OCEAN
6.2. UNDERSTANDING OF CAPACITY BUILDING
In addition, the Project organized training programmes for its workers and a creche was provided to lessen the burden of nursing mothers, however, the provision of one creche was inadequate for use in six settlements that are not spatially contiguous. If women must be empowered, the provision of their basic needs to function effectively and efficiently is a requisite.
training these women on the job, the exercise may not produce the expected result of building capacity in the participants. There is therefore the need for continuous and consistent training of the workers and there should be a mechanism of evaluating the impact of the training programme on productivity in the Project.
One of the findings of the study is the increasing number of workers in the Project over years. The project leader expressed that the Project has been motivating for an increase in the number of workers, especially women. This correlates with the objective of the Working for Water Project of' preferentially employing a workforce of at least 60% women. Although there was a drop in the 1999 figures, this might be attributed to the challenges of recruitment and delays in salary payments, which many of the women employees complained about.
The success of training is determined by its application in the desired or related fields. Furthermore, this study reveals that apart from the financial empowerment, the women employees of the Project had acquired the skill of managing their lives better. Most of the women stated that they were able to do things faster and better than they could before they got the job and they would be better at doing things at the end of their employment with the Project. Experience over years would help the women in their level of productivity as they do almost the same work every year and they become experienced. In this regard, the contractors were asked a question in relation to their satisfaction with the women's level of productivity. Five of the contractors indicated that they were satisfied with the women's level of performance. Only one contractor indicated that he would prefer to train a new set of workers, as he was not satisfied with their level of performance. This suggests that most of the contractors were satisfied with the level of performance of the women. This might be attributed to the fact that they had acquired skills from the training programmes organized by the Project and were able to manage resources in their primary assignment of getting rid of the invasive alien plants. The women also concluded that they would be able to start some small businesses on their own when they might have
finished with the Proj.ect. Although only seven (28%) of the women employees were found to have participated in the training programme, they stand the chance of starting small business on their own having undergone the training. However, only two of the women employees indicated that they engaged in petty trading after hours in order to augment their income. Thus, the engagement of the women employees in the Working for Water Project is not a means to an end rather, it is an end to means of creating livelihood.
Furthermore, when the women were asked about the transferability of the
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acquired skills after exiting the project, many of the women said that they would be able to transfer the knowledge of what they have learnt, One of the women said that the skills might not be related to what she plans to do after exiting the Project while another woman stated that she was getting old and as a result, the acquired skills are not going to be applicable. Since the training programme incorporates water conservation, management skills, childcare, HIV/AIDS awareness and First aid, all of which are essential in building households, it is expected that the training will help them in the home and community as stated by the Project leader. In order to affirm the assertion of the women who said that they have benefited from the training, the contractors were asked a question in relation to the women's level of productivity. Three of the contractors felt that the level of productivity was the same as men, two felt that the men's level of productivity was higher than women's while one indicated that the women's level of productivity was higher than the men's.
With regard to the structure in the organization, the study reveals that there are more women than men :in the Project and this meets up with the proposal of the Project of employing more women than men in order to alleviate women's predicament (section 1.3.). The study also shows that there was no strict division of men and women into sections except where it was perceived that men were needed in certain places. Only one of the contractors indicated that the men working with him did the spraying while the women fetched water when
necessary. All the other contractors (83%) indicated that their workers (men and women) all did the work of cutting down trees, clearing bushes, applying chemicals, spraying weeds, cutting weeds and fetching water. This also resonates with the Women in Development, Gender and Development, and Empowerment Approaches (sections 3.2.2, 3.2.4 and 2.2.5) of empowering men and women to participate in the implementation of projects. In order to affirm this, the contractors were asked whether or not they would like to continue with the same set of workers, five of the contractors (83%) said they were happy working with the set of labourers that they had and would like to continue to work with them. However, one of the contractors (17%) indicated that he would need to train new set of workers afresh. In comparing the level of productivity of both men and women, five contractors said that they were satisfied with the level of productivity of the employees working with them.