South African women as champions of change: a civil society programme of action for the African women's decade

摘要: Poverty Eradication and Engendering Early Childhood Development o This chapter presents a poverty eradication model for South Africa, based on best practices from other countries. o Since the transition into the post-apartheid era, the South African government has been striving to redress the challenges of poverty and inequality. o Despite these efforts, increasing and persistent poverty remains. o The persistence of poverty among women is often viewed as a tragic consequence of unequal access to economic opportunities, gender biases in labour markets, and lack of control over productive resources (UNDP 1995; Chant 2006; Bennett 2009). o South African poverty rates ranged from 4%(white female) and 11%(Indian/Asian females) to 33%(coloured females) and 72%(African females), while lower rates of poverty were found among male counterparts in all race groups between 1993 and 2008 (Leibbrandt et al. 2010). o This clearly shows that African females carry the brunt of the poverty burden.