WOMEN IN THEIR THOUSANDS WILL COMMEMORATE WOMEN'S DAY

Issued by: SA Communication Service

On August 9 - women of this country will once again assemble in their thousands at the Union Buildings to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Women's Day.

Our participation at the Fourth World Women's Conference in Beijing last year, brought into focus an international perspective, that challenges facing South African women should not be seen in isolationof what is taking place in other countries. South Africa has adopted The Beijing Platform for Action which was agreed by 180 countries who attended the conference.

In line with this, the Government has moved towards attaining gender equality, equity, and women empowerment. It ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) - without any reservations - on December 15, last year. CEDAW is a significant document which deals with issues around gender and women in a concrete manner, giving specific guidelines to follow.

While we still have great strides to make to attain these goals, August 9 is the day to acknowledge the role played by South African women in various spheres of cultural, social, economic and political life. The key role women played in the drafting of the final constitution adopted on May 8 by the Constitutional Assembly was one of many significant contributions made.

Another milestone is that Government has passed legislation on the Commission for Gender Equality which was certified by President Mandela on July 17, this year. The Commission will act as a watchdog to ensure that rights of women are not violated.

As part of the process to implement gender equality, altogether 24 Government departments have made commitments to work towards gender equality, both internally (within departments) and in their policies and programmes. This is also in line with the Public Service Commission recommendations of effecting a 30 percent representation of women in Government by year 2000.

When looking at women representation in Government today - we see a progressive shift - although not on a large scale. Taking a brief look at how far Government departments have gone in committing themselves in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, it is important to take a look at some of them:

• Environment Affairs and Tourism has budgeted for the inclusion of women in its policies and programmes in the next year and to generate and disaggregate gender information for planning and evaluation. The Department also aims to ensure a role for women in national and international ecosystem management and that women are represented at all levels of planning and decision-making with regard to environment.
• The Department of Health has set specific targets for its five year plan to improve women's health through the provision of accessible and affordable primary health care services which will include sexual and reproductive health and family planning services with a focus on health needs of young people.
• The Department of Welfare has shown its commitment by to alleviate the plight of destitute families. As economic empowerment of women is critical in addressing the imbalances of the past, the Department of Welfare this week launched the implementation phase of its programme aimed at providing unemployed women and their children with an opportunity to break out of hardship and poverty. The idea is to create self-reliance.

This is in line with the Beijing Platform For Action which aims at providing women with opportunities to empower them to change their current situation.

With these projects, the Department of Welfare is piloting a new approach of developmental social welfare as advocated by the White Paper on Social Welfare. Providing impoverished women with an oppor- tunity to develop skills and become economically active, ensures self-reliance and removes ongoing dependence on State grants.

As suggested by the theme of this year's Women's Day commemora- tion: "Women Towards 2001: Unity, Peace and Development," in this development process, partnership between Government, the private sector, political, religious, NGOs and other stakeholders is going to be crucial.

Issued: Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, MP Minister of Welfare and Population Development

31 July 1996