Gendered analysis of the working for water programme

A case study of the Tsitsikama working for water project

Produced by: IDASA, 2005

The Working for Water (WfW) programme is one of the EPWP and is housed within the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. This paper pays specific attention to a project of the WfW programme, namely the Tsitsikama project. As the EPWP and more especially the WfW programme focuses strongly on the employment of women and given the reality of women’s position within South Africa, this paper conducts a gender analysis of this WfW project.

A gender analysis is concerned with the social roles and interactions of men and women in society, their access to resources, remuneration for work, exercise of authority and power, and participation in cultural, political and religious activity (Pearson 2000). It is widely accepted in the discourse on development that the needs of poor women must receive particular attention, i.e. development must be informed by a gender analysis (Pearson 2000). An added level of importance for such analysis of the WfW programme is linked to the uniqueness of this programme in the South African landscape, as it provides an intersection between the environment, poverty and gender.