Regional Seminar Proceedings 1993

I. Women and Labour-Based Roadworks in Sub-Saharan Africa

By John Howe and Deborah Fahy Bryceson, IHE Delft, The Netherlands

SYNOPSIS

Reviewing project-related literature, this paper explores the incidence of, and attitudes towards, rural women's participation in labour-based road works. Synthesizing findings regarding the social and economic impact on female participants and their households suggests that labour-based road works meet an essential employment need for some categories.

Because of the dynamic nature of road work activities, caution must be exercised in interpreting the results of survey data which normally provides only a snapshot impression. Generally, in rural societies where the opportunity costs of labour are low, both men and women have adapted rapidly tot he somewhat alien concept of labour-based road works. Many case studies demonstrate the viability of female participation in almost all roadwork task. The low-wages, however, ordain that women participants' economic returns are modest. Nonetheless, road works are a welcome source of income for asset-poor women.

Introduction

For at least a decade there have been efforts by some aid agencies to promote the employment of more women in public works including those on roads [Van den Oever-Pereira 1984]. It remains a complex and , in some respects, controversial subject although there is now a growing body of experience and literature ranging from a priori attitudinal surveys, to routine project monitoring reports incorporating gender aspects, to studies specifically concerned with the impact of project employment on the lives of participating women.

Most of these women-centred investigations have been conducted with respect to projects with main objectives other than the employment of women. The efficient construction, rehabilitation or maintenance of physical infrastructure remains the goal of most projects. Few of the studies have been based on rigorous scientific methods of sampling and analysis. As such the evidence is very uneven in quality and often impressionistic. Despite these limitations a great deal of useful experience has been accumulated. The purpose of this paper is to examine project efforts to employ women, identity attitudes and obstacles that have been experienced, and summarize what is known of the results that have been achieved in such projects.

Theoretical Considerations

There are two key assumptions which underline most donor efforts to promote greater female involvement in public works. First, the existence of a (female) labour surplus in rural areas is implicitly taken for granted. Second, and more explicitly, it is generally asserted that rural women need to earn cash for economic welfare and power enhancement within the household. Each of thes assumptions will be considered in turn.

"Rural Surplus Labour" Assumption

This is a standard assumption of Western economists which can be traced back to a number of influential theorists. W.A. Lewis proposed a model for areas with rural land scarcity, and argued that because of low returns to labour, migration to urban industrial jobs with higher productivity would enhance national development. [Lewis 1954]. Since the publication of Lewis' seminal article, economists have, over the last 30 years, revised the view that urban migration is such a beneficial outcome. But they have generally not revised the rural surplus labour assumption and it continues to be applied to rural areas throughout the Third World, notably Sub- Saharan Africa (SAA).

Going further back, Malthus, Ricardo and Karl Marx, all held the view that rural land shortages were inevitable and created a "labour surplus". Karl Marx saw rural surplus labour arising from a process of primitive accumulation whereby peasants were dispossessed of their land and means of production by capitalists and became exploitable as proletarians. Although the process envisaged by Marx may not have materialized everywhere, one can argue that growing rural landlessness is increasing in its incidence in some African countries. According to 1988 data, landlessness is thought to affect more than 11% of SSA's rural population. Among those countries for which figures are available, the three most severally affected in SSA are Lesotho (26%), Ethiopia (16%) and Kenya (13%). [Jazairy et. al. 1992].

Nonetheless, these proportions are not large compared with Asia and Latin America ¹.

Furthermore, such incidences of landlessness cannot be equated with rural surplus labour. There are strong counter arguments which cast doubt on the universal relevance of the surplus labour assumption in terms of African conditions, especially as it is applied to women.

Ester Boserup's work offers an alternative and more realistic approach so far as SSA is concerned. [Boserup 1965, 1970, 1981]. She assumes that the nature of land usage in agricultural systems is never fixed. Over time and in the absence of significant capital investments, both land and labour usage is intensified as the density of population on the land increases. There are many stages of this evolution before one could claim that there is a rural labour surplus that cannot be absorbed and must therefore leave agriculture. Such a stage is usually associated with absolute landlessness. Until this stage is reached, the need for labour in agriculture becomes greater with increasing population density rather than less ².

The intensification of land use introduces all sorts of time-consuming labour activities. With the abandonment lf long-fallow shifting agriculture, involving the natural regeneration of the soil, there is an increased need for weeding and soil fertilizing activities, as well as the possibility of introducing animal husbandry and the labour demands of fodder crop production as grazing land availability decreases. The main inference of Boserup's perspective is that in some circumstances labour-based road works could be in competition for labour with, rather than alleviating a labour surplus in, peasant household agricultural production units.

"Women Need Cash Earnings" Assumption

Who would dispute that poor women need cash earnings? But this is not the only question to pose in the case of women's involvement in labour-based construction. No doubt, cash would be helpful to some if not the majority of women, but the process of earning cash can raise many problems which begs the question of whether or not earnings cash is the dominant priority in all rural women's lives. Very often, and related to the Boserup line of reasoning, the alleviation of female labour time constraints is a more pressing need for rural women in SSA.

African farming systems have been undergoing extremely rapid change over the past century. Rapid population growth has triggered the transition from land and labour-extensive systems, to systems with heavy labour inputs. But whose labour has been intensified.? So much of African agriculture has traditionally been what is known as female farming. In other words, men were involved in activities such as hunting and defense while farming was left to women.

¹ Sub-Saharan Africa's rates are about a half that experienced in Asia, or a third that of Latin America and the Carribean.

² This statement assumes that capital investment is held constant as is so often the case in contemporary African smallholder agriculture.

Colonial policies magnified this gender dichotomy, channelling men into wage labour and cash crop production, leaving women responsible for household food production. To the present, women continue to be the mainstay food producers, while men are involved in cashcropping and off-farm activities.

Women's intensified work day includes agricultural labour, so-called "housework" and childcare. Their labour is expended without the convenience of labour-alleviating devices which is in sharp contrast to Western women's relatively advantaged access to domestic technology. Domestic technology improvements, labour-saving appliances, men's help with childcare, and state provisions for childcare, have played a role in women's lives in the West making it possible for them to work "outside the home" to earn cash. These factors are virtually absent in SSA. Under these circumstances, it may not be realistic to expect that many African rural women will have the time, energy and spatial mobility to work on labour-based road construction. For women to benefit from cash earnings opportunities, it might be necessary for household labour-saving improvements to be introduced first. [Bryceson 1993]

Furthermore, it is necessarily the case that cash earnings will represent an improvement in rural women's economic welfare and power relations within the household? Rural African societies tend to be characterized by relatively low levels of market development. Studies suggest that attitudinal foundations of power and resource control within African households are complex and cash earning does not necessarily give women enhanced status. [McCormack et. al. 1986] In fact, in some societies men view female earnings as theirs to have and control. [Mbilinyi 1987] With these reservations in mind regarding the context and potential benefits of women's participation in these reservations in mind regarding he context and potential benefits of women's participation in income-generating labour-based roadworks we can turn to a review of project outcomes.

Project Experience

Overview

To many people labour-based road works embody two alien ideas:

(i) it is possible to improve and maintain roads manually; and

(ii) women can participate fully in such activities.

Despite the novelty of these concepts, the appearance and growth of women's participation in labour-based roadworks to the levels currently prevailing in many African rural societies demonstrates remarkable adaptability. It has entailed the expansion of work tasks undertaken by women, relative to those considered traditional in their societies, and, in some instances, has afforded women entry into skilled job categories.

However, attitudes and practices vary from place-to-place even within one country. There is a learning curve and rates of change have been very uneven in each locality. Moreover it has to be borne in mind that orad sites are dynamic locations: they open, close, shift, and have a fluctuating mix of tasks and thus labour requirements. Thus, any survey is likely to be no more than a snapshot of a fast changing situation. Great caution should therefore be exercised in trying to draw general conclusions from observation at a particular point in time of a given project.

³ The sequel to the RARP the Minor Roads Programme was reported in 1988 to have a participation rate of 17%. [Wamalwa 1988]

Currently in Africa the percentage of female workers is generally a fraction of that of males, with figures in the range of 10-30 % not being uncommon [Riverson et. at. 1991]. By contrast, in Bangladesh the CARE road maintenance programme deliberately targets destitute women who comprise almost the entire workforce [Adeeb 1989].

In Kenya and Tanzania some projects reached levels of about 50-80% female participation. The women were single, and usually mothers. [Norconsult 1988, Scheinman et. al. 1989]. They were predominantly drawn from among those with few land assets and the economically worse off. It is thought hat the difficult economic situation these women found themselves in, forced them to seek employment on road works. This tends to be confirmed by evidence from Madagascar showing women walking 2-3 hours daily each way to work . [NORAD 1992]

Experience on the Kenya Rural Access Roads Programme

The labour-based Rural Access Roads Programme (RARP) in Kenya is one of Africa's oldest and most successful. It is instructive, therefore, to begin by considering the experience of women on the RARP and how this has changed with time. [Devres Inc. 1984].

In the early years, after the start in 1974, about 16% of the RARP work force was female who, on average, tended to be more economically disadvantaged than male workers ³. Female labourers were seldom heads of household, had more children, owned less land and fewer assets, and averaged less education than male workers.

Female workers also has less prior wage work experience than men, and those who had worked for wages before the RARP project had received lower pay. Once accepted in the RARP, however, women were treated equitably, receiving the same pay and work schedules as males.

The percentage of women participating in the programme increased over time, for initially women were not considered capable of road construction work. As fewer men were willing to work for Ksh 7.9 per day, more women entered the programme. Later, a doubling of wages, in May 1980, resulted in increased competition for available jobs and women tended to be replaced.

To the degree that the RARP attracted female workers, it reached the most needy in the rural areas, many of whom depended on the RARP wage to meet their basic needs. However, job recruitment was principally through sub-chief's (baraza) meetings, not normally attended by women. A recommendation of a study on road workers was to target recruitment efforts to the most needy, particularly women and the landless.

Since the RARP labour-based road works have met varying degrees of success with regard o women's involvement in other countries in SSA. The remainder of this paper concentrates on various aspects of the employment of women, noting some contrasts with other parts of the developing world.

General attitudes towards the suitability of roadwork for women

In most case studies, the general perception of the rural dwellers themselves seems to be that road work is a low status activity undertaken by those who have no real alternative means of enhancing their standard of living. It is considered "poor people's work". [NORAD 1992]. "We are poor and that is why we work on the road; because we have no money at all". [Scheinman et. al. 1989].

The socio-economic status of the area in question plays an important role in the attitudes of people towards the prospects of employment on road projects. The availability of alternative sources of employment and the relative wages paid appear to be the main determining factors. Thus, in one area of Kenya only a quarter of women wished to be road workers whereas in another, more deprived area, the proportion increased to two-thirds. [Lexow et. al. 1989]. Clearly, in deprived areas the lure of cash, however poor the wages may seem in relation to average values in other sectors of the economy, is a strong incentive. [Milimo 1987].

The belief that it is culturally inappropriate for women to seek employment outside the household does not seem to be quite so prevalent as it used to be. There appears to be a wider appreciation that some women need to work and earn for economic reasons. A priori surveys in Zambia indicated that 70% of both men and women thought road work was a task that could be undertaken by both sexes. [Milimo 1987]

In some countries there is virtually no task discrimination between the sexes. In others, women themselves shun the most arduous activities such as excavation in rocky soils, on steep slopes, or in quarries [NORAD 1992]. However, there are countries where women are still only allowed to undertake the relatively lighter and poorer paid activities such as water collection, grubbing or road maintenance. [Norconsult 1988, COWIconsult 1988, Ghanexim Economic Consultants 1990]

The restrictions imposed largely by men is in marked contrast to the willingness of women to undertake all sorts of tasks outside those traditionally assigned to them. [Tomoda et. al. 1987]. The danger of such restrictive practices is that acceptance that women are only able to do certain tasks will inevitably lead to low participation rates. [Wamalwa 1989]

In some countries there have been deliberate attempts to reserve road maintenance for women, or at least to give them more favourable consideration for these activities than for construction or rehabilitation [Norconsult 1988, Adeeb 1989]. These area variety of reasons advanced for such a policy:

(i) In Bangladesh "destitute" women are recognised as one of the most underprivileged groups in the country who are in need of special consideration [Adeeb 1989]. Also, the work is intermittent and offers only a modest remuneration which male heads of households might find unattractive.

(ii) There is a belief that women are more conscientious in undertaking the repetitive tasks involved. [Hussain 1993]

(iii) The fixed location of road maintenance makes it more suited to women who need work close to their homes.

(iv) In general maintenance tasks are less arduous than those of construction or rehabilitation and thus, it is felt, more suited to women.

Attitudes of men towards women working

Whilst there are cases in the literature of women being treated on an equal footing to males in all respects, there are also persistent reports of discrimination and negative attitudes by men. Some of these attitudes are deeply felt and ingrained in local culture. For this reason alone the subject is a sensitive one and needs to be treated as such.

In some cases the negative attitude of men is manifest in an outright refusal to let their women participate in work. This is often justified on moral grounds (e.g., the immorality of women working among strange men). In one case in Ghana the contractor said that the level of familiarity between the sexes was affecting the progress of the work, so he dispensed with the services of the women! [Ghanexim Economic Consultants 1990]. There are, however, counter opinions to the morality arguments. In the case of Nigeria it has been contended that no religion or tradition in the country is against income-earning by women, but are only concerned about circumstances and setting in which such income is earned. [Hussain 1993]. That is all-female gangs, as in the norm in Bangladesh ⁴ might well be acceptable even in the Muslim north.

The main reason given by male road workers who are not in favour of women working on roads is that they are physically weak or because the work is thought to be too arduous. [Lexow et. al. 1989, Wamalwa 1989, Ghanexim Economic Consultants 1990]. Actual output studies from Botswana showed that there was no difference in performance between men and women even on the heaviest of tasks [Brudefors 1989]. There is a similar suggestion from Tanzania that the output of men and women was not significantly different, although it is not clear that they were doing the same mix of tasks [Scheinman et. al. 1989]

A common bone of contention by men is women receiving equal pay for road work, even for the same tasks, which is unusual in traditional activities where they receive 50-70% of the men's wage. [Hussain 1993]. This attitude is usually justified by the widespread belief that women have a lower rate of productivity. Indeed this argument has been employed to justify limiting the percentage of women participating so as not to endanger the production schedule. [NORAD 1992]. A counter argument is that women's greater dedication to tasks requiring meticulous work, and greater reliability - and thus lower turnover - more than compensates for any lower rate of productivity [Scheinman et. al. 1989, Hussain 1993]. Moreover some men have acknowledged that since women are more likely to spend their earning s for the general benefit of the family, they are prepared to accept the principle of equal pay. [NORAD 1990]

Recruitment

In practice it is well established that there are often biases against women's involvement due to the methods of recruitment. A common feature is that work is only advertised through forums in which women rarely participate e.g. the regular meetings of traditional leaders. Another bias can be the requirement to present ID cards or birth certificates which men may, but few women, have. [Wamalwa 1989, NORAD 1990]. The effort to obtain an ID card - a photograph costing nearly a day's wages, and two visits to a major town - might well be beyond the resources of many poor women. In one instance this problem was considerably reduced by only requiring proof of identity from young girls to ensure they were more than 18 years of age. [NORAD 1992]

Experience indicates that unless efforts are made to make women aware of job opportunities their numbers will remain low. [Devres Inc 1984, COWIconsult 1988, Norconsult 1988]. There have been instances where women have been recruited without understanding the terms on which they were employed [Scheinman et.al. 1989]. In particular it had not been made clear that they would be liable for tax on any earnings which exceeded the minimum wage.

Participation

Caution should be exercised in interpreting quoted female participation rates observed at any one time, and then assumed to be representative of average conditions, because of their correlation with the stage of roadworks and the nature of the tasks being undertaken at that moment. This is especially the case on sites which practise the concept of "women's work" - which usually denotes haulage, grubbing, spreading and maintenance.

According to the World Bank, women's low participation rate in Africa is explained by the following factors [Roverson et.al. 1991]:

⁴ The Nordic RESP programme has succeeded in getting women to set up work teams which are contracted to develop infrastructure, and informal work teams for more routine maintenance. [Yakub 1992]

(i) priority given to domestic activities such as milling maize, fetching water, collection of wood, cooking , etc;

(ii) lack of information about women's eligibility for employment;

(iii) scarcity of forewomen;

(iv) lack of transport to the work sites combined with already mentioned time constraints;

(v) lack of pilot projects using labour-based methods with special emphasis on women's participation.

Whilst in both Kenya and Tanzania young women were predominant female participants, with more than 60% less than 30 years of age [Riverson et.al. 1991], this cannot be assumed always to be the case. In Lesothon in the early 1980s a number of conditions - the out-migration of males to mining work in South Africa, high landlessness (+20%) and poverty - combined to produce a labour force on one nationwide project that was more than 85% female with 50% aged over 45 years [Simpson 1983]. A relatively old female labour force is also undoubtedly the case in Bangladesh since many of the "destitute" women involved have been abandoned due to their age.

A priori studies in Madagascar identified the long work day of childbearing women )10-16 hours) as a barrier to their involvement. It was predicted that they might only be available during favourable periods of perhaps 3-4 months a year and for limited hours each day. [Skjortnes et.al. 1989]. Predictions of women's limited availability, especially daily, have led to suggestions for the introduction of part-time work. [Koda et.al. 1987, World Bank 1990]. In practice there is no reliable evidence of seasonal variability in female availability - it may exist, there is just no evidence - but on one project women workers emphatically rejected the idea of part-time work. [NORAD 1992]. An additional factor in Madagascar was that men appeared to be permitted greater substitutability than women. They were allowed to send a substitute worker if ill, but women did not seem able to do this. [NORAD 1990]

Given women's arduous working day in the hoe-based agricultural systems of SSA, it would be surprising if a high proportion of women were able to participate in public works programmes, almost regardless of the wage paid, unless special efforts were first made to tackle their daily labour time constraints. Indeed, in several Sahelian countries with heavy seasonal out-migration of men, the absence of men, leaving women with the bulk of the rural workload, is considered to be a constraint to executing public works programmes. [Von Braun et.al. 1991]

A number of factors have, however, been identified which facilitate women’s participation in labour-based roadworks. Among these are:

(i) existence of women’s groups in the project area;

(ii) familiarity with the aims of the project;

(iii) payment in cash not kind; and

(iv) a high number of female members in the family.

[Van den Oever-Pereira 1984]

The fourth factor, which relates to having child minders for working mothers, was not confirmed in Tanzania [Tomoda et.al. 1987]

Care is needed in setting targets as a means of enhancing female participation. In Madagascar such targets setting led to the notional figure of 25% being interpreted as a maximum. The commentators’ assessment was that this level would have been exceeded under free recruitment.

[NORAD 1990]

To date women have participated mainly as casual workers. Progression into skilled grades of employment has been slow even in the long-established programme in Kenya. The latest available data (1990) indicates the following rate of participation in the Minor Roads Programme [COWIConsult 1992]:

% women
HQ 8
Casual, road improvement 25
Casual, routine maintenance 9
Casual, periodic maintenance 21

The low level of female participation in routine maintenance is surprising since the light, repetitive, intermittent and essentially fixed location of the tasks is generally held to suit women more than men. However, in general the main difficulty confronting women in their progression into skilled grades of employment as road overseers or inspectors in the level of education required. The majority of village women have not gone beyond primary education. Surveys in Tanzania confirmed that women expressing an interest in road work were mostly semi-educated.

[Koda et.al. 1987]

Special provisions may need to be considered to ensure that women are able to participate on road works let to contractors. The employment of women by contractors is not a general practice in many countries [NORAD 1992, Hussain 1993] and few can be expected to feel a social obligation to do so. If contractors are left to their own devices there is evidence that working conditions for women may deteriorate - zero recruitment, gender division of tasks, irregular payments, different wages for men and women, wages lower than minimum and long working days; also, in some cases tasks have been gradually increased. [NORAD 1990, 1992, Hussain 1993]

Household implications of women’s participation

Little is known about the social cost of women’s participation, that is the resultant impact on child care and the health of both child and mother. Evaluations in Kenya and Tanzania have indicated that road works can become an important targeted income generator, especially for women who are not able to harvest enough food [Riverson et.al. 1991]. The extended family structure allows women to leave household activities and the caring of infants and smaller children to grandmother, older children, or other female relatives. If for any reason (e.g. pregnancies or illnesses within the family) they cannot attend their job, relatives and friends may be able to stand in for them. [norconsult 1988, Lexow et.al. 1989]

The element of family support appears crucial to a mother’s ability to absorb the additional burden of road work. An impact study in Tanzania concluded that the alternative of child care facilities, to be provided by the project, as has sometimes been proposed, made little sense for activities which move everyday along the road and were likely to be completed within 1-2 years. [Scheinman et.al. 1989]

Despite the relatively low wages received on road projects, and the additional workload rendered, the evidence is that given the chance needy women will nonetheless seek employment on rads in order to earn extra income and obtain a measure of financial independence. [Ghanexim Economic Consultants 1990]. May express gratitude for the opportunity to work since there are few alternatives. [Scheinman et.al. 1989]. Women who earn wages claim that a major benefit is the fact that they "control" their money. Furthermore, this is spent mainly on food, clothing and school fees, thus contributing to an increase in the standard of living of the family. [Lexow et.al. 1989

Labour-based road works: vital income source or destitution trap for women?

Do all women benefit from participation on labour-based roadworks? Wage levels seem to vary with the socio-economic background from which women come, and the extent of their deprivation. The most seriously deprived women are likely to be those who receive very low wages fro road work. In Botswana remuneration for work on roads was set by government at 60% of the minimum casual labour wage [Lexow et.al. 1989]. In Tanzania wages were (1989) one-third of those in neighbouring Kenya and known to have been the cause of labour supply problems in some areas. Because of these low wages it has been claimed that most workers are as poor when they leave the job as when they started [Lexow et.al. 1989].

The justifications offered for such a low wage are that:

(i) it guarantees that only very poor people will want to work;

(ii) low wages means more jobs for more people; and

(iii) the cost of labour-intensive road works compare favourably with those by equipment-intensive methods.

With such low wages it is unlikely that many people can invest to give long-term improvement in living standards, although a few manage to do so. [Scheinman et.al. 1989]. Earnings from labour on roads are likely to be consumed on necessities such as food, clothing and school fees. [Norconsult 1988, Lexow et.al. 1989, Scheinman et.al. 1989]. Indeed, an evaluation of the RRM project in Tanzania concluded that works on the road acted as a ‘social net’ by employing women who could not generate enough cash from their farms to buy clothing, sugar, cooking oil and other essentials. [Scheinman et.al. 1989]. In contrast, evidence from more generously paid work in Ghana indicates that most money earned by women was kept for investment in land, house building, trading, sewing machines and savings. [Ghanexim Economic Consultants 1990]

Some research suggests that there has been no negative effects on agricultural production of female employment. This conclusion was based on the observation that women either work in the agricultural slack season or hire others to do their farming tasks for them. [Scheinman et.al. 1989, NORAD 1992]. In Madagascar auxiliary farm labour earned 30-40% of the earnings paid for road work. [NORAD 1992]. Thus in addition to the direct beneficiaries of the programme other poor men and women indirectly received a share of the wages paid. However, on the RARP female-headed households experienced a decline in the value of agricultural production, although this was compensated for by an increase in total income earned. [Devres Inc 1984]

Conclusion

It is extremely difficult to come to any general conclusions on the benefits and disbenefits women experience when participating in labour-based rural roadworks. It is however evident, given overall low levels of female participation in such schemes and the prevailing attitudes of the women themselves, that labour-based roadworks do not represent an economic panacea.

Most rural women are already coping with extremely full work days and earning cash in the low-paid, often arduous work conditions of road sites is not alluring. Nonetheless, there is abundant evidence that labour-based roadworks are a welcome source of income for asset-poor women. Furthermore, it is possible that the demonstrator effect of such women doing non-traditional roadwork tasks could help to challenge fixed notions of the rural gender division of labour and male dominance in cash earning. If this were the case, it could have beneficial repercussions for rural women more generally, regardless of their economic standing in the rural community.

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World Bank (1990): The United Republic of Tanzania, Integrated Roads Project: Staff Appraisal Report. March, 1990.

Introduction

Labour-based district roadworks contribute to the introduction of a cash economy in rural areas. However, the wages paid to the unskilled labour are very low. To further improve the standard of living of the rural population, it is important to increase the productivity, and thereby be able to bring up the level of the wage rates, without disturbing the feasibility of using labour-based methods.

Employing women on labour-based road projects is adding an additional burden to their daily responsibilities. However, through surveys it is evident that they are very interested in this economic opportunity. One of the objectives of this programme is to alleviate poverty, and by directing it towards the female population in the rural areas, it certainly reaches the core target group.

In Zimbabwe it was experienced that, during the recent drought period, there was an increased interest in employment from women in the vicinity of the road sites. When the drought ended the interest decreased, since agricultural work was prioritized.

Wage Rate

The positive effect of piecework proves to a certain extent that there is a positive correlation between the wage rate level and the productivity rates of the workers.

However, the wage rate level is often a politically sensitive issue. In many countries, the purpose and interpretation of the minimum wage rage has been inversed, and it is applied as a maximum wage rate. Examples in Botswana and Tanzania show that the Government refuses to pay more than the minimum wage for casual labour.

In some programmes, low wage rates for unskilled labour have been used as a rationale for targeting the poorest part of the rural population. If the wage rates reach a level which is regarded as atrective by a wider group in the rural communities, the poorest are squeezed out.

In many countries (i.e., Tanzania and Botswana) the Government salary scales are lower than what is regarded as a reasonable pay for a day of manual work. In order to secure the interest and motivation of the unskilled labour, piecework and other production bonus systems are introduced. However, this results in situations where unskilled workers actually receive higher wages than the supervisors and engineers.

An effective way of avoiding the problem of rigid and too-low wage levels is by involving the private sector in our programmes. Private contractors are free to increase the wages and salaries of their staff, and can respond easier to the market forces.

However, when introducing the private sector, there is a chance that women may be excluded. It is therefore important to take special measures to secure the involvement of women at all staff levels. This can be done during the selection of contractors for training, and special clauses can be incorporated in the conditions of contract.