South Africa

Since 2020, UN Women has supported South Africa�s initiatives to enhance women�s participation in public procurement, aligning with President Cyril Ramaphosa�s commitment to allocate 40% of government procurement spending to women-owned businesses. In 2024, the Public Procurement Act (Act 28 of 2024) was enacted, incorporating gender equality and women�s economic empowerment provisions based on UN Women�s recommendations. A new chapter in the Act prioritizes women, youth, and persons with disabilities in procurement opportunities. Commitment to Gender-Equitable Procurement, UN Women provided technical guidance to embed gender-equality provisions in the Public Procurement Bill. The enactment of the Public Procurement Act 28 of 2024 marks a transformative milestone in advancing gender equality and ensuring economic opportunities for women in South Africa. The Act addresses structural barriers such as the underrepresentation of women-owned businesses in procurement by mandating set-asides for women, youth, and persons with disabilities. This was achieved in collaboration with the Department of Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD) to secure inclusive procurement strategies in South Africa's policy framework. The aims is to harmonize procurement regulations across South Africa, replacing the outdated Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act of 2000, ensuring targeted opportunities for marginalized groups. UN Women has worked with its partners to provide capacity building for women entrepreneurs under Women Economic Empowerment Programme (WEEP) and Women Economic Assembly (WECONA) initiatives collectively trained over 10,000 women entrepreneurs by 2024. WECONA now operates in 15 economic sectors, enhancing women's participation in supply chains for industries like finance, automobile, textiles, and energy. UN Women will continue to support the National Treasury to develop guidelines and regulations to operationalize the Act from 2025, subsequently supporting the SF).

In 2023 the South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO), contributed to realization of SDG 5.2 through continued support to the implementation of South Africa�s National Strategic Plan on Gender Based and Femicide (GBVF). The National Assembly passed a Bill on the establishment of a National Council on Gender Based Violence and Feminicide on 31 October 2023. This Bill is then expected to go through an approval process by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). Upon approval SAMCO will support and strengthen the implementation of the policy and support the establishment of the National Council of GBVF. SAMCO partnered with Ilitha Labantu, a civil society organization, to build capacity of police officers and duty bearers in 75 police stations through the GBV Police Training in the Western Cape to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. This training improved Police officers understanding of gender sensitivity and dealing with child trauma, thus preventing the secondary victimisation especially for GBV survivors. This initiative in South Africa is anticipated to be replicated in Lesotho in 2024. SAMCO provided technical and financial support for the promulgation of the Procurement Bill, which was passed by the National Assembly in 2023, however, awaiting the approval of the National Council of Provinces. The Bill prescribes targets for the Minister of Finance and sets aside procurement spent for black women, people with disability and small and micro enterprises. SAMCO supported the South Africa government in implementing a Just Energy Transition (JET) initiative to ensure equitable access to and sufficient power generation, whilst recognizing the impact on livelihoods, workers, and communities; and to develop policy recommendations, and programming to ensure that women from affected areas benefit, by participating in these transitions, to minimise the impact of climate change. In Lesotho SAMCO provided technical and financial support to the development of a Draft Gender Mainstreaming strategy for the security sector. Once the strategy is validated and adopted, it will facilitate the mainstreaming of gender into policies and processes of the security sector. This is envisioned to contribute towards the strengthening of meaningful representation and participation in the security sector.