to consume, cook and for personal hygiene.

The most recent edition of Vanity Fair contains an article entitled, "The
rise of Big Water". This article tells the story of Long Cun, a village in
rural China far off the beaten track. It lies just down the river from a town
called Liuzhou, population 1,3 million. Like most Chinese cities these days,
Liuzhou is ringed by walled off industrial zones jammed with more than 1 000
factories making cars, engines, LCD screens, processed foods, steel, paper,
plastic�goods that fill our living rooms. The local paper mill dumps its waste
into a tributary of the river. The locals observe that the river is 'black as
soy sauce'.

Long Cun drew its water from this river. Villagers had to boil the water
which kills the bacteria but not the heavy chemical pollutants. Then a new
hydroelectric dam was built down river which slowed the flow of the river,
concentrating the toxins. Villagers sued the factory but got nowhere.
Authorities came and looked at the mess, but didn't fix it.

Last year, the city of Liuzhou decided that instead of forcing the mill to
clean up its act, it forced the town of Long Cun to connect to a water system
run by a private French water company. The amount spent on water by the
villagers has gone up from about 25 United States (US) cents to four dollars a
month. A typical village household in this region earns about US$20 to 30 a
month.

This story tells a typical win - win lose outcome. The owners of the paper
mill win, the foreign private water company wins and the villagers lose.

Economic growth and globalisation has many features that are positive. They
provide us with the resources to invest in people, to make the lives of the
poor less burdensome. However, without a strong countervailing force on the
side of the poor, poor communities, of which rural women are a major component,
will not get to share in the wealth that is being generated.

There are a handful of issues that are reputed to play a role in breaking
the poverty cycle. First on the list would be education. Education of a
suitable quality and that is appropriate expands the range of opportunities
open to people to raise productivity levels and to increase their incomes. Even
if rural women have not been through a system of formal education, basic
literacy and numeracy would aid women to access services and take control of
their lives. Good ante-natal services including ante-natal education is
critical to reduce infant mortality. These services fall within the clear ambit
of what governments must do in order to intervene on behalf of the poor.

I've mentioned the role of water in the lives of rural women. Government has
a clear obligation to progressively expand the infrastructure required to
provide clean running water and sanitation to all its citizens. While it is
entirely appropriate to charge people for using water since it is a scarce
commodity, some basic provision must be provided to all citizens, irrespective
of their ability to pay. It is not good enough to provide free water and only
60 percent of the population has access to water. While expanding sanitation
services is more difficult, the inability to do so results in pollution of the
water supply and the spread of waterborne diseases. South Africa is proud of
the fact that the recent UNDP Human Development Report mentions our country as
one of the few in the world that spends more on water than on defence. However,
even in our own country, we still have a small proportion of our people who
still do not have access to clean water. We are committed to ensuring that all
people have access to clean water by 2008.

Only governments sometimes through partnerships with communities and the
private sector can provide access for rural people to places where economic and
administrative services are provided. Such access is delivered through roads,
public transport linkages but increasingly through postal services,
telecommunications infrastructure and broadband. Electricity is also a key
service that opens up a range of possibilities and opportunities for accessing
services and economic opportunities.

A developmental state is one that allows markets to work and intervenes on
the side of the poor when markets fail. The provision of basic education,
water, access roads, electricity and health services are services which
government has an obligation to progressively expand so that the poorest
sections of our community can break out of the cycle of poverty.

However, while governments have a clear role to intervene on behalf of your
constituency, it is important for rural women not to become passive recipients
of whatever is thrown at them. Organise yourselves, shout from the rooftops
when your rights are being trampled and pressure your governments to act on
your behalf not for self interest but to make the lives of rural women less
burdensome.

I wish you well during your deliberations and I look forward to reading the
resolutions that stem from this conference.

Thank you!

Issued by: National Treasury
24 April 2007
Source: Department of Agriculture (http://www.nda.agric.za/)