Pretoria – South Africa has called for the fast tracking of the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as the world begins to shift focus towards the post 2015 development agenda.
Delivering the country statement at the 58th Session of United Nations Convention on the Status of Women (UNCSW58) in New York this week, Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana, reiterated the importance of countries doing all in their power to meet the 2015 deadline.
“As the world’s focus shifts to the Post 2015 development agenda, there is a need to continue work on human development so as to lift up more than half of the world’s population out of poverty,” Minister Xingwana said.
South Africa’s progress in achieving the MDGs includes:
•Progress in the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger through a social wage package including: free primary health care; no-fee paying schools; social grants, (such as old age pensions, and child support grants) and RDP housing; provision of basic and free basic services in the form of water; electricity; and sanitation to households, particularly those categorised as indigent.
- Universal primary education and compulsory schooling was introduced for the age group 7–15 years. The country has achieved gender parity at the schooling level. Overall, women account for 57.9% of tertiary students with 22% of females in the natural sciences.
- To date, there are 44% women in Parliament, 42% women in Cabinet, 38.2% women in local government level and 39% women in the senior management ranks in the public service compared to a 2.7% representation of women in Parliament before 1994.
- Government has put in place a comprehensive set of initiatives such as the Negotiated Service Delivery Agreement 2010–2024, the Strategic Plan for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Women’s Health, and the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality. One area where South Africa has fared well is the effective campaign of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, where the rate fell from 8% to 2.7% in 2011.
Minister Xingwana also acknowledged that while poverty levels, inequality, unemployment and hunger in the country were declining, South Africa still faced a range of socio-economic and cultural challenges that continue to underpin aspects of gender inequality, including the scourge of gender-based violence, which impacts negatively on the development and advancement of women and girls.
She said to close this gap, Parliament has adopted the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill, which now has to be approved by the National Council of Provinces.
“Once enacted, the Bill will accelerate the implementation of other legislation, policies, strategies and programmes to advance the empowerment of women and the achievement of gender equality and in this way, fast track the implementation of the MDGs for women and girls, as well as the Beijing Platform for Action,” she said.
Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Elizabeth Thabethe said the fact that South Africa has met and exceeded some of the MDGs ahead of time was a good story to tell and should serve as a motivation to fellow African states that where there is a will, there will always be a way.
The 58th Session of the CSW started on 10 March and will conclude on 21 March 2014 under the main theme ‘Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the MDGs for women and girls’. – SAnews.gov.za
