Gender dimensions of rural employment in agriculture and public works programmes experiences from South Africa: Differentiated pathways out of poverty

Abstract

This, chapter investigates the extent to which community-based rural road maintenance and agriculture development projects can be used as tools to empower women, the elderly, children, youth and the unemployed to work towards attaining sustainable rural livelihoods (Department of Public Works, 1997). It also addresses gender dimensions of the projects. As methodology, a mixed-method approach was employed to assess the experiences and impacts of the Siyatentela 56 (Mpumalanga Province), Gundo Lashu 57 (Limpopo Province), Zibambele 58 (KwaZulu-Natal Province) and Sakha Isizwe 59 (Province of the Eastern Cape) labour based routine road maintenance programmes, and the Siyazondla 60 (Province of the Eastern Cape) rural household agriculture programme in the context of a sustainable rural livelihoods approach. While the Siyatentela programme is dealt with extensively, a rapid appraisal of similar programmes in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Eastern Cape provinces was conducted to improve the depth and representativeness of study findings and recommendations. In terms of the main case study, Siyatentela, both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed. The approach was centred on a ‘before and after’ cross-sectional survey of more than 80 percent of Siyatentela participants to independently evaluate programme impacts. Key informant interviews (with regional managers, road superintendents/supervisors and ward councillors), focus group discussions, physical observations, assessment of project records, participatory road surveys with Siyatentela road maintenance gangs and household interviews with beneficiaries were employed to solicit information