The Minister of Public Works, Honourable T W Nxesi, MP, will officially launch the DPW Women Empowerment Advisory Committee (DPWWEAC) and introduce its members to the DPW stakeholders and the South African community on 21 August 2015.
Minister Nxesi has held consultative sessions with women organisations in the past, with the aim of establishing ways of ensuring that the department responds to the plight of the marginalisation of women, while at the same time addressing the challenges of lack of transformation of the Construction and Property Industries.
After a series of consultations between the department and women organisations, it was agreed that all women organisations that are involved in the Built Environment and Property sectors must come together as a forum or advisory committee to the department. The advisory committee will be the mouth-piece of all women organisations in the built-environment; whose role will be:
- To provide technical advice to the Minister and the Department on issues of Women Empowerment in the Built environment and the Property Sector.
- To establish the DPW Women Empowerment Advisory Committee (DPWWAC) that would represent all women organisations within the construction and property sectors and to chart way-forward for the establishment of a DPW Ministerial Accelerated Women Empowerment Programme (MAWEP)
- To develop the Terms of reference for the DPWWAC to guide how the process will unfold
- To advocate for the Identification of projects from the existing DPW programmes that would form part of the DPW Ministerial Accelerated Women Empowerment Programme (MAWEP)
- Monitor and evaluate the implementation of the DPW Ministerial Accelerated Women Empowerment Programme (MAWEP)
Objectives of the DPW “Ministerial Accelerated Women Empowerment Programme (MAWEP)”
- To promote and facilitate the empowerment and active participation of women in infrastructure delivery value chain through the allocation of 30% target of the department’s budget for women-owned companies;
- To enhance entrepreneurial development and increase the number of women contractors, women in property, built-environment professionals as well as women-owned SMME’s providing goods and services to the department ;
- To build partnerships with key sector stakeholders from government, NGO’s and private sector in implementing the DPW “Ministerial Accelerated Women Empowerment Programme (MAWEP);
- To profile women in the Built-Environment and Property Sector.
- To identify challenges and skills shortages and develop support systems for emerging women contractors, women in property, built-environment professionals as well as other women service providers; and
- To develop a research agenda on women-owned projects, monitor and evaluate progress on set targets towards women empowerment and thereby contribute to ending malpractice and fronting by exploring possibilities of women in construction score card.
- To provide support and advise the Ministry and the Department of Public Works on structuring opportunities for women.
Composition
1.1. Membership
Currently, the members of the Department of Public Works Women Empowerment Advisory Committee (DPWWEAC) comprise of (but not limited to) the following women organisations within the built-environment sector;
- South African Women in Construction (SAWIC)
- Women in Engineering and Built-Environment Professions (WiEBEP)
- Divuseni Women with Disabilities
- Tertiary Institutions (UJ Women in Engineering and the Built-Environment Programme)
- Women's Achievement Network for Disability
- Association of Women in Property
- Women in Property Network
- All DPW Sector Entities
- Construction and Property Sector Charters
