Women Truck Drivers- Inspiring the Transport Industry in South Africa

USAID/South Africa partnered with the Commercial Transport Academy (CTA) in 2021 through USAID's 
Womens Economic Empowerment Initiative (WEE) to implement the“Women Inspiring Women to Lead inTransport”activity. The activity took a collaborative and partnership approach to create an ecosystem of women’s economic empowerment in the transport and the logistics sector within the male-dominated 
transport industry in South Africa. The women identified as beneficiaries in the activity come from vulnerable communities with high unemployment rates and where gender-based violence and domestic violence is a norm. A two year progress shows that, since the implementation of the activity, 176 of 250 women trained to become commercial (truck) drivers secured employment as commercial (truck) drivers, 297 women participated in workforce development programmes to build "female professionals” in the sector. CTA believes that women can be empowered at different phases of their careers and there are opportunities to  improve their participation in the transport and the logistics sector. By including men as additional beneficiaries, both men and women participate in the transformation process by initiating dialogues to overcome unconscious biases and stereotypical belief systems that they may encounter in the workplace. A learning organizational culture and adaptive management practices enabled CTA to learn that in a country like South Africa where gender-based violence and domestic violence are rife, equipping these women with only technical skills and qualifications may not be enough. The activity incorporated training on "soft skills" these women can use to deal with the socio-economic challenges they are facing.