Questions/Answers

In an effort to align with the goals set in the United Nations Development Goals South Africa has engaged up by ensuring of strategies and policies in all levels of government National, Provincial and Locally. Nkangala District Municipality which is a local government structure has in this alignment identified three main challenges that seem to contribute to the state of women in the district namely being Poverty, Unemployment and Inequality. With women composing 67% of the population within Nkangala District programmes and policy has been created with the effort to ensure the end of these challenges on women as it has proven time and again, that empowering women and girls has a multiplier effect, and helps drive up economic growth and development across the board by accelerating efforts to ensure that the girl child remains in school longer eventually being able to sustain themselves. Promoting gender equality and empowering women is a priority to NDM. Women Empowerment through Early Childhood Development Practitioners Early Childhood Development will enable facilitate development of young children in a manner that is sensitive to culture and individual needs (including special needs). It will also enable you to provide quality early childhood development services for children in a variety of contexts, including community-based services, ECD centres, home and in institutions. The recipients of the qualification will be able: - Provides a means for formal recognition of those who are already practicing in the field, without ECD qualifications, as well as for those who wish to enter the field - Provide a basis for further professional development for experienced practitioners in the field who have had limited or difficult access to further career development opportunities - Facilitate and monitor the development of babies, toddlers and young children - Provide care and support to babies and young children.

Early Childhood Management Education Management in Early Childhood Development Certificates: - To achieve sustainable development and economic growth, alleviate poverty, enhance the standard of living and quality of life of the district - Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for economic and public life, aligning with the concept of 50/50 representation - Prepare women practitioners for careers working with children in public/private child development centers and family home child care centers. From child growth and development and early childhood education to program development, - Get a well-rounded education in developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive practices that help to shape a child’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive development - Giving women the tools need to build better lives - To provide for the empowerment of women, to eliminate discrimination and achieve gender equality by encouraging and harmonizing the development and implementation of gender responsive legislation, policies and programmes and project - Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

PROMOTING GENDER RESPONSIVE PUBLIC SERVICES TO ACHIEVE THE SDGS Linking gender equality and sustainable development is important for several reasons. It is a moral and ethical imperative: achieving gender equality and realizing the human rights, dignity and capabilities of diverse groups of women is a central requirement of a just and sustainable world. It is critical to redress the unbalanced impact of economic, social and environmental shocks and stresses on women, which undermine the enjoyment of their human rights and their vital roles in sustaining their families and communities. And most significantly, it is important to build up women’s agency and capabilities to create better synergies between gender equality and sustainable development outcomes Increasingly, women’s full participation is recognized as crucial to policy making their decisive involvement in community forest management bodies yields positive outcomes for both forest sustainability and gender equality. Certain aspects of gender equality, such as female education and women’s share of employment, can have a positive impact on economic growth, although this impact is dependent on the nature of growth strategies, the structure of the economy, the sectoral composition of women’s employment and labour market segregation, among other factors.

Access to basic services such as education, health care and and schooling not only increases individual well-being but also serves as an input for aggregate production. An enabling environment would thus influence the capacity of women to be involved, participate actively and benefit from development processes in a sustained and effective manner. It would also contribute to the elimination of women’s discrimination and exclusion, increase their access to decision-making, their control over resources such as land and economic assets, and fully recognize their contributions as actors in the economy and other areas of public life. Achievements noted included increased awareness, policy reforms, improved legislative frameworks, and institutional development. Positive developments include the establishment of Gender Machinery forums and strategies for gender equality; adherence to international and regional instruments for the protection of the human rights of women; increased diversity in the mechanisms promoting and monitoring attention to gender equality; attention to resource allocations through gender-sensitive budgeting. Awareness-raising, advocacy, monitoring and programme delivery; and efforts to engage men and boys more actively in the promotion of gender equality.

The emotional, social and physical development of young children has a direct effect on their overall development and on the adult they will become. That is why understanding the need to invest in very young children is so important, so as to maximize their future well-being. Efforts to improve early child development are an investment, not a cost. Available cost-benefit ratios of early intervention indicate that for every dollar spent on improving early child development, returns can be on average 4 to 5 times the amount invested. Early years of childhood form the basis of intelligence, personality, social behaviour, and capacity to learn and nurture oneself as an adult. There is significant evidence that links the circumstances of adversity and habits formed in early years to the non-communicable diseases of adulthood. - Children who receive assistance in their early years achieve more success at school. As adults they have higher employment and earnings, better health, and lower levels of welfare dependence and crime rates than those who don’t have these early opportunities - The effects of early disadvantage on children can be reduced. Early interventions for disadvantaged children lead to improvements in children’s survival, health, growth, cognitive and social development.

Ensuring the healthy cognitive, social and emotional development of young children merits the highest priority of every responsible government, organization, community, family and individual for the sake of raising healthy children worldwide. Reaching children in a holistic manner and incorporating health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education and interventions that support their full development is crucial. There is consistent and strong evidence which shows that: - Children who receive assistance in their early years achieve more success at school. As adults they have higher employment and earnings, better health, and lower levels of welfare dependence and crime rates than those who don’t have these early opportunities - Brain development is most rapid in the early years of life. When the quality of stimulation, support and nurturance is deficient, child development is seriously affected. - The effects of early disadvantage on children can be reduced. Early interventions for disadvantaged children lead to improvements in children’s survival, health, growth, and cognitive and social development. - There is recognition of single parent families and families caring for children in especially difficult circumstances;

NDM has identifies key elements to women’s economic empowerment on innovative approaches’, including: - Involving the private sector in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and expanding public private partnerships - Articulating gender equality as a goal in policies, strategies, budgets, programmes and projects within the public and private sectors - including increased targeted national resources and official development assistance for gender equality, and attention to women’s economic empowerment in the context of national trade; - Fully and systematically integrating capacity-development into each activity; analysis and knowledge to decision makers and key stakeholders; - Making proactive efforts to foster women’s voice, inclusion and participation; and - Recognizing the negative impact of unpaid work on women’s economic activities and empowerment, and prioritize ways to reduce their workload, including equal sharing of it between women and men. - Demonstrating leadership by decision makers in prioritizing women’s economic empowerment;

It is original guided by The Children's Act provides for a range of social services for children and families. The aim of the act is to support families to promote their children's well-being, prevent abuse and neglect and ensure appropriated care. This guide, produced by the Children's Institute is written for people working in the Early Childhood Development sector and focuses on the parts of the Children's Act most useful for ECD practitioner And it gives an overview on the role of women's empowerment in the context of the Sustainable Development Agenda, clarifies some basic concepts relating to empowerment and sustainable development and examines the means of implementing, financing and monitoring of the activities related to women

Financial - Tuition fees - Transport for participants - Catering - Decorations - Sound System Human - Officials (government, UNISA and Coal South Africa) - Politician - Artist Material Certificate Graduation Gown

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- Practitioners will be empowered with information that will assist the entire community and not only the care-givers and the children have they directly impacted upon. - The sooner a problem is recognized and corrective action is put in place to deal with the problem, the sooner any learning or physically challenged child is assisted to be able to school further in a ‘main-stream’ school - Transfer the delivery of well-researched and accredited training programmes to community women who run formal and in-formal crèches and pre-school

The Department of Social Development briefed the Committee on the Implementation of the Early Childhood Development Programme followed by a briefing by the Department of Basic Education on the Comprehensive Strategy to train Early Childhood Development Women Practitioners 132 ECD Practitioners have the qualification for NQF Level 5 some are still at the community center or absorbed by the DoE, some had joined the organization that is responsible for the training of the ECD practitioners that is funded by Department of Social Service. Socially jobs were sustained and their level acknowledge in benefitting the ECD children or the recipients with better education. Economically the qualification assisted to maintain ECD practitioners in their employment as they economically active. Some are receiving R5000 stipend from DoE. The municipality also will partner with private sector to build the Art ECD center which might take some of the ECD practitioners to the new center

There is no greater time to invest than in a child's early years. Early childhood is a unique moment to support a child's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development and lay the foundation for later health, educational, and economic outcomes. Now, as the evidence supporting the importance of early childhood development mounts, practitioners and policy-makers alike are no longer debating whether ECD interventions work, but how to make them work better.

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The Department of Social Development presented the integrated plan following a review of the national plan on Early Childhood Development. The presentation included an overview of the planned objectives and targets to be achieved over the short, medium and long terms. This integrated programme of action required the commitment of all government departments, stakeholders and the broader Early Childhood Development sector. The Department of Basic Education provided an overview of the training procedures targets and budgets and outlined some of the progress made as well as challenges faced. The challenges included lack of reliable data, alignment between national and provincial levels and lack of employment opportunities. The way forward was finalisation of plans and implementation protocols between the different departments and state entities, securing funding and capacity for implementation, and working together to provide quality services to children aged birth to four years and Grade R

Half of a person's intelligence potential is developed by age four and that early childhood interventions can have a lasting effect on intellectual capacity, personality, and social behaviour. Integrated programmes that target children in their very early years are, therefore, critical for their mental and psychosocial development. Failure to invest in ECD can result in development delay and disability as well as inhibit the optimal development and performance of children throughout their lives. The approach promotes and protects the rights of the young child to survival, growth and development. Experiences from ECD programmes around the world demonstrate the promise for children’s well-being and for that of their families and communities Cultures show that girls enrolled in early childhood programmes are better prepared for school and frequently stay in school longer. Early childhood interventions also free older sisters and mothers from the task of tending pre - schoolers, so that they can to return to (or stay in) school, study more and join the labour force and develop as equal members of society.

Nkangala District Municipality Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan (SDBIP) advocates in goal 3 under indicator Welfare for the promotion of healthy and sustainable communities within the district by ensuring safer neighbourhoods where all people within the district are protected and feel safe. While the sustainable development agenda that aims to end poverty, promote prosperity and people’s well-being while protecting the environment by 2030, covers a wide range of areas: poverty reduction, inclusive growth and productive employment, gender equality and the empowerment of women, HIV and health, access to water and sanitation, climate change adaptation, access to sustainable energy, sustainable management of terrestrial ecosystems, oceans governance, and promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies

The initiative have through the coordinated efforts of the various stakeholders multi-stakeholder partnerships for gender equality and women’s rights at country, regional and international levels, NGO’s, FBO’s, NPO’s and private sector enabled the environment to be open to the growth of women empowerment. Wherein Nkangala District Municipality has moved away from the notion that women empowerment is the delivery of basic services to women only but provides the atmosphere that ensures they can be economically empowered. - Use all available opportunities and processes to build political commitment from governments, international organizations, civil society organization, academia, and the private sector in support of transformative financing for gender equality and women’s rights. - Adequately resource local, national, regional and global women’s rights institutions and organization to advance gender equality, women’s empowerment, and the human rights of women and girls. - Track and publish allocations to and public spending on gender equality Nkangala District Municipality and Steve Tshwete in consultation with Department of Social Development Identified ECD’s and women practitioners Coal South Africa - Funding the course UNISA - Institute for practitioners

Primary initiative - Women Economic Empowerment Gender bias constrains women's ability to access decent job - Radical vision to build a fairer economy which is structured to ensure gender equality Program-mes for women's economic empowerment require strong safeguards - Considerate programme designs, innovation and a focus on neglected issues Political will means supporting transformative pathways for change - Promote and implement legal and policy environment which supports women's economic empowerment in line with international human rights and labour standards Secondary Initiative - ECD Strengthen values, knowledge-base and commitment to ECD - Advocacy amongst and capacity building of community organizations and networks on ECD Support and organize collective action for support services for ECD (management, resource mobilization and service delivery) - Financial and technical support for the development of networks Develop social and economic opportunity to care for children in early childhood - Programmes that enable parents and guardians to have adequate time and resources to provide the care necessary for children