The creation of the Ministry for Women, Children and People with Disabilities, announced on 9 May 2009, was a clear demonstration of Government’s commitment and political will to ensure that human rights, empowerment, equality, and human dignity for women, children and people with disabilities are advanced, promoted, protected and developed. The Ministry is therefore mandated to coordinate and monitor compliance with country and global obligations and to address challenges regarding social justice and marginalisation of the three targeted groups through the establishment of a Department for Women, Children and People with Disabilities. The intention is towards making the concerns and experiences of women, children and people with disabilities an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of legislation, policies and programmes, and to assess the impact of these on the lives of the vulnerable and targeted groups to ensure a better life for all. South Africa is signatory to several standard-setting and benchmarking on advancing and promoting the interests of the targeted groups, which men domesticated at the national level, finds alignment and synergy with Government’s results-based, rights-based; mainstreaming and empowerment approaches to delivery of its mandates. These have also therefore been taken into account in developing the strategic plan of the Department for Women, Children and People with Disabilities. It is envisaged that the institutionalization of these considerations within the work of the State will therefore inform policy-making at the different levels of government; result in specific measures, programmes and projects, and in the creation bodies, laws, norms and resources to advance the situation of women, children and people with disabilities throughout the country. The Department will, during this delivery period, place particular emphasis on the three vulnerable groups especially within rural areas, in poverty situations, seek to address their vulnerability to crime and violence, attempt to eliminate maternal mortality, advance infant and child survival and to foster and encourage economic empowerment, job creation and decent work for women and people with disabilities. The issues, concerns and considerations of women, children and people with disabilities do not occur in a vacuum, but in real communities, across a real society and within real, lived experiences, with varying degrees of cultural and traditional diversity, organisational density, geographical locations, different political beliefs and uneven levels of institutional development and modernisation. Institutional arrangements will be set in place in the various tiers of Government to deliver on the mandate in respect to the three groups. Over the coming years, changes may be effected in structural arrangements to ensure a better “fit” between commitment to equality, rights, empowerment and dignity for women, children and people with disabilities and compliance to requirements and implementation in terms of the country’s law and policy framework.
