Presentation made by Barbara Tapela, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, Water Research Commission South Africa , World Water Week, August 26-31, 2012, Stockholm, Sweden

1. Towards concrete actions for
advancing the integration of
gender, water and food security

2. KEY POINT
• For many vulnerable women and men in rural and
urban settings, water insecurity is a social construct
of ‘resource management’, which is determined by
political, economic and social power dynamics
underpinning the institutions that provide:
– Structure to social relations,
– Access to bases of social power and productive
wealth, and
– Stability to the organization of human societies
(Tapela, 2012).
• Political economy context is therefore critical.

3. Political Economy Context
• The socio-institutional landscape where water
governance reforms are implemented ‘is in fact
the result of a constantly evolving political
game, which reflects the current distribution of
power between local actors and their struggle
to control the natural, institutional, financial
and political resources…In this political battle
for power, the poorest and most marginalized
are often the losers’ (Bene et al, 2009)

4. Gendered struggles for access to water
in South Africa
Barbara Nompumelelo Tapela

5. Glimpses from Ntlakavini Village of
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Messina
Thohoyandou
KRU
GER
N1
NAT
I ONA
Pietersburg
L PARK
Nelspruit
Mafeking Pretoria
GAUTENG
Johannesburg
N ORTH WEST MPUMALAN GA
KWAZULU/
FREE STATE N ATAL
Kimberley Ulundi
N ORTHERN CAPE Bloemfontein
LESOTHO Pietermaritzburg
N1 Durban
Ntlakavini
EASTERN CAPE
Bisho
N1 E L
ast ondon / Mdantsane
Cape T
own WESTERN CAPE P E
ort lizabeth

6. Phongola Dam…panoramic view
• Click to open video

7. Women’s struggles for access to water
• Click to open video

8. Men’s struggles for access to water
• Click to open video

9. CONCLUSION
• In adopting concrete actions to advance the
integration of gender, water and food security…
• A critical question is: How do we grapple with the
diversity, complexity and dynamism of the many
contexts?
• Answers to this question will contribute to
enhancing the effectiveness of institutional
interventions and the governability of water-
linked ecosystems.

10. GOVERNANCE GOVERNING SYSTEMS-TO-BE-
SYSTEMS INTERACTIONS GOVERNED
Social
State Cultural
Policy
Impacts
Markets
Pressures Political
Participation
Civil Society
Economic
Ecological
(Adapted from Kooiman (2008))