Programme director
Honourable MECs present
CEOs of public entities
Representatives of women in water and environment sectors
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
Background
It gives me great pleasure to address as well as join you in the important deliberations for two days. The inaugural Women in Water and Environment Dialogue is held under the theme: “Addressing unemployment, poverty and inequality: together contributing towards the progressive future for women.”
We have critical economic challenges affecting women that we need solutions for and this is the right platform to deal with the problem. Women are hard workers who take on various responsibilities simultaneously but they are generally invisible in mainstream economy and that doesn't augur well for gender statistics in this country. Women population constitutes more than 50% and we only occupy 28% of top management jobs whilst men keep the rest. Is this fair? Why not women at least hold 50% of top jobs even though we are entitled for more given our numerical dominance?
United Nations (UN) report indicates that women make up half of the world's population and yet represent a staggering 70% of the world's poor. For the millions of women living in poverty, their lives are a litany of injustice, discrimination and obstacles that get in the way of achieving their basic needs of good health, safe childbirth, education and employment. Overcoming these inequalities and ensuring that women benefit from development requires that the needs and desires of women are not only taken into account, but be put front and centre.
In contrast, men who already hold wealth get richer and richer because they have the means to invest in new sources of creating wealth or to otherwise leverage the accumulation of wealth, making them the beneficiaries of the new wealth. This has probably inspired the phrase of the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer.
Over time, wealth condensation in one gender can significantly contribute to the persistence of inequality within society. This already holds some truth as women constitute the majority of the 7 billion global population and are victims of jobs segregation. Women are more likely to work in low-wage, jobs such as teaching, child care, nursing, cleaning, and waitressing. The top 10 jobs held by women include: secretaries and administrative assistants; elementary and middle-school teachers; retail salespeople and maids and housekeepers.
These jobs typically pay less than male-dominated jobs and are fueling the gender wage gap. These are also the jobs of the future, the kinds of jobs projected to grow faster than other occupations, so addressing the pay gap here will have long-term consequences.
Women are still paid less than men for the same work and despite holding the same qualifications and experience. Women consistently find themselves in low-status, low-paying jobs with few opportunities for advancement and are overrepresented among part-time workers and in the informal sector. Globally, employment in the informal sector is on the rise. There is no logical academic explanation for this inequality scenario. The situation is even worse according to UN statistics. It says that:
- Women perform 67% of the world’s working hours and yet only earn 10% of the world income
- Women earn 10% of the world’s income whilst producing 50% of the world's food
- Women own less than 1% of the world's property.
It is therefore not surprising that the bottom half of the global population together possess less than 2% of global wealth. In sharp contrast, the richest 10% own 83% of the world’s wealth and the rest share the remaining 17%.
Needless to say, women's problems and the restrictions to economic opportunities and political participation are caused by patriarchal driven socialisation process which emphasise different values, ethnic and religious norms.
All these need to change since we live in an equal society
Towards gender mainstreaming
The quest for change should start with a clearly defined statement with Women's Empowerment Challenges to halt these disturbing trends and the proposed solutions which should force legislators to change policies. I'm confident that this Women in Environment Dialogue can assist with setting the process in motion.
The picture I have been trying to paint is that women's poverty is directly related to the absence of economic opportunities and autonomy, lack of access to economic resources, including credit, land ownership and inheritance, lack of access to education and support services and women's minimal participation in the decision-making process.
The release of women's productive potential is pivotal to breaking the cycle of poverty so that women can share fully in the benefits of development and in the products of their own labour.
As a result, crucial to the process should be the failure to adequately mainstream a gender perspective in all economic analysis, policy planning and to address the structural causes of poverty as contributing factors.
Sustainable development and economic growth that is both sustained and sustainable are possible only through improving the economic, social, political, legal and cultural status of women. Equitable social development that recognises empowering the poor, particularly women, to utilise environmental resources sustainably is a necessary foundation for sustainable development.
Our government is continuously undertaking broad legislative and administrative reforms, with the full and equal participation of women, macroeconomic and social policies. This restructuring also targets the allocation of public expenditures to promote women's economic opportunities and equal access to productive resources.
The Departments of Water and Environmental Affairs are using the environment natural resources to empower women. However, our efforts need to be accelerated with active participation of civic organisations such as this one.
We need to use the environment optimally as a catalyst for women's involvement in the mainstream economy. Women should take full advantage of economic opportunities presented by Green Economy such as providing solar energy to households, production of energy through wind farms and recycling.
South Africa received Climate Change Fund to the tune of R800 million to initiate programmes to counter climate change. This money is being managed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and is available to fund sustainable development projects. In addition, there are other funding institutions such as National Empowerment Fund, Trade and Investment South Africa and Khula Enterprises. The Small Enterprises Development Agency (SEDA) provides a wide range of business support.
In an effort to protect our rivers from pollution that threatens the river health, we continue to implement the Adopt a River project. We thus created job opportunities for one thousand and eight (1 008), and trained them on basic accredited environmental management course. This year we aim to train ninety young women on basic water quality testing who will be twinned with our officials responsible for River Health. This initiative will encourage these young women to register for advanced courses in water quality management.
Deeping the water conservation and demand management we are implementing the Women in Water Awards programme to strengthen the active participation of rural women in water resource management. Women identify water related challenges in their communities and conceptualise ideas to implement them. The winners are given financial support to improve and grow their projects, poverty eradication, education and information sharing as well as rural development.
With the benefit of knowledge passed from generation to generation, women are the custodian of the natural resources and environment and we are comfortable with them taking charge of environmental protection. Their understanding of biodiversity is second to none. They have highly sophisticated, dynamic and unique insights into local species and ecosystems gained from centuries of practical experience.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I wish to reiterate that women of different races and ethnic groups such as White, Blacks, Indians, Afrikaner, etc are marginalised in terms of creating and accumulating wealth in our country. They, by and large, provide equivalent support for business operations as men to their husbands owned businesses but not own any shares or provide critical labour to other men-owned enterprises, but have very little to show after many years of hard work because of the traditional held belief that women are happy with low wages.
This practice further entrenches the plight of women deeper and the status quo cannot be allowed to continue as normal. As women, we need to stop working for
men and enriching them. Other women have challenged the traditional system and won. Let's continue with this trend of innovation and introduce even more women owned businesses. Our government has created many funding institutions and platforms which provides support for business growth. We can do it. However, women's empowerment will not happen magically - we will need to work hard.
I thank you
