Call for proposal to recruit a non-lead partner for the project “Sisonke Rural Women’s Empowerment Programme in South Africa,” implemented by Rural Women’s Movement (RWM), South Africa and funded by the UN Women Fund for Gender Equality (FGE).

Terms of References

  1. Background information:

In South Africa, poverty is most prevalent among rural women like those of the Sisonke District Municipality. The programme Sisonke Rural Women’s Empowerment Programme (SRWEP) takes place within a context where women have limited opportunities to access skills, education, assets and other resources necessary to strengthen their economic status. Sisonke District Municipality is a largely rural district in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. It is under-resourced in terms of both human capacity and material resources. Whilst the women of the area have continued to show resilience in the face of social, economic and cultural subjugation, they remain economically disenfranchised – which weakens their position to: negotiate power within the family and other local institutions; challenge discriminatory application of legislation; and instigate for the respect of their constitutional rights e.g. property ownership rights.

The programme Sisonke Rural Women’s Empowerment Programme (SRWEP) is funded by the UN Women Fund for Gender Equality for an initial period of 3 years 2013-2015 and will be extended until the June 2016. The overall budget of the programme is 220 000 USD.

The target area for the programme, the Sisonke District Municipality, is still battling with service delivery and infrastructure development backlog and socio-economic deprivation. The District’s Integrated Development Plan (2011/12) states that, ‘Most affected by this are women who historically were left at home to look after children and not attend school or work’. This has limited their access to skills and employment opportunities – resulting in rural poverty being feminised. The District Municipality has acknowledged that it faces a ‘mammoth task of relieving women from the dependency mindset and deprivation… [and] women are not fully represented in all government structures and other non-governmental structures within the District. There is also a lack of economic empowerment of women’. Such marginalisation makes women’s burden heavy because they often have to combine the multiple roles of: production responsibilities (women are often the ones who work the land and home, but their right to land and house ownership is limited); reproductive responsibilities (poor rural women are often not in control of their reproductive health due to traditional roles that undermine women’s decision over their bodies; and because women’ economic dependency on their male partners limits their scope to negotiate decision making power in areas such as contraception use, condom use for protection against HIV and STIs and child-spacing); and suffer discrimination/ subjugation from the same structures that they support (i.e. the family and community) due to patrilineal norms. Cultural norms still determine the role and status of women within the family and community in Sisonke, and their impact cannot be under-estimated.

  1. Programme Justification and Goal

The goal of the Sisonke Rural Women’s Empowerment Programmeis to economically empower poor rural women so that they can improve their family livelihoods; contribute towards the local economy; and enjoy their socio-economic rights.The aim of the Programme is toprovide support to rural women by empowering them with capacities/skills to; promote entrepreneurship; catalyse legislative and policy change and expand / extend women’s leadership. The Rural Women’s Movement - RWM (a provincial rural women’s advocacy organisation formed by a Coalition of rural women’s Community Based Organizations) is building on the constituency base that it has established in the Sisonke District (50 grassroots women’s community based organisations with a membership of about 250) to mobilize community women to participate in the programme’s activities. It (RWM) will collaborate with organization/s that has an interest in the above subjects. 750 women from uMziki Agri-Village and Emakhuzeni Community (Ingwe Municipality) (including members of the local Home Owners’ Association, which is in the process of claiming ownership of uMziki Agri-Village, and which is also chaired by the member of the RWM – Ms Eunice Khumalo) – will be invited to become members of the Sisonke Rural Women’s Empowerment Programme. Applying the RWM Community Development Concept, the programme will support the women to organise themselves in innovative ways at local level to stick together, take decisions and be strengthened to fight poverty and marginalisation. It will support them with skills, knowledge and attitudes geared towards securing resources / assets and controlling them. The following paragraphs elaborate on how the goal will be reached:

PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR RURAL WOMEN

  • 1. Strengthening the Economy of the Families: The RWM Action Groups (consisting of a total of 750 women) will be trained in different kinds of skills during the three years of implementation, i.e. garden farming, poultry farming, sewing and other cottage industry crafts, information technology, basic business management and marketing. They will also be trained to mentor and support each other in starting income generating activities and food gardens. This will increase opportunities for the creation of business cooperatives for rural women and further strengthen their economic clout. The families in the programme will use the small pieces of land (2000 sqm) around their houses or near the community to apply the acquired skills for growing food - whose surplus will be sold for income. They will also be trained to raise chickens; and/or use their cottage industry / craft skills to earn an income. The programme will also encourage the families to cultivate rare crops with good prices, such as sunflower, sesame, peanuts or soya - that can actually give a surplus from sales to a market. Young women (about 225) will join in with their adult womenfolk in learning food gardening skills and starting food gardens. The young women will also be given leadership skills (e.g. young women leaders will drive the young women’s garden initiative). This will be done in order to nurture young women into leadership so that they can be role models for their peers. In the second and third year, the programme will mobilise those families that are interested in larger scale conservation farming to form groups to cultivate the common land at the uMziki Agri-Village and on the communal land around the Agri-Village and form cooperatives. Women will raise seed funding through their ‘savings-groups’.
  • 2. Health (Hereunder fight against HIV/AIDS & TB): Even though health (and nutrition) will be minor components in the programme, 750 women and their families will be empowered to be on top of their health. HIV/AIDS (and TB) is a challenge in the KwaZulu-Natal Province, where the Sisonke District is. The Province has the highest HIV infection rate in South Africa (39, 5% - 2010 National ANC Sentinel HIV & Syphilis Prevalence Survey. It is important to integrate health in an area which lies where there is a constant threat of the pandemic and its impact. Health awareness will help strengthen sustainability because the more people are protected from e.g. HIV infection or given information about available support; the more they will stay healthier and be able to invest more time in development activities. The nutritional skills will be added to the health component; hence people will be encouraged to eat nutritious food (this is vital as South Africa increasingly faces cardiovascular related chronic diseases like hypertension, stroke etc. even in the rural areas). RWM Action Groups will be trained to facilitate discussions and undertake campaigns e.g. on good nutrition, healthy cooking, prevention of common and chronic diseases, HIV&AIDS&TB etc. The economic factors in this health element are that poor people, if helped to stay healthy, would then not need to use their income to pay for medication or transport to the clinic etc.; and if women are protected from HIV, they stand a better chance of surviving longer and contributing more to the family and local economy.

PROMOTE ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

  • Catalyse Legislative and Policy Change: The programme will support the women at uMziki Agri-Village, Emakhuzeni and at eNhlanhleni Communities in their fight for their right to get proof of ownership and title deeds of their own plots and houses. It will also support the uMziki Agri-Village Home Owners Association (HOA) to get registered, and get ownership rights to the common land at the farm. This will help local women to get access to assets such as land and property (houses). The RWM will take up cases of women whose rights to property, land and other assets are violated. We will also continue to spearhead the lobbying of local government authorities for land and social housing rights through structures such as the Home Owner’s Association. There will also be lobbying of local government for communal land title deeds so that the community can have joint assets and develop cooperatives etc. Local women’s groups will be co-opted into struggles against legislation and policies that deprive women of their rights to land, private property ownership etc. This lobbying will take place through consultative processes with traditional leadership as well. Campaigns will be held in South Africa to highlight the violation of women’s assets / property ownership rights.
  • Expand / Extend Women’s Leadership: The RWM will promote women’s leadership development, as follows:

-225 Young women will be selected to join gardening clubs and 10 young women leaders trained in leadership skills. Young women (22 to 29) and girls and young women (16 to 21) will constitute about 30% of the programme to ensure that future leaders and women activists are nurtured to carry on the fight for women’s economic emancipation.

-Rural women’s organizations will be motivated to be in the forefront of lobbying for property and assets rights – and defending women whose rights are being threatened.

-Committees will be under the leadership of women, to ensure that women’s leadership does not stop with the end of the programme (these committees will continue for more than three years)

The chairperson of the Home Owner’s Association is a woman, and this places her in a platform where she can continue to be a role model for women and young girls.

  1. Programme Results:

Outcome I: 750 rural women capacities and knowledge are strengthened to enhance their individual and families’ lives

750 rural women will be socio-economically empowered. Specific strategies that will be used to achieve this result will involve women joining the programme as members; organising themselves (with the support of RWM programme staff); receiving both theoretical and practical training/capacity building. Some will be trained in literacy, all in IT. They will be trained in Health and nutrition awareness since there is a situation of food insecurity and hunger, but this will not be major components of the programme – nevertheless, this will empower women to take responsibility for their bodies, giving them confidence and improving their scope to negotiate the control of their reproductive health, for example.

Progress made on the above Outcome

Programme started in March 2013 – PRA exercise conducted – profiling the three (3) Municipalities (Ingwe, KwaSani and Buhlebezwe) and since then nine hundred and thirty nine (939) women (45% young women aged between 16-35 years of age) have joined the programme as members.

•Established organic and permaculture (home and communal) gardens and learnt how to manage them; and

•Planted vegetables: carrots, green/red pepper, chilies, chard, lettuce, cabbage, butternuts, baby marrow, spinach, potatoes, brinjal, ruobab, tomatoes, onions, beetroot and;

  • Some herbs like mint, sweet basil, thyme, parsley, fennel and yarrow.

•Registered co-operatives (17) with the Department of Economic Development.

•Went through development and leadership courses as well as skills development co-operatives; including leadership, co-operatives registration, and women’s rights – emphasizing on the principles that rural women should be treated equally with men and have equal opportunities. Learnt permaculture skills and designs

•Climate change

•Business planning

•Business management and business progress management

•Individual participants and groups - established 7 communal organic food gardens and 100 organic home gardens

•Introduced old traditional herbal treatment: Cactus Pear and other herbs like Fennel, Yarrow, Sweet Basil etc

•Planting in areas of water scarcity using permaculture designs and mulching to conserve water

•Promote local nutritious food, vegetables and herbs

It was a success for the programme to be able to motivate and attract young women and some young men into the agricultural activities. In most situations young women and young men are not involved in agricultural activities which are always seen as older people’s activities. But today, some of the young women see agriculture as a vehicle for them to start their own businesses. Some of them established their small gardens in their homes and have started selling their surplus.

147 participants (70 young women, 50 women, 22 young men, 3 men, and 2 women with disabilities) have been trained in business management, marketing and record keeping.

50 young women, 45 women, 2 men, 11 youth, 5 young men have reported an increased level of knowledge on organic food gardening and permaculture and how this has helped them and their families.

A Women and Girls Human Rights Training Manual had been developed – in line with one of visions of women and girls being treated equally with men and having equal opportunities.

Outcome II: 750 rural women’s entrepreneurial skills are strengthened.

750 rural women’s entrepreneurial skills will be strengthened through being provided with entrepreneurship skills and opportunities. Through applying capacity building as a strategy, women will be trained in basic business management and marketing, food gardening, poultry farming, home crafts. They will establish their businesses (including expansion of businesses later). They will also be peer-supporters to each other, sharing skills and encouraging each other in their development activities. They will be assisted to: develop business plans, access markets for their products; guided to reinvest their income in their businesses; access help from youth who are ‘finance-literate’ (e.g. young women with secondary school level mathematics and bookkeeping skills) to manage their business finance (and personal finance); assisted to open bank accounts and also later assisted to register their business co-operatives. Other strategies will include strengthening women’s organisations by promoting networking/collaboration among women e.g. women’s savings groups will be strengthened through trained leadership and collaboration of the network of savings groups, so that their economic clout in the local economy can improve.

Progress made

In collaboration with the Midlands Community College -122 Young women were trained in organic farming and basic business management, marketing and recording.

Women reported to have obtained skills to register their Co-operatives, formulate their Business Plans and submit it to relevant government departments: Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, Department of Agriculture, Department of Social Development, Department of Economics Development as well as local municipalities.

Main activities have included the following:

  • Groups have elected their leaders and leaders have been trained on leadership skills;
  • Established co-operatives and application to register sent to the Department of Economics Development for registration of Coops.

Co-operative leaders to identify land and resources for the activities of business they want to embark on. Communities like Phumobala, Mziki and Mnyanyabuzi embarked on a campaign to engage the traditional leaders by end of January and will report progress on the first week of February.

Outcome 3: 750 rural women are better organized and mobilized to effectively lobby against, and tackle legislation, policies and practices discriminating against women's socio-economic and cultural well being

750 rural women will act as catalysts in legislative and policy change through legal challenges and lobbying of decision/policy makers in government to change and implement laws that support women’s economic emancipation. To achieve this result, strategies that will be used will include: mobilising 50 women’s groups; inviting them for information sessions; working with them to formulate and communicate resolutions (with the women’s groups’ leaders being in the forefront); mobilisation for common action / lobbying for e.g. title deeds to land and houses; lobbying for the improvement of local infrastructure etc. The women will be encouraged to network with others and conduct joint advocacy activities diligently e.g. attend common meetings; actively participate in lobbying activities and institute legal challenges to support women whose rights are being violated e.g. violation of rights to access assets and resources; exercise choice over their bodies etc. The more the women work together, the more their ‘voice’ is likely to be heard and have impact on policy and legislation in South Africa change in their favor.