Macro Policy Working Group (MPWG), government of officers, donors, and NGOs has greatly contributed to engendering the PRSP First Annual Progress Report. The MPWG has been responsible for facilitating analysis of key government documents in quest to ensure that gender aspects have been adequately mainstreamed. Although the PRSP and Progress Report outline the government’s commitment to mainstreaming gender, government staff is not fully equipped on how to do this. In the year 2002, the Ministry of Finance prepared tools for institutionalizing gender mainstreaming and give it a government ownership. As we saw above in the section on speeches by the Minister of Works, the ministry has been actively engaged in engendering its structure and activities since 1991. The Ministry formed a Women Participation Unit, which was mainly responsible for promoting more women to be involved in road works. This was aimed at enabling women to benefit equally as men in acquiring skills and income.[1].
Women’s Participation Unit
For a long time the location of responsibility for gender mainstreaming at the Ministry of Works was entrusted to the Women Participation Unit. The Unit has existed for more than 10 years in connection to IRP 1. The Unit was previously staffed with two female employees, but is currently managed by a lone staff. According to the WPU, the problem with promoting women’s participation in road works is limited by people’s attitudes. It was argued that the 35% participation of women could be achieved if various Directors at the ministry possibly will support the goal. The Unit is responsible for Trunk and Rural Roads only (other departments such as Government Buildings
Most project documents were said to seal terms on employment and participation and therefore render impossible opportunities for including women’s participation. Even where contractual obligations recommended involvement of women, such as in the Himo-Arusha road, contractors get away from fulfilling quotas on employment of women without punitive measures (the African Development Bank’s 30% requirement for women employment was neglected by the contractor and not enforced by the Tanzanian officials). Reasons given for women’s low participation contradict the fact that Arusha and Kilimanjaro have some of the highest participation by women in road works.
The new Procurement Act was mentioned as one of obstacles in restricting participation of women petty contractors, due to the registration requirements and expenses involved. Nevertheless, Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions’ TanRoads managers have managed to find ways of employing women small scale contractors in vegetation control and other small works. In fact the Procurement Act has increased costs for various works, for instance while petty contractors used to charge 350’000 to 500’000 shillings for vegetation control jobs, which are now charged between 1.8 million and 2 million by the Class 7 and above contractors.
The WPU suggests that commitment by different staff members on women’s participation in government funded projects should be enforced on the contractors. Also the minister of works, and the permanent secretary should speak more often on women’s participation as they do on HIV/AIDS. The WPU mentioned that the Ministry’s Strategic Plan for 2004/2007 aims at the following measures: increasing number of women participating in road works by 2%; increase number of women expressing satisfaction with in participation in road works; increase the number of staff undertaking gender sensitization in women’s participation in the construction industry.
Gender Mainstreaming Focal Point
The Gender Desk at the Ministry of Works was established in September 2003. A Principal Establishment Officer (from the Department of Administration and Personnel), is handling gender issues[2]. The focal point pointed out that initially it was only women’s participation that was focused upon, and that now a gender perspective was at last to be engaged.
Low gender awareness and sensitization was identified as the main gap at the ministry. Other weaknesses were mentioned as being: domination of men among the Director positions; Ministry’s strategic plan not taking on board gender issues effectively; absence of a comprehensive gender mainstreaming plan; and, contractors having poor provisions on addressing gender issues.
The Gender Focal Point suggests 4 measures to be taken by the ministry in order to strengthen gender mainstreaming. These include: creation of a Gender Committee in the ministry comprising of members from all Departments as well as agencies under the ministry (about 10 to 12 people); training or sensitizing the Committee members in their roles and responsibilities as regards gender mainstreaming; sensitizing senior management at the ministry on gender issues; establishing gender disaggregated data base on employees according to sex, age, functions, qualifications, etc; securing adequate funding for the Gender Committee and its activities. Altogether the ministry has more than 1’973 employees.
Cross Cutting Issues in Policy and Planning
Discussions with the Policy and Planning Department revealed cross cutting issues addressed by the ministry include: gender, HIV/AIDS, environment and labour based methods. The ministry has an environmental assessment expert and Unit, a gender focal point with a committee in formulation, a women participation expert and Unit; and, an Appropriate Technology Unit with two staff members. There is also a person responsible for HIV/AIDS, and who makes follow-up with the ministry of health.
According to the Department of Policy and Planning, gender mainstreaming started in Mbeya region with NORAD engaging women as drivers and technical workers. However, the challenge was the question “how does gender fit into the ministry of work”? Also how does one measure success in gender mainstreaming? Nowadays there are more female contractors than in the last decade. Is this a product of policy changes in the Ministry of Education & Culture, Ministry of Works or the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children? It was argued that there are many issues requiring clarification, and that there is a need to identify areas where gender mainstreaming could be most effective. Questions to be answered include: are there jobs that women could find most suitable, or jobs that are least suitable for them?
Contractors were seen as reluctant to train women in new operations, because their profit maximization motive would be dented. Instead contractors depended on job mobility to acquire labour in new sites. They used people ho had earlier worked on road sites and gained competence. TanRoads feels reluctant to tie up contractors into employing women.
Poverty reduction was identified as the reason for engaging labour based technology and similar methods in road work. Maintenance work was seen as an entry strategy where income generation could be promoted for the rural poor. This could benefit more people living near the road. It is expensive to ship labour from other areas for such work. So this was an area where promotion of cross cutting issues could gain prominence.
A report on “The Estimated Potential for Use of labour Based Methods in Road Works in Tanzania”, done by the ATU in 1995, showed that routine maintenance of all types of roads in Tanzania could generate up to 32;000 employment positions, while periodic maintenance through labour based methods could employ up to 17’000 Tanzanians. Rehabilitation generates employment of up to 26’000 people. In all, up to 75’000 employment positions could be achieved if these methods were applied regularly.
However, it remains important to determine what the specific targets for women participation or other cross cutting issues should be. There is a need to establish the human resource requirement for a whole year, and engage policy to determine future requirements.
The rationale for this promotion of cross cutting issues, especially gender, should be established with clarity. There is a need to establish whether the promotion is based on utility arguments, technical arguments, policy arguments, economic arguments, etc. The goal should always be to balance proportionally between women and men without leaving men worse off.
Table on Women involvement in the road sector
| Institution/Programme | Region | Achievements |
| TANROADS | Arusha | 50% of petty contracts awarded to women |
| | Petty Contacts awarded to village contractors and communities involving women | |
| Lindi | Several women contractors were trained in road works under support of FINNIDA | |
| PORALG | | LBT projects to achieve gender targets by making it obligatory for 60% LGAs based LBT projects to include women |
| MOW | RAS offices in all regions | Training on engendering budget targeting Planning officers in RAS and Ministries |
| LBT | | 30-40 % of LBT work included women |
[1] J.C.Kafanabo; Final Report on Planning Workshop For Women Participation in Road Works; Morogoro May 1993
[2] See Pages 19-21: Report of Needs Assessment on Gender/Women Focal points in Ministries and Selected Public Institutions. Preliminary Report. 19th July 2001. Ministry of Community Development, Women’s Affairs and Children.
No comments:
Post a Comment