Empowering women in rural areas through skills development : insight from comprehensive rural development programme

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine rural women empowerment through skills development. The paper draws insights from the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP) aimed at empowering women in South Africa’s rural areas since 2009. Rural women face numerous obstacles, including limited access to education, financial services, and markets. Redressing these challenges have shown improvements since the South African government implemented a rural development strategy called CRDP in rural areas to reduce poverty. The CRDP initiative was a response and contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals 1 (poverty reduction) and 5 (gender equality). With the gendered nature of lack of skills particularly in rural areas, women were heavily engaged in CRDP, which has potentially empowered them. Through the implementation of CRDP, human development strategies were established that included capacity building through vocational training and skills development to mention a few. The study adopted a literature review research method. The literature review as a research methodology will be used to collect, analyze, and synthesize existing research studies and literature on empowering women. It will also be used as a secondary research method, meaning it will rely on existing research rather than collecting new primary data. Literature was analysed by identify patterns, themes, debates, and gaps in literature, providing a foundation for further research or understanding. The paper argues that CRDP successfully empowered women in rural areas of South Africa. This is because it was built on the premise that rural areas in the country have the potential to be developed in a way that generates jobs and economic opportunities. Thus, providing an alternative to the urban centers, and contributing to the reduction of rural-urban migration. The study also argues that the living conditions of women in rural areas of South Africa have improved, enabling them to participate in decision-making processes that affect their lives. It is in this light that the paper recommends the re-invention of CRDP programme phase three, which focuses on supporting the emergence of rural industrial and financial sectors, which is driven by small, medium and micro enterprises and village markets. This is because, phase three of CRDP did not only contribute to the empowerment of rural women, but it also enables rural women to participate and contribute to the economic growth and development of rural areas through SMMEs, innovation and entrepreneurship