The Custodian Project

The "issue list" collated from the comments which pertain to this theme include:

Developments are largely out of the price ranges of ‘general’ South Africans and become elitist developments often catering for the overseas market.

Equality and environmental justice

Equality and environmental justice considerations should be higher priority to counteract existing environmental racism in South Durban.

Expensive – and caters to rich members of society while largely overlooking the plight of the poor.

Firstly, the EIA process is administered by …[deleted name of department]for the rich – the plight of the poor is not adequately represented/considered.

If Norway and Canada is our benchmark for better EM, how will we redress the bulk population that has been previously isolated from Environmental Affairs?

In terms of this process here, which is outside of the dates, but to make it successful from the NGO sector point of view, I would like to just say that what will really help us, although we are supposed to have a representative democracy in this country, nobody trusts it, because we don’t trust our representatives to actually represent us accurately. So, we actually have a participative democracy, which the NGOs use very well, but we don’t have very much money

Service providers (EAPs) and civil society groups (NGOs) are not representative in terms of demographics and not adequately transformed.

To pursue inter-generational equity

Transformation of the industry. We need to develop a database of government practitioners in the industry, etc, of interns.

Capacity in civil society is concerned, what was raised is that there is no public awareness. . Civil society does not understand the basics of environmental management. Laymen do not understand EIA processes. Communities do not adequately participate in EIA processes. The issue of language, culture and literacy barriers often is overlooked. The proposal is that environmental education is imperative on local level. Existing environmental training, education facilities must be better utilised. We propose that other spheres, and that is the industry as well, assist in educating the members of the public. A public participation guideline is needed.

The aspect of once again within the strategy, capturing the outreach, the awareness raising, basically building the entire nation’s capacity around the meaning of sustainable development and environmental management.

There is no equity in the developments that I’ve seen with… [deleted name of department]… over the past 4 years. I can honestly say that I’ve only processed 2 applications (of the many) where the applicants were people of colour. The principles of BEE are not considered important. As a result, space is running out and resources are dwindling – by the time people of colour are able to apply for developments, it will just be too late. The wealthy and previously advantaged would have already developed where it was possible to develop. In addition, the more money a developer has, the more influence he has on politicians and people of influence, the more likely his development is approved”

DEAT must work with community based organizations (CBO’s) to select any specialist that carry out studies.

Enabling new players in the EAP body – provision of pro-bono services by well established EAPs for cash strapped emerging businesses

Equality and environmental justice considerations should be higher priority to counteract existing environmental racism in South Durban

Include the community, inform and educate them

We need to enhance public/private partnership, establish an employment skills development agency, ensure that graduates have practical and theoretical qualifications, collaborate with the industry, assigning BEE points to consultancies and assisting BEE companies.

Youth involvement should be promoted where necessary.

Chapter 5 of NEMA provides for integrated environmental management.  The EIA regulations were one tool, drafted and revised over a number of iterations, that attempted to regulate developmental activities with an impact on the environment. While NEMA envisaged a number of tools to assess the full range of policies, programmes and activities, the EIA has been inappropriately used as a “one size fits all” approach.

For this subtheme, the challenge is to provide for a strategy that recognises the environmental management sector needs to transform in line with the country’s demographic profile, and that the sector needs to reflect the diversity and gender equity of the country, in order to ensure biases of the past are rectified and that the sector supports the environmental development of all population groups.

This subtheme report focuses particularly on demographic representivity and gender representivity within EIA&M and was aimed at developing recommendations to promote the meaningful participation of previously disadvantaged population groups.

Legislation and policy context

This section provides a short summary of some of the legal and policy context for the transformation of the country.

Context for community involvement in sustainable development:

The National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) chapter1 section 2 has the following principles that are legally binding on all EIAs or other environmental management processes.   Principles relating specifically to transformation are:

Principles

(1) The principles set out in this section apply throughout the Republic to the actions of all organs of state that may significantly affect the environment and-

(a) shall apply alongside all other appropriate and relevant considerations, including the State's responsibility to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the social and economic rights in Chapter 2 of the Constitution and in particular the basic needs of categories of persons disadvantaged by unfair discrimination;

(c) Environmental justice must be pursued so that adverse environmental impacts shall not be distributed in such a manner as to unfairly discriminate against any person, particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged persons.

(d) Equitable access to environmental resources, benefits and services to meet basic human needs and ensure human well-being must be pursued and special measures may be taken to ensure access thereto by categories of persons disadvantaged by unfair discrimination.

(f) The participation of all interested and affected parties in environmental governance must be promoted, and all people must have the opportunity to develop the understanding, skills and capacity necessary for achieving equitable and effective participation, and participation by vulnerable and disadvantaged persons must be ensured.

(h) Community wellbeing and empowerment must be promoted through environmental education, the raising of environmental awareness, the sharing of knowledge and experience and other appropriate means.

This Act came into force in 1998, and it is clear that the intention of the law was to ensure the participation of all citizens, including disadvantaged individuals.

Context of the transformation of private sector:

Section 9 of the Constitution deals with equality:

• 9(1) Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law
• 9(2) Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken.

The relevant policy and legislation in terms of economic equality is:

• the Strategy for Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (Strategy) in March 2003;
• the Code of Good Practice (Code), which is an explanation of the approach to be adopted by government in the measurement of BEE compliance; and
• the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 2003 (Act No. 53 of 2003) (the BEE Act) which was passed into law on 6 January 2004

• the final Codes of Good Practice on Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment which were promulgamated on 9 February 2007.

The Strategy and Code are not legally binding documents but give a clear indication of government's current policy in relation to BEE. Government defines BEE as having three separate, but integrated, contexts:

• Direct empowerment - the promotion of ownership and control by black persons over the South African economy, measured by ownership and management
• Human resource development
• Indirect empowerment - criteria relating to procurement sourced from black-empowered or black-owned businesses, as well as enterprise development through investment in, and joint ventures with, black-empowered or black-owned businesses.
• The BEE Act empowers the Minister of Trade and Industry to issue codes of good practice to be applied in determining the qualification criteria for granting licences, concessions and other authorizations under any law, in developing preferential procurement policies for government and the public sector, and in defining the qualification criteria for the sale of state-owned enterprises and the establishment of public private partnerships[1].

They are also intended to establish targets and weightings for the purpose of measuring BEE compliance.

A black-owned enterprise is defined as being a business that is ‘50.1% owned by black persons and where there is substantial management control’. These strategies are focused mainly on state interventions in the economy and are aimed at transforming the ownership of business[2], however the Codes of Good Practice require that all entities operating in the South African economy make a contribution towards the objectives of Broad - Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE).[3]

The BEE legislation is supported and functions in conjunction with various other forms of Legislation, including the Employment Equity Act, Skills Development Act, Preferential Procurement Framework and others.The Employment Equity Act, 1998 (Act No 55 of 1998 ) identifies three areas of discrimination: gender, race and disability and provides for the implementation of affirmative action measures designed to address the disadvantages in employment faced by particular categories of employees in order to ensure their equitable representation at all job levels in designated workplaces.

Implementing employment equity involves two key initiatives:

• Eliminating unfair discrimination in human resource policies and practices in the workplace; and
• Designing and implementing affirmative action measures to achieve equitable representation of designated groups in all  occupational categories and levels in the workplace

“The law states that in determining whether an employer is implementing employment equity in compliance with this Act, the Director-General or any person or body applying this Act must amongst other factors, take into account the 'demographic profile of the national and regional economically active population (EAP),”(President Jacob Zuma, clarifying the intention of the Employment Equity Amendment Bill, which will allow employers to be free to choose whether to target regional or national demographics but this is still in the process of amendment).[4]

Context of the transformation of government:

The legislation and policy context for government transformation is as follows:

1. According to the White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service (WPTPS), 1995:

• Within four years all departmental establishments must endeavour to be at least 50% black at management level
• During the same period at least 30% of new recruits to the middle and senior management echelons should be women
• Within ten years, people with disabilities should comprise 2% of public service personnel

2. White Paper on Affirmative Action in the Public Service, 1998 re-emphasises the meeting of targets as outlined in the WPTPS

Context of transformation of women

Gender equality is one of the cornerstones of the South African Bill of Rights (Chapter 2) as encapsulated mainly in Clause 9(1),(3), Chapter 2 which state that everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law; the state may not discriminate against anyone on the grounds of race, age, gender sex, pregnancy, marital status…”.

South Africa’s National Policy Framework on Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality (NPFGW) was drawn up by The Office on the Status of Women and was adopted by Cabinet in December 2000. The NPFGW develops the values and principles which underpin the National Gender Programme and calls upon all national Departments to develop sectoral gender policy guidelines to translate the national imperatives for women’s empowerment and gender equality into their sector policies, programmes and activities.

South Africa is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) 1979, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; the Beijing Platform of Action; Millennium Development Goals – Goal 7, Target 9. These conventions and agreements commit South Africa to end discrimination against women in all forms and to incorporate the principle of equality of men and women in their legal system.

The Department of Science and Technology addresses gender equality in its founding document - The S&T White Paper.

The Business Women’s Association (BWASA) 2009 census of women leaders in government, state-owned enterprises and JSE-listed companies shows that government is ahead when it comes to gender representivity in the workplace. South Africa has in fact one of the highest rates worldwide of women in public office at all levels of government and administration (BWASA 2009). But despite the progressive policies and strategies, some serious obstacles to realize gender and race equality remain (Bertelsmann Stiftung & CAP 2010).[5]

Context of the transformation of education:

The Constitution of South Africa, adopted in 1996, recognises the need to heal the divisions of the past and, through the Bill of Rights, invokes the notion of redress for past inequities. The White Paper on Higher Education (1997), the Higher Education Act (1997) and the National Plan on Higher Education (2001) require higher education institutions to address past inequities through various processes of redress and development and to address the country’s high-level human resource needs.

Despite strong efforts at reform and improvement, South African schools and universities still have discrepancies in quality (HSRC 2009). Dropout rates in schools and universities are high, due to under-qualified teachers to capacity problems to poverty and hunger of children (Bertelsmann & Cap 2010, HSRC 2009) and thus there are few people adequately prepared for university. “In a labour market where there is an oversupply of unskilled labor and a shortage of skilled labor, the education system (primary, secondary and tertiary) is not producing the skills that the economy requires.” (Bertelsmann & CAP 2010).

The World Economic Forum found that whilst South African universities rated strongly on research and development spending accompanied by strong collaboration between universities and the business sector in innovation (both ranked 28th), the report cautioned that the country’s innovative potential could be at risk with a university enrollment rate of only 15 percent, or 93rd overall. (Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 of the World Economic Forum (WEF)).

In terms of gender transformation, female enrollments in all higher education institutions have increased considerably (National Innovation for Science Council 2010). However, female students remain underrepresented in the fields of science, engineering and technology[6]. The National Strategy for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education is the flagship strategy of the Department of Education to increase the number of mathematics, science, and technology graduates in response to the socioeconomic needs of South Africa and to build human resources. It aims to increase the skills and enrolment of students in South Africa in these disciplines.

The Biodiversity Human Capital Development Programme (BHCDP) has received R8.5 million from the Lewis foundation to:

•        to increase the number of talented black South Africans attracted to working in this sector

•        to improve the quality, levels and relevance of skills for the sector

•        to improve retention and effective deployment of suitable individuals in the sector and

•        to create enabling macro-conditions for skills planning, development and evaluation.

They focus on unraveling the “hardships of graduates in life sciences who want to have a masters or higher degree” and how trained students on leaving tertiary institutions find “a lack of opportunities, mentorship, vacation work or even internships. With no experience, it is difficult to find a job in the environmental sector.”

An important initiative to keep talent within the biodiversity sector is to find resources to upskill professionals who are already in this sector. The Green Paper on Skills Development defined learnerships as a mechanism to facilitate linkages between a structured learning environment and the place of work, so that graduates who obtain a qualification, are ready to enter the world of work. While it was argued in the Green Paper that the establishment of learnerships had to be demand driven, there was nothing to prevent the creation of incentives to set the process into motion. As was indicated in the Green Paper, the Act reaffirms the need to incorporate structured learning with practical work experience. The key vehicles identified to drive the process are the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs). The Skills Development Levy is a levy that each employer has to pay over to SARS. It is compulsory if their wage bill is more than R500000 for the year and voluntary if their wage bill is less for the year. The levy is 1% of the total wage bill and it does not get deducted from the employee.

Context for transformation in the environmental NGO sector.

Under Apartheid South Africa, Conservation organisations tended to be white managed and owned and largely concerned with biodiversity conservation issues.  Most of these historically white conservation style organisations have been around for more than 50 years.  Examples include WESSA, WWF and EWT.

During the 1980’s, issues of environmental justice came to the fore, with marginalised communities protesting at the pollution burden they had to bear.  This era was the beginning of organisations such as Earthlife Africa, and GroundWork that focused on the pollution and human issues, rather than the traditional conservation issues.

Twenty years later, WESSA now has a black woman CEO – Mumsie Gumede, while WWF is headed by white males and EWT by white females but the focus of these organizations has shifted and their programmes do focus on broader conservation/human development questions.

The 1990’s saw the birth of environmental networks focused on marginalised communities.  The Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF) started during this time.  In 2011, there are a number of environmental issue based networks that bring NGOs and CBOs together: the Fynbos Forum, the Adaptation network, the Climate Justice Now Network and the Energy Caucus and Water Caucus (the last two are national caucuses that meet regularly to exchange views on different current environmental topics) and a few of the national civil society networks.  Most of the networks are dominated by community activists drawn from marginalised communities.

However, in terms of influence in policy or project decisions, the larger traditional organisations dominate.

On the ground

Inequality

In the South African context, the majority of the population is considered historically disadvantaged, for example, the so-called ‘Blacks’ only gained the vote in 1994.  The majority of South Africa’s poor and vulnerable population is still “black” (under the old apartheid classification), with “black” women being particularly affected, and there is a wealth of literature to support this. South Africa’s National Party government developed the Apartheid system of legal racial segregation between 1943 and 1993, and this classified the country’s inhabitants as “Black”, “White”, “Coloured” or “Indian”. The Coloured group included people of Khoisan, Malaysian, Griqua, Indian and Chinese origin (Health and Demographic survey ref).The level of public sector service and infrastructure provided to white people and that offered to the black/non-white population is widely disparate.[7]

Although this report agrees in principle with the principle of human dignity, or as UCT’s EE policy[8] specifically states: “In advancing employment equity, we recognize and respect the right to both dignity and self-determined identity. Accordingly, and where possible given the requirements of prevailing legislation, we will uphold the rights of individuals not to be publicly categorized by race, gender or disability against their will”, it was not possible within the ToR of this study not to use these terms. Unfortunately in order to understand the demographic representivity within the EIA&M field we will need to use these classifications (repealed in 1991) within the methodology, in order to fully determine whether the industry has transformed or not. It is necessary to use the classification of these population groups in order to monitor whether progress has been made in reducing the historic socio-economic inequalities between population groups.

Currently the effects of Apartheid still influence education and poverty levels within the country. According to Statistics SA[9] 22.3% of Blacks aged 20 and over have received no schooling, 18.5% have had some primary school, 6.9% have completed only primary school, 30.4% have had some high school education, 16.8% have finished only high school, and 5.2% have an education higher than the high school level. The unemployment rate of the economically able Black population (aged 15–65 years) is high at 28.1% and those employed typically earn R12,073/year. Black females get less income than Black males.

In contrast, Statistics South Africa estimates that 1.4% of Whites aged 20 and over have received no schooling, 1.2% have had no more than some primary schooling, 0.8% have completed only primary school, 40.9% have finished only high school, and 29.8% have an education higher than the high-school level. The unemployment rate of the White population aged 15–65 is 4.1%. The median annual income of White working adults aged 15–65 is ZAR 65,405. White males have a median annual income of ZAR 81,701 versus ZAR 52,392 for White females.

Population distribution is also uneven in a spatial dimension. In 1995 black South Africans formed a majority in all provinces except the Western Cape, (where they made up 20 percent of the population). Cities were predominantly white, and the townships and squatter areas that ringed the cities were predominantly black.

Gender:

There are many gender based inequalities in South African society as a result of political history, forced removals, migrant workers and cultural identities (SADHS 2008).

The gender ratio of South Africa population between 15-64 years is 1.02 male(s)/female (StatsSA 2007).

Current demographic profile of South Africa:

Statistics South Africa’s mid 2010 population estimates are that the total country population stands at 49.9 million, with the apartheid categories racial breakdown as follows:

Africans – 79.4%

Whites – 9.2%

Coloured – 8.8%

Indian/Asian – 2.6%

Demographic profile of the provinces of South Africa in percentages

According to the demographic profile within provinces, Limpopo, Mpumulanga and North West have a high Black population; and the biggest populations of Whites occur in the Western Cape and Gauteng. The biggest populations of Coloureds occur in the Northern and Western Cape. The greatest population of Asians in the country occurs in KwaZulu Natal.

Demographic profile of the Economically Active population

According to the Employment Equity Commission representivity must equate to the Economically Active portion of the population (currently it refers to both regional and national demography but the Amendment Act stipulates that will in the future just the term Economically active population will be used for a reference), which is represented in the Table above.

[1] http://www.bwasa.co.za/Portals/4/docs/archive/BEE-%20notes%20.pdf

[2] http://www.bertelsmann-transformation-index.de/fileadmin/pdf/Gutachten_BTI2010/ESA/South_Africa.pdf

[3] http://www.dti.gov.za/bee/EE_guidlines.pdf

[4] http://www.timeslive.co.za/Politics/article972931.ece/Zuma-clarifies-employment-equity-bill

[5] http://www.bertelsmann-transformation-index.de/fileadmin/pdf/Gutachten_BTI2010/ESA/South_Africa.pdf

[6] http://www.nacinnovation.biz/wp-content/uploads/Taking-Stock-Policy-Interventions-and-Impact-in-the-STI-Dr-Romilla-Maharaj.pdf

[7] http://www.fanews.co.za/article.asp?Front_Page_Features;25,Stokes_Stage;1145,Demographeid_Reengineering_South_Africas_population_demographics;9155

[8] http://www.uct.ac.za/downloads/uct.ac.za/about/policies/eepolicy.pdf

[9] http://www.statssa.gov.za

Methods: demographic profile analysis of sectors within EIA&M.

In order to determine the demographic representivity of the EIA industry, it was first necessary to determine which sectors were involved in EIA, and to some extent this was informed by interviews, PSC subtheme notes and by Subtheme 8 (skills in the EIA field). We analysed demographic data from:

• Civil society:
  • Registration bodies for natural scientists and EAPs (including SACNASP, IAIA, EAP SA, IWM SA, ECSA)
  • Educational institutes (universities, technikons)
  • Training organizations (short course programs)
  • NGOs involved in EIAs (including CBOs)
• Service providers:
  • EAPS (small and large consulting companies)

• Government:
  • Provincial and national departments of environment

Due to time and resource constraints, only selected representative organizations’ profiles were analysed, according to geographical and urban/rural spread.

Employee/staff/student demographic profiles in terms of numbers of population group and gender were requested from these sectors. Several databases of memberships from various institutions and government departments involved in the EIA sector were asked for and examined in terms of demographic distribution. These included Waste, Environmental Science, Environmental Management, and Engineering.

In order to bulk up samples, a very simple survey form for demographic statistics of educational institutes, EAPs, NGOs, CBOs was sent to 638 of the delegates that attended the 2008 IAIA “Ten years of EIA in South Africa” conference. Of these 638, 93 emails were found to be not working anymore and of the remainder, only 13 responses were returned, but the time frame for response was unavoidably short (2 weeks) and it is unlikely there would have been a high return even if these surveys were sent out at the beginning of the project.

During our research, we found that many institutions were unwilling to give demographic data (“colour”) for employees and thus on occasion we had to identify race using the name and surname of employees. There is obviously some inaccuracy in this method, but when uncertain we formulated an objective rule of putting names into demographic groups at a 50/50 probability. This probably resulted in a very small overestimation of people in the so-called “Coloured” race class, as the main uncertainties were between the “White” and “Coloured” surname categories. Where possible, we asked for verification from key people who had been in the EIA&M field for a long time and had a wide acquaintance in this industry, but we could not do so in all cases due to resource constraints.

The results of the demographic distribution in each database were compared to South Africa’s current population demographic distribution, (mid-2010 Statistics South Africa study – see Section 3.2.3).

Methods: Reasons for demographic distribution of EIA&M

The key to improving transformation rates is to understand the reasons for the demographic imbalance. The methodology used to determine this was a qualitative one.  A questionnaire was compiled that sought to understand, amongst many other issues, how “black” or HDI environmental professionals entered the environmental sector, the challenges they faced in large “white” dominated companies and organizations, and for those professionals that decided to start their own environmental organisations or consultancies, to determine how they fared, and any particular challenges they faced in getting work. As far as possible, questionnaires were done telephonically as people tend to say a lot more than when writing. The questionnaire was also not prescriptive, if there were interesting points, the interviewee was asked to go into more depth so as to improve information quality. We also conducted mini-interviews asking people in the industry and sector about their perceptions and observations for the reasons behind the poor demographic representivity.

Methods: representivity of sampling

Interviewees were selected based on their context within the industry and how they could provide input into the skews and reasons we were detecting. So interviewees were selected from all sectors and career paths within EIA, including:

• Students currently studying environmental management
• Interns who have just left educational institutes and are being trained in the work place
• Junior and senior HDI consultants
• Junior and Senior White consultants
• CEOs of EAPs, including large, small firms and from different degrees of black ownership
• Government EAP officials (even though this was not included in the ToR but is particularly relevant to this SubTheme)
• Training institutions
• Civil society organizations, including CBOs and NGOs (to determine current EIA skills and demographic representivity within the EIA sector and representivity within the public participation process too)
• A focus group session of young black environmentalists and their perceptions on barriers and retention

This study could not be conducted as a fully quantitive survey due to time and budget constraints, but more importantly the status quo was examined statistically and the main trends were identified during a collation of interview results and followed up in more informal interviews with experienced people in each regard. Thus the survey drew on both quantitative and qualitative methodology in order to acquire the most relevant information in the most cost- and time-effective manner.

The methodology stratified the service provider sector into a number of parts:

• The one component is the large firms, often international.  These firms tend to have an engineering history and have combined their engineering expertise and environmental impact management in one company.  They have in house specialists in many fields and in practice, are often the lead consultant and provide the specialists, often the public facilitation as well. It was assumed that such companies would also be able to offer mentorship, educational opportunities, and attractive salaries, thereby attracting the majority of “black” consultants.
• The second component was the smaller firms, generally focused on Environmental Impact Assessments and related work, not historically engineering firms. As smaller firms, these companies would be competing against well established large firms, and the interviews aimed to determine whether BEE firms were able to outcompete the larger firms, both in getting work and in attracting young “black” professionals.
• The third component was individual professionals/consultants, either placed in government, large or small firms and academic institutions. The aim of these interviews was to interview professionals in middle or senior management positions, to discuss the challenges that they experienced in their careers and how they overcame them.  These interviews were not limited to “black” professionals but interviewed a range of professionals in order to compare the usual challenges that professionals may encounter in their careers vs those that might be attributed to transformation. We thus acquired the perceptions and observations from both “black” and “white” practitioners.
• The fourth component was professionals in the NGO/CBO sector.  The number of established NGOs active in the environmental management sector is not large and it was possible to interview representatives from most larger NGOs and from key community activists. The use by NGOs of white experienced personnel to review and comment on EIA case studies was investigated, particularly in consideration of this report’s development of recommendations for mentoring processes.
• The fifth component was geography.  South Africa is a diverse country and there are stark differences between the urban and rural areas, particularly when it comes to opportunities for environmental professionals.  Interviews were held with a range of organisations and individuals from different areas of the country, focusing on a  few of large versus small, rural versus urban institutions
• The sixth component was communities, and although there was some cross-cutting with Sub-Theme 7, the questionnaire and interviews drew out issues of transformation and empowerment of communities participating in EIAs too.
• The seventh component was training institutions, including organizations offering short environmental courses and university environmental management programs, to determine whether there is transformation occurring in the skills development side.
• The eighth component was government demographics. Although government demographics were not part of the terms of reference, it is clear that government has transformed at a faster pace than the other sectors.  Interviews with government officials were therefore also held in order to add to the information base.  Government demographic statistics were also researched.

Some research was carried out to determine how other sectors of the economy have transformed and whether there were specific lessons that could be applied to the environmental sector. Interviews were backed up by a limited desktop study of transformation issues in other sectors and best practice guidelines evaluated for their applicability in the EIA&M sector.

It became clear that the demographic datasets, the policies, the issues constitute a formidable body of data that would require much more time to analyse. As a consequence, this report can only provide an overview of the issues and challenges facing the sector and this report is therefore a first attempt at defining the issues and providing feedback for developing an agenda for future work on transformation. Please refer to Appendix One for a database of interviewees and organizations.

Limitations:

Collection of data: The short time frame of the project did not allow for adequate time to acquire all the relevant statistics from all the different sectors. Interviewees and survey respondents did not see such statistics as a priority on their limited time, necessitating a huge volume of follow-up telecommunication to encourage people to fill in the surveys or send the data. People were also reluctant to give out this data based on the fact it would be changing shortly in the new financial year. The tight schedule has not been conducive to the long process of getting this sort of data from big institutions. We were thus unable to collect all the institutional data we would have liked to.

Sectors requiring further review: There seems to be a paucity of Black/Coloured/Indian specialists, such as botanists, hydrologists, etc, and thus our study could not get an adequate representation of this sector. It is worth further research to see what the path of new graduates is and where these graduates end up in the industry.

Emotive and controversial nature of the statistics: Furthermore the nature of the statistics (racial profile) was of concern to many people, for what reason we were not told in the majority of cases, though some people said outright the new South Africa was not about colour.

Demographic representivity of skills development: As the skills required for EIA&M are broad-ranging and cross-cutting (see SubTheme 8 report), we could not get demographic statistics for population groups for the EIA&M field alone, we often had to resort to comparing broad environmental and engineering statistics from universities and institutions in order to understand why there was a lack of skilled PDI and female graduates in the EIA&M field.

Summarized results from Demographic Status Quo analysis:

Demographic profile across sectors in time and space:

These results are informed by the data analysis and interviews and are thus confined to the limitations discussed in the methodology. However due to the many parallels drawn across from this study to others of very similar nature and the high correspondence between many different databases, we can develop these conclusions with a fairly high degree of confidence

1. EIA&M (as represented by IAIA and other organizations) is not demographically representative and there remains a disproportionate number of Whites in the sector relative to the national population demography profile.

2. There is not uniform distribution of EIA&M service providers and civil society across provinces, in terms of demographic group and gender:

• Within areas with a higher provincial demographic population of Blacks, IAIA had more Black members as compared to Black membership proportions in other provinces
• Gender representivity differed widely within provinces and demographic groups:  the Eastern Cape membership had more Coloured Females than Coloured males, Free State has poor Coloured and Black female representivity, KwaZuluNatal has high women representivity in all demographic groups except Whites, Limpopo and Mpumulanga have limited White female representivity, Southern Cape has no Black representative of either gender but a very good female Coloured representivity

3. There is unequal demographic representivity across EIA&M sectors:

• Most individuals within demographic groups are working within consultancies (the private sector), although a greater proportion of Whites are consultants (or in EAPs) than other groups. Government positions play a bigger role in Black jobs than in the other demographic groups.
• There is a greater proportion of Whites in NGO jobs relative to the total, than in other demographic groups.
• Whites are over-represented in all sectors except government
• Asians are under-represented in NGOs , Coloured and Asians are often under-represented in the sectors

4. Within the EIA&M professional registration bodies, there is non-representative demographics in terms of HDI and gender ratios, but candidate categories indicate an increasing HDI membership:

• Whites dominate, especially in the natural sciences bodies (eg SAIEES is 85% White).
• Males also dominate except in IAIA (but this is likely because it includes more government representatives)
• Coloured males are over-represented compared to Coloured women in Integrated Waste Management and there are many more White men than White women in SAIEES
• Professional categories are White-dominated but Candidate Categories are dominated by Blacks.
• Asians are well represented in ECSA but Coloureds need more representivity and Blacks.
• The highest proportion of Blacks occurred in a low category level Candidate Engineering Technician, indicating skills shortages
• IAIA conference delegates showed Blacks representivity is slowly catching up across sectors, except in private sector where whites are highly over-represented.

5. Government involved in EIA&M shows high transformation and gender representivity due to well-structured and commitment to policies and legislation:

• In IAIA conference delegate and membership representivity analyses, in government profiles and from censuses from the literature

6. HDI Education levels relating to EIA&M are improving at the overall undergraduate level but are lacking at postgraduate level and vary widely across universities and disciplines:

• UP – BSc Environmental Science – Greater numbers of Whites, No Coloureds
• Few Blacks, especially females, in higher tertiary levels
• Engineering – equal Blacks and Whites, more males
• Law at NWU - very few Blacks, Coloureds or Asians
• UWC - more Blacks and Coloureds than Whites in Applied Geology, Environment and Water Sciences and Biodiversity and Conservation degrees
• Across Environmental Sciences there are increasing Black graduates (more than Whites) and there is an increase in enrolments
• Historically advantaged universities like UCT, produce more PhDs and more White PhDs, whereas historically disadvantage universities produce more Black Phds but less overall

7. Women are under-represented in environmental higher education relating to EIA&M:

• There are far fewer females in scientific and environmental disciplines in university staff and research chairs
• Women produce far fewer doctorates and papers than men in SET
• Few women, particularly Black women, in postgraduate levels

8. Demographic representivity in the EIA&M private sector is skewed and transformation is slowed by lack of formal policies or skills development:

• At conferences Whites were far more likely to give talks in disproportion to their representation at the conference, whereas Blacks gave far fewer talks than expected from their representation in numbers at the conference
• Interviews showed lack of skilled applicants (with qualifications and “soft” skills like report-writing, language, people skills)
• There remains a dominance of white males in EAPs, especially senior management, and a predominance of white women in middle management
• There are few structured or formal transformation policies within EAPs but there is an emphasis on BEE strategies and there is an emphasis by management on ownership incentives for retention of BEE targets
• There are few gender policies in place or incentives for women
• Little emphasis is placed on skills development of HDIs within EIA&M private sector (but see Arcus Gibbs). HSRC (2009) says budgets on training have decreased in recent years!

9. Networking is perceived as a crucial skill in EIA&M for gaining work and recognition (high proportion of interviewees received jobs through this channel as opposed to conventional job vacancy advertising channels)

10. There is perceived high staff turnover of HDIs within the whole EIA&M

• Staff retention strategies are needed.
• Perceptions are that passion is needed in environmental career, which is normally a result of exposure to the environment through mentors or school
• Perception is that people leave for better pay
• Perception that government is losing institutional memory due to high staff turnover and low salaries (poached by higher-paying EAPs). This is backed up by data from HSRC 2009.
• Perception that NGOs lose HDI staff to private sector as they don’t have resources for high salaries

11. Paucity of information on EIA&M graduate output compared to skills scarcity

• Might be a function of unreasonably high expectations of graduates by employers
• Might be because graduates are leaving the sector

12. Paucity of information on cultural tension within the EIA&M work environment

13. Soft skills are lacking in education and training programs of EIA&M applicants

• Report-writing, people and language skills needed for EIA&M

14. Little is being done to raise awareness of EIA&M as a career

• Secondary schools have very little environmental information

15. Need for more entrepreneurial skills within EIA&M

• Few black specialists or HDI-owned EAPs in EIA&M

16. NGOs involved in EIA&M show uneven transformation

• Big well-established NGOs, like WWF and WESSA still White-dominated in senior management; EWT White-female majority in senior management
• Small CBOs and sustainable development NGOs more representative

BEE or not

Based on the analysis of demographic statistics and interview responses, the private sector is still not representative of the country’s demographics and within the interviews few of the EAPs were truly black-owned, most had started off as White-owned and been ‘transformed’ reactively through BEE.

It appears that BBBEE has resulted in HDIs being slotted into quotas in white-owned companies rather than the development of HDI-originated functional black-owned EAPs which would be a true measure of real transformation in the sector, (as it would reflect that the capacity and skills were there). One black-owned EAP mentioned he was the only 100% Black EAP in the Western Cape and in fact, in one of the questions asked in all sector interviews, approximately 95% of the interviewees did not know of any black-owned organizations in EIA, and when they did it was often one of the three interviewed in this study, or were NGOs and CBOs not technically EIA&M. This lack of real transformation is not likely to improve whilst big firms headhunt with high salaries for the limited pool of skilled black applicants, as there is too much benefit in a high permanent salary rather than the risks of starting on ones own. However, despite the drive for BEE and ownership incentives, it appears that there is little effective black-ownership overall.

BBBEE in the EIA&M sector has tended to result in reactive number-representivity, rather than proactive transformation. “Companies don't actually transform, they get their numbers right for the BEE status, but did they really transform? Not at any of the big companies. They use recruitment schemes to get their numbers right, "rent a darkie" philosophy is prominent amongst these companies with the BEE certificate. It is due to the government that transformation is not being fulfilled, the BEE system is pro-white - it makes it very difficult for us to get work from government.” (Coloured EAP manager).

According to this interviewee the BBBEE system is advantageous to white firms, as government tenders favour the bigger firms, and once they have any level of BEE certificate, they are well-placed to get a tender - true HDI ownership is not weighted enough to compete with the bigger firms’ advantages of being able to quote better prices and with their weight of expertise and experience. Thus the emerging companies really in need of transformation and work are outquoted and never get a chance to grow, as BBBEE has meant that they are competing on the same level as much bigger firms with longer work records and favoured by the past inequalities in the education system and within the economy.

Also BEE cannot be the whole answer to transformation as “BEE status is only of relevance for government work, or for adding to BEE companies BEE status in terms of value-added suppliers. For private contracting work, it is not relevant.”

Therefore transformation needs to be driven by companies themselves in the private sector.

One of the key emotive issues in BEE and demographic representivity can be summed up by an intern’s words:

“As a non-white individual, the question in the back of your mind begs to know whether you have been employed based on the colour of your skin, or based on your ability. In my case, I can quite comfortably testify that I assume it is both. Many of my peers in a similar situation have attested to feeling that they have either been, in effect, used by the company, who has given them a job with little to no direct relation to their qualification and has no interest in involving them beyond what is necessary to earn “BEE credits”. They have been put into management positions beyond their current capability, once again for BEE purposes. Whilst many do not have a problem with this, their complaint is that the company does not build their capacity in order to enable them to become effective managers, and they then become employees with a “poor performance record”.”

It is not transformation to disempower people. It is not transformation to put people in a place where they cannot perform efficiently and end up being burdened with a bad performance record for life.  It is thus the imperative of private EAPs to maintain strict codes of ethics in appointing HDIs and this can be informed by better internal policies. Very few organizations actually have a proper transformation policy and some state that they are “too small” to have one. This implies that a transformation policy is only viewed as an instrument for developing into a bigger business with access to government tenders. It is not considered a vital and inclusive part of any organization, no matter how big or small and shows the poor level of commitment to transformation in this country. Even 100% HDI-owned EAPs do not have a policy.

Singh (2007) notes that although there are diversity programmes in the science sector that are “genuinely committed to educating employees about understanding themselves and others different to themselves, most programmes are “quick-fix” solutions with short-term sustainability. Programmes of AA and programmes of understanding differences are not sufficient as standalone programs”.

RECOMMENDATION 1:

EAPs develop structured, formalized transformation policies and strategies that harmonize EE with skills development and represent a concerted and committed effort to build capacity within the company and enhance the work environment to promote cultural integration. There needs to be a holistic developmental approach that encourages their staff to further their qualifications, provide bursaries and gives staff incremental experience in handling EIAs, with oversight to ensure quality.

RECOMMENDATION 2:

Government and civil society develop a Transformation Charter for the EIA&M sector in order to:

• develop best practice guidelines
• foster the environment for promoting skills development, learnerships and mentoring to integrate all sectors and disciplines
• to develop a  vehicle to monitor transformation in indicators other than BEE
• to build capacity using partnerships to develop HDI ownership and engagement with EIA&M
• Address the lack of communication between government and EAPs and NGOs. (One example of poor communication was that according to several NGOs, they submitted transformation proposals to government after being requested to do so, and never heard back about these.) Facilitate a forum for industry-education-government to address lack of capacity and skills and develop placement programmes.

However BBBEE is in the hands of the user - it can be as powerful or as mismanaged as one makes it. One can use it as a ladder for building one’s own business, or one can use it as a channel for true transformation. SAFCEC, the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors, offers a unique programme for Enterprise Development in the construction industry which has valuable ideas for the EIAM sector. It is a company-to-company mentoring program based on the ED requirements as described in the Construction Codes. “The objective of this programme is to transfer knowledge and skills to the Business owner and personnel of a sub contractor or JV partner, via mentoring, coaching and training. An Established Contractor must coach/guide/mentor a Developing Contractor (Protégé Company) through a structured development programme. The objective is to help the protégé company reach independence and to address all the development areas as mentioned in the Construction Scorecard. The ideal mentoring period is between 3-5 years.”  A facilitator (SAFCEC or internal) then guides the interaction (program of transfer) at regular intervals over time, until the desired outcomes have been reached. The SAFCEC involvement in the programme includes assisting with the launch of the program on relevant site, and supplying a Facilitator who evaluates the protégé and develops a unique development plan for this protégé and mentor.[1] (See Appendix 3 for more details)

Entrepreneurial skills development through partner EAP mentoring

A study done at CPUT found that the entrepreneurial flair for new graduates seeking opportunities in small scale and venture enterprises has not been adequately instilled (Hendricks 2005).

RECOMMENDATION 3: Create opportunities for HDIs to develop their own businesses if such is their ambition. Well-established companies can allocate resources in terms of (ED – enterprise development) towards researching, negotiating and mentoring working relationships with small emerging enterprises. Small businesses often battle and these can be matched with larger companies who have shared interests (Nancy Richards, Untapped development potential, p 22 Impumelelo Volume 11 2010). The beneficiary strengthens and grows to become a valuable player in the economy and the benefactor grows its understanding and awareness of challenges facing emerging businesses and together they grow” Richards 2010)

Building the skills base and capacity of HDIs:

In order for the skills base to increase and thus increase the supply of skilled/qualified EIA&M recruits, we need to address various entry points in the education and work environment:

The following diagram illustrates where the weak links need to be addressed, which are places where HDIs need support or else we lose potential EIA&M practitioners and professionals as they fall away out the sector.

How do HDIs choose the environmental sector to work and study in?

Exposure to environmental issues during youth plays a major role in people’s decision to study environmental subjects in tertiary education. Often a mentor or support person plays a major role. School currently plays a poor role, according to the majority of interviewees. The only interviewee who claimed school as a driver was a manager who went to school in Canada, where the environment is very topical and provides a good future career option. Schools here, by common consensus, do not promote environmental careers or issues. Currently the top career intentions expressed by school students are: accounting and commerce fields (37%); engineering (31%); medicine (11%) and science 5%. Of those registered at tertiary institutions, the courses they are registered for are: 63% commerce; 14% sciences; 12% engineering; 4% IT; 3% medicine; 2% arts; and 2% law (HSRC 2009).

6.2.2. Flower-power: promoting awareness of the sector:

The focus group of HDI environmentalists were asked why do young HDIs not go into the environmental sector? They said there were three reasons: Firstly, the young people want to be doctors, lawyers, and accountants as this is what their family wants them to be (this was verified during the formal interviews of EIA&M HDIs). These have been the professions particularly respected and are familiar to communities for generations. Secondly, if in your family or friends, you know a doctor, it is likely you too will study this. Thirdly, political leadership in government is often a role model, for example, Madiba (Nelson Mandela) was a lawyer, and it is seen as something to inspire to. Education – the environmentalists pointed out that even though it has been more than 10 years since the end of apartheid - is shifting very slowly. Those that benefited in past are still benefiting now. One of the problems is that parents in poor communities (mostly black) are poor and servile to principals. They are not academics, and believe in the principal unconditionally so they don’t challenge him/her to make changes. Working class parents don’t have the influence or knowledge to say what career guidance should happen. Also once people move into the middle class, parents put their kids into the best schools possible, which then means more effort, to get the kids to schools far away, and to pay for the extra school requirements. It then provides even more of a barrier for parents to challenge principals on including issues like the environment. One environmentalist’s mother put him into a better school outside the township, and when he compared his school work to his friends in the township schools, he found their level of work in the township schools was often two years behind even though they were in the same grade.

Environmentalists also said a major obstacle was that parents would often not support their children financially if they wanted to follow an alternative career to that familiar to parents. If they want you to be a lawyer, but you want to go into the environmental sector, then they will let you do your own thing but wont give you resources to pay for your career. This means then that only the very passionate and those with parents with resources and awareness will make it into the environmental sector.

One EAP commented that she found it difficult to explain to school learners what she did.  There was a general conclusion that environmental careers are not publicized in career guidance, however this takes place - in schools etc.

Takalani Sesame Street, the award-winning television and radio program that premiered in 2000 is one of the most successful education innovations in South Africa. USAID supported development of a South African version of an American educational TV success, with an objective of reaching out to vulnerable children. In 2002, a five-year-old Muppet named Ka i became South Africa’s most popular AIDS orphan. Children from three to six years old improved their life skills grasp, such as positive self-esteem and self-image. Research found that older children and caregivers also increased their knowledge about HIV and AIDS.[2]

The DST/Thuthuka student camps run by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants target the top-performing Grade 11 and 12 students in both mathematics and science nationally. These are mostly African (except in the Western Cape Province where coloured students dominate the camps), and 55% of the participants are girls from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. (HSRC 2009) The camps have been very successful and reached 12% of schools, as well as facilitating entry into the workplace as students were approached during camps and offered bursaries (HSRC 2009).

Findings from the evaluation of the 2007 National Science Week (Reddy et al, 2008, cited in HSRC 2009), show that a number of students admitted to having their interest in science careers raised by their interactions and engagements with scientists.

RECOMMENDATION 4:

• Encourage teachers to instil the cross-cutting issues of environment across disciplines.
• Work with schools in forums to enhance the syllabus with more environment-driven practicals and field trips
• DEA and EAPA can run similar camps to the Thuthuka Camps, targeting top achievers in biology, science and geography
• Develop job-shadowing days within all large EAPs and IAIA
• Develop an EIA stall at National Science Week Exhibitions and Biodiversity Expos

Mentoring, interns and learnerships

Mentorships are some of the most successful tools to develop capacity and there are a wide variety of funds and levies to facilitate these (see Appendix 3). An Intern program has been run since 2005 at the City of Cape Town in partnership with provincial government, funded initially by DANIDA but now funded solely by the CoCT plus funds from SETA, and is aimed at giving 20-25 graduates a year training and work experience year through the CoCT. When it was funded by DANIDA recruitment criteria were strict – 80% HDI – and criteria are less strict but is broadly HDI-aimed although candidates must be local and recently graduated from fields of environmental management, sustainable development or conservation. The students have to attend four training sessions, developed by UCT’s EEU but run through the Environmental Education department at City, of 5 days each, over a period of 3 months, the purpose of which is to level the playing field and make sure everybody is informed despite their different backgrounds.  The training consists of basic EIA processes, tools, conflict management, etc. In the start up period, at the end of each year, as many as 20-30% of the interns were taken into the department although that figure has since declined possibly as a result of saturation of the junior government levels. Internship represents a head start, people got to know them, they learnt the procedures, etc. The internship thus offered both introductory level training and a work experience, with the possibility of developing contacts.

RECOMMENDATION 5:

• Promote public-private partnerships to develop learnerships and support programmes, such as internships, for HDIs and women; use existing programmes such as those recommended in Appendix 3.
• Inside the sector itself, however, a special mentoring project can be set up, coordinated at a senior level, where those about to retire may be dedicated to conducting mentoring in research projects with younger professionals and associate professionals (HSRC 2009). Special care must be taken to set up the right socio-cultural context of mentoring though.

Qualifications and skills from School and Higher Education:

HSRC (2009) recorded a worrying decline in biodiversity-skilled employee qualifications between 2000 and 2007 where postgraduate degrees declined by 6% and increasingly, professionals with qualifications of Diploma and lower were being employed in the sector. “The employment of professionals with lower level qualifications implies that these individuals may be required to operate at levels of responsibility that they are not necessarily qualified for. The result of this disjuncture in qualifications and responsibility is echoed in other research indicating that the levels of enforcement competence are often low.” Although there have been improvements in the number of black postgraduates (HSRC 2009), the biggest bottleneck exists for black women to move from masters into a doctoral programme and the second bottleneck for blacks in general is to move from honours into masters and this trend was noticed in this study too.

HSRC (2009) note that one third of biodiversity professionals (34%) in 2007 were taking on responsibilities that should ideally be done by someone with an honours degree or higher. This partly explains why respondents in the fieldwork raise question marks about, for instance, the competence of biodiversity conservation [3] at all government levels.

During 2009-2010 a number of stakeholder-based skills planning processes have taken place in the environmental sector, including the Global Change Grand Challenge initiative of the Department of Science and Technology, an Environmental Sector Skills Plan being developed by the Department of Environment, and associated Human Capital Development Strategies, for the Environment, Biodiversity, and Natural Resource Management (among others)(Submission to HET 2010).   Transformation of social inequality based on race is the key concern and four dimensions of transformation require attention:

• “New areas of learning to better support the developmental needs of society.
• Eradicating inequality of access to higher education.
• Eradicating inequalities in the quality of higher education provisioning.
• Improving epistemological access and methods of teaching to meet wider needs.”
• Research indicates teachers need to be trained about the environmental content of the subjects they teach.

Success factors for increasing numbers of black South Africans reaching postgraduate level are cited as:

• Strong academic development programmes, both general and discipline specific
• Adequate opportunities for staff-student interaction
• A lowering of entry criteria for Honours (but not Masters) programmes, to give students with disadvantaged schooling an additional opportunity to ‘catch up’
• A range of course specialisations, particularly courses which combine the technical environmental content with social relevance
• Staff with a good understanding of the world of work in the environmental sector.

(Submission into HET 2010)

“Many South African students are ‘switched on’ to the environmental sciences when technical content is presented in the context of social relevance. And working from context (such as experience, or situated case study) to concept unlocks a vast potential for learning” (Submission to HET, 2010).

The failure of many universities of technology students to find experiential workplace placements often results in their failure to complete qualifications (HSRC 2009).  The reasons why there are so few qualified Blacks and Coloureds often relate to high financial needs and lack of support. It is difficult for learners to finish theses without access to financial resources, particularly if their family is not well-resourced.

6.3 Breaking into the Inner circle:

Registration on professional bodies is considered an essential way to standardize skills. However there is a concern that this will exclude and limit the opportunities of HDIs who have had unequal access to education resources but might have good experience. HDI companies starting out could join IAIA and get to know “established” consultants in order to find mentors for sponsorship.

At the moment, we understand that the certification process for registration with professional bodies depends on being sponsored by a reputable EAP who is already part of the inner circle/ or who the new consultant has worked with in the past. Such a process would tend to make it exceedingly difficult for “outsiders” or new potential EAPs to become certified.

It has been therefore suggested by EAPs that a two year mentoring process be instituted, with mentors that could become sponsors but track their experience.  There was also a suggestion that some of the older, retired experienced individuals who have commented to EIAs for NGOs could provide mentorship within NGOs and small EAPs and be funded to do so by government in a structured manner.

A recommendation from a NGO manager was that although any newcomer into the sector will have difficulties, “they have to work hard. It’s worth doing voluntary stuff – to get known.”

RECOMMENDATION 6: Provide more opportunities, through funding and encouragement, during education and in the work place, to allow HDIs to participate in social-network building and the development of contacts through:

• Attendance at conferences
• Attendance at workshops and meetings
• Increased exposure to EIA&M interfaces – so as to increase awareness of integration and provide communication channels with other related sectors (e.g., consultants, communities, engineers, water affairs)
• Develop the Grab-an-intern IAIA project
• Facilitation (through financial and training support) of registration on professional EIA bodies

Mentoring plays a vital role in development of skills in the EIA&M and during interviews mentors said that it was important to develop writing and communication skills as a key limiting skill. Even within short courses students could be asked to prepare and help present a paper at IAIA conference, as has been done in the past. This not only builds the capacity to work in a team but also helps hone writing skills and promotes attendance at a network-building conference.

According to comments into the development of EAPA, the registration authority for EAPs, there is widespread support of the principle that the body must be an inclusive one that is representative of the full spectrum of practitioners operating in South Africa and that it must be a body that facilitates the entrance of new practitioners into the field. This needs to be ensured right form the start and represents a very good opportunity for SA to develop transformation in the industry.

RECOMMENDATION 7: there is a need to fast-track registration of Black EIA&M professionals, allowing some leeway of registration criteria in favour of experience or emphasis on mentorship.

6.4 Staff turnover and retention

Without access to exit interviews it is not possible to truly identify the reasons for staff turnover. However the perceptions were firstly that BEE is driving higher salaries and hence higher HDI mobility. HSRC (2009) listed some reasons for departure being:

• lack of career opportunities,
• lack of job variety and challenges
• low salaries.

There was also a view that “organizational and management culture may play a role in the high turnover” in the sector as white males dominate at the senior level which was “not welcoming for new recruits” (HSRC 2009).

Small firms appear to have more staff loyalty, even though they cannot offer as high salaries. This might be due to what seems to be more effective management-staff interface, an open door policy and close training and mentoring of junior staff by senior staff.

One way to effect a conducive work environment is through an “open door” policy, encouraging communication and interaction. Furthermore to offer alternative perks might be a strategy to encourage retention, such as Chand Consulting, a woman-only EAP, who offer spa breaks and readily acknowledge staff who have gone the extra mile. As a result they have a “very low staff turnover”. Chand do not headhunt their staff or acquire from universities/technikons but acquire new employees from CVs sent to them. They also are prepared to take on new graduates from universities and train them. If one views the Chand Consulting services website, one can see that Chand embraces their womanhood and provide an offbeat ambience to their company, which engenders a close-knit work relationship between staff.

It is important to develop effective communication between management and staff within transformation and staff development, and the open door policy is often mentioned as being successful (BotSoc intern interview, for example). Chand Consulting, for example asks staff to fill in questionnaires about the work environment in order to work on weaknesses and thus grow. An interview with a Chand employee verified that their environment was relaxed and efficient with good team work.

HSRC (2009) suggest that addressing “unique and individual value systems rather than focusing on generic motivators may be more useful” to retaining employees and building commitment.

The evidence suggests that salaries have become a factor in the retention of midcareer professionals and do not just HSRC (2009) also suggest that salary becomes a concern to young professionals in midcareer stage, just at the time they are having families and suddenly needing more financial resources. Finally, “the expenditure on consultants by the DEAT has created another labour market and may also add an incentive for experienced staff to resign and do consultancy work.” (HSRC 2009).

The Review of EIA in South Africa report also mentions high turnover: “The high turnover in personnel of departments and even in consultancies and the corporate sector is very disruptive to the development of capacity of both organisations and individuals and contributes significantly to both ineffectiveness and inefficiency. A concerted effort that involves all role players is required to create a sustainable flow of environmental managers in a way that creates capacity at all levels and also ensure career paths for employees. The EIM strategy would fail to address efficiency and effectiveness adequately if an actionable plan in this regard does not form part thereof.” (Mosakong Management et al. 2008).

There is an urgent need to change the work environment, particularly within government to prevent high staff turnover and loss of institutional memory. In order to retain staff, alternative perks need to be offered. This might mean government needs to be more flexible in offering benefits, allowing staff the choice of increased income rather than pensions and medical aid (several interviewees pointed out they would rather have the money than these long-term benefits). However of crucial importance is the fact that some interviewees said they went to other jobs, not for better pay but for the need to get a wider variety of skills and build their career paths. Thus an attraction to stay in a post in government could be facilitated by offering diverse and ongoing opportunities for going on training courses and diversifying skills.

The HDI environmentalist focus group were asked what they thought would be good incentives to attract employees to stay in a company and their consensus was that as a professional, one must know one’s personal career plan and if one is passionate about the field one is in, one won’t need incentives to stay. “If you need incentives, you don’t know your personal plan and are not passionate about your career. If you jump from job to job, you don’t know what you want. If you know what plan is, you will take offers to advance your development plan, not for external incentives.” They even claim that offering incentives is actually counter-productive and the example they give is of local councillors who go into the job for incentives’ sake (long-term prospect of high-paying jobs with companies once the term is over), not because they are passionate about serving people. They wait their term out, and it doesn’t benefit community. Because of incentives, there is no effective governance.

The long-term approach is for organizations to accept that “turnover among young black staff is inevitable, but also reflects a global phenomenon among young people. Cappelli (2004) cited in HSRC (2009), argues that “… you [the organisations] are managing a river, not a dam”” It would be more useful to develop systems that “go with the flow” such as providing “challenging work, career development opportunities … [and] rewards based on individual performance” (HSRC 2009).

RECOMMENDATION 8:

• Practice an open door effective management communication system
• Develop exciting career opportunities in the work place (see ICT company Altrons Young Presidents Forum initiative on their website - http://www.altron.co.za/vision2012/transformFuture.htm)
• Develop a conducive work place, including developing protocols to integrate socio-cultural differences
• Accept the global job-shopping culture and work with it, not against it

6.5 Shattering misconceptions: The Glass Ceiling

Chand consulting, an all-women company, have specific incentives for women, including offering flexibility at the office. “When kids are sick, and have to be collected, provisions are made”.  Their perks for hard work are also women-orientated and break the glass ceiling in terms of being innovative and not typical of the male-owned company incentives.

Many EAPs don’t have specific strategies for gender equity or including women, and consequently do not have gender representative staff.

The Ombuds of UCT, Ms Zethu Mguqulwa, whose role it is to oversee transformation and race relations in the university, claims that,

“Women do not have enough confidence and courage and there are insufficient people whom they can look up to.”

RECOMMENDATION 9: Through the channel of women forums, find and showcase role models of successful women within the environmental work field. Success does not necessarily refer to high-achievement awards and big salary levels, but simply can refer to women who have achieved multiple goals, like getting a PhD and supporting children, or women who are fulfilled and self-confident in a supportive and flexible work environment. These women can be role models for inspiring others to enter the profession. They are role models whose achievements are attainable. There needs to be a voice for women, and such role models could provide it within the context of specially-developed women forums or associations.

Business Unity South Africa (Busa)[4] say that, besides the awarding of BBBEE points, there are other compelling business reasons for including women in a business:

• Women can provide a competitive advantage by influencing and providing insight into the female role in the economy;
• Women see business from a different angle to men and, as a result, are a strategic resource; and
• In a largely male-dominated world a company run by women or one that reflects the important role that women play in business by including them in management stands a better chance of attracting young, professional women graduates.

“There’s a lack of commitment on the part of our male counterparts to ensure adequate mentorship and many women choose not to go the managerial route because the environment is hostile.” (BUSA cited in Mataboge 2010) Particular attention should be paid, to flexible working hours, part-time working, tele-working and sabbatical leave, as well as to the necessary financial and administrative provisions governing such arrangements. [5]

One of the women in the HDI environmentalist focus group, an activist, said that in 20 years’ time she would like to see the country having a women -agenda, the “women-driven revolution”, such that issues are not driven by men, but by women. She emphasized that in the initial development of an organization there must be a balance of gender included right from the start, as opposed to the present where the organization is men-driven and women must fit in.

RECOMMENDATION 10: In order to attract women into the EAP work environment, there needs to be some accommodation for women needs which are unique and should not be under-valued. Provision of child-caring services, flexibility of work schedules and fostering skills development are essential.

[1] http://www.safcec.org.za/index.php?q=con,118,Enterprise%20Development%20Programme

[2] http://sa.usaid.gov/south_africa/sites/south_africa/files/US-SA%20Education%20Partnership-ExSum_0.pdf

[3] Guidelines for an HCD Strategy in the Biodiversity Conservation Sector, HSRC 2009

[4] http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-07-30-more-women-in-business-makes-good-sense

[5] http://www.nacinnovation.biz/wp-content/uploads/International-Perspective-of-Womens-Involvement-in-STI-Leadership-Prof-Inmaculada-Garcia-Fernandez.pdf

Annual NACI Symposium on Leadership Roles of Women in Science, Technology and Innovation. The NACI symposium entitled, Enhancing the leadership roles of women in science, technology and innovation was held on Friday 13 August 2010 at Premier Hotel, Pretoria. The symposium, which was an initiative of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET4W), sub-committee of NACI, was attended by about 100 leaders and aspiring leaders (predominantly women) from a wide variety of institutions and organisations.

Subtheme 6:  Representative Demographics Within Service Providers and Civil Society

* Angela Andrews of the Legal Resource Centre compiled this summary of the Specialist Report.
The following constitutes a summary of a report written by consultants to the EIAMS process and does not reflect the views of the Legal Resources Centre.
Original Report by: The Green Connection: Christy Bragg, Roshan Stanford, Liz Mcdaid, Basier Dramat, Lynette Munro

Problem Statement

In almost all sectors involved in environmental management – private consulting, government, education, NGOs  – women and historically disadvantaged racial groups are underrepresented.  Various statutes, policies, and hiring targets aim to correct historical imbalances.  One example is the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act No. 53 of 2003 (BEE Act), under which the Minister of Trade and Industry issues codes of good practice to companies contributing to BEE goals, such as promotion of black business ownership and human resource development.  These codes of good practice are then applied in determining license applications and government contracts.  Despite such measures, the status quo in the environmental management field remains demographically unbalanced.

Demographic Status Quo

South Africa’s current population is estimated at 49.9 million, with a racial breakdown as follows:  79.4% African, 9.2% White, 8.8% Coloured, 2.6% Indian/Asian.  The breakdown of the economically active population is as follows:  73.4% African, 12.2% White, 11.3% Colored, 3% Indian/Asian.

In order to gauge the demographics of the environmental sector, a study was conducted using information from various organizations’ profiles and membership lists as well as questionnaires and interviews.  The following list is a summary of the results.

1. General trends: Across all racial groups, most environmental management professionals work in the private sector.  Across all sectors of environmental management – academia, consulting, government, industry, and NGO – whites are overrepresented and occupy most senior management positions.
2. Government:  The government has achieved far more success in transformation than other sectors.  For example, the race distribution in the Department of Environmental Affairs Development and Planning (DEADP) of the Western Cape is close to the race distribution of the economically active population in the region.  This is due to government commitment to transformation goals and well-structured policies.
3. Professional memberships:  Historically disadvantaged individuals (HDIs) and women are underrepresented in professional registration bodies.  White men especially dominate the more advanced categories, but the percentage of HDIs are increasing in the candidate categories.  The highest proportion of Blacks occurred in Candidate Engineering Technician, a low level category.
4. Education:  Race distribution of students pursuing environmental management-related degrees at the undergraduate level is improving (though it varies from school to school), but not at the post-graduate level.  Schools vary widely in their transformation policies and support systems for historically disadvantaged students.
5. Women in Education:  Women are underrepresented in environmental higher education, both in the student population and in teaching positions.
6. Private Sector: Race distribution in the private sector is imbalanced and transformation slow due to lack of formal policies or skills development.  There is a perception that many companies place Black employees in positions beyond their skill level and without adequate training simply to boost BEE numbers, without regard to their career development.  There are few transformation policies or gender policies in private environmental assessment practitioner (EAP) firms.
7. NGOs: Transformation in NGOs in the environmental management sector has been uneven.  Well-established NGOs, such as WWF and WESSA are still White-dominated, but small community-based organisations and sustainable development NGOs are more representative.
8. Staff turnover:  There is perceived high staff turnover of HDIs in the environmental sector.  The perception is that HDIs will work at an NGO or in the government for a couple years, gain experience and training, and then will be lured away by higher-paying private sector companies.  HDIs are in high demand because of the BEE requirements.  This causes a “brain drain,” loss of institutional knowledge, and skills shortage in the government.
9. Networking:  Networking is a crucial skill in gaining work and recognition in the field.

10.  Skills gap:  There exists a gap between graduates’ skills and employers’ expectations.  Employers particularly look for writing skills and people skills.

11.  Entrepreneurship:  There is a need for more entrepreneurship in the environmental management sector.

12.  Awareness:  There is little awareness of environmental management as career option.

Recommendations

1. Holistic employee training:  Because the BEE program has turned into a reactive numbers game rather than proactive transformation, EAP firms need to develop formal transformation policies and adopt a holistic approach to employee development, encouraging staff to further their training and giving them incremental increases in responsibility.
2. Transformation Charter for the environmental sector: Government and civil society institutions should develop a Transformation Charter for the environmental management sector to establish best practices, develop indicators other than BEE numbers measuring transformation, and facilitate communication among government, industry, and NGOs addressing skills shortages and placement programmes.
3. Encourage entrepreneurship in HDIs:  Large, well-established companies can allocate resources to developing mentorship and working relationships with smaller emerging enterprises.
4. Education and Recruiting: In order to promote awareness of environmental careers and address the skills shortage, schools and teachers should be encouraged to include environmental topics in the curriculum and instill how environmental issues intersect with social and other matters.  The environmental management sector should increase recruiting efforts through educational camps, job shadowing, and attendance at science fairs and expos.
5. Internships and Mentoring:  Because mentoring and internships are so important in developing skills and gaining job experience, public-private partnerships should develop more of these programmes.  Mentoring projects should be set up in which senior officers about to retire work with younger professionals.  These mentorship programmes must be mindful of socio-cultural context and careful to set the right tone.
6. Networking & Professional Bodies:  Registering with professional organisations requires being sponsored by a reputable environmental assessment practitioner.  This makes it difficult for HDIs, who usually have unequal access to educational resources and fewer networking opportunities, to break into the field and become certified.  Schools and workplaces should provide HDIs with resources and encouragement to network through attendance at conferences, workshops, and meetings and involve them in various aspects of the EIA process so they can meet consultants, engineers, community members, and other participants in the field.  A more formalized sponsorship process should also be established to facilitate registration with professional bodies.  There is a need to fast-track registration of Black environmental management professionals, allowing for some leeway in the registration criteria in favour of experience or mentorship.
7. Staff retention:  In order to retain staff, workplaces should develop effective communication between management and staff, foster exciting career opportunities, develop systems to integrate socio-cultural differences, and work with the global job-shopping culture by offering career development opportunities and rewards based on individual performance.
8. Recruiting and Retaining Women:  Women’s forums and associations should be developed to showcase role models of successful women in the environmental field and otherwise provide a voice for women.  EAP firms should make accommodations such as child care, work flexibility, and training to attract women to the workplace.

A report done written by Christy Bragg, Roshan Stanford, Liz Macdaid, Bassier Dramat, Lynette Munro, all of The Green Connection, identified problems in the demographic profile of the environmental sector.  A list of problems highlights where transformation in the sector is yet to be achieved.

EIA&M (as represented by IAIA and other organizations) is not demographically representative and there remains a disproportionate number of Whites in the sector relative to the national population demography profile.
There is not uniform distribution of demographic groups and of gender in EIA&M service providers and civil society organisations across provinces

There is unequal demographic representation across EIA&M public, private and NGO sectors:

•    There is a greater proportion of Whites in NGO jobs relative to the total, than in other demographic groups.
•    Whites are over-represented in all sectors except government
•    Asians are under-represented in NGOs , Coloured and Asians are often under-represented in the sectors

Within the EIA&M professional registration bodies, the demographics spread is not representative of the wider population but candidate categories indicate an increasing HDI membership:

•    Professional categories are White-dominated but Candidate Categories are dominated by Blacks.  
•    The highest proportion of Blacks occurred in a low category level Candidate Engineering Technician, indicating skills shortages
•    IAIA conference delegates showed whites as over-represented.

EIA&M in government shows high transformation and gender representation.
The HDI component at undergraduate level is increasing but not at postgraduate level; there are large variances across universities and disciplines:

•    Women are under-represented in environmental higher education relating to EIA&M
•    Demographic representation in the EIA&M private sector is skewed and transformation is slowed; there is a lack of formal policies and/or skills development
•    Networking is perceived as a crucial skill in EIA&M for gaining work and recognition
•    There is perception of a high staff turnover among HDIs within EIA&M
•    Paucity of information on EIA&M graduate output compared to skills scarcity
•    Paucity of information on cultural tension within the EIA&M work environment
•    Soft skills are lacking in education and training programs of EIA&M applicants
•    Report-writing, people and language skills needed for EIA&M
•    Little is being done to raise awareness of EIA&M as a career; Secondary schools have very little environmental information
•    Need for more entrepreneurial skills within EIA&M; there are few black specialists or HDI-owned EAPs in EIA&M
•    NGOs involved in EIA&M show uneven transformation