2015 SADC GENDER PROTOCOL SUMMIT AND AWARDS
CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
INSTITUTIONAL APPLICATION
This award recognises progress in mainstreaming gender the local government, and Media Centres of Excellence. Use this form to do your institutional profile as part of your application process. The application must be accompanied by evidence to support all application form.
ALL FIELDS ARE COMPULSORY.
THIS PART OF THE APPLICATION WILL BE UPLOADED ONLINE
Name of good practice
Bindura Municipality: Striving towards excellence through gender mainstreaming
SCORE CARD AND EVIDENCE TABLE
Please fill in progress on your score card from last year, and update the evidence. Judges will assess the progress you have made. Their score will be final.
Please upload your completed score card on the online application in the section called supporting documentation. Please name your score card as follows Councilname _country_scorecard_your initials_date.
Please use this section to list the evidence that goes with your score card. Upload evidence on the online application in the section called supporting documentation.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT / EVIDENCE UPLOADED – PLEASE RECORD FILE NAMES /Policy framework / Strategic plan
Governance / Sex disaggregated data on the council
Mainstreaming gender into existing programmes
Procurement / Procurement minutes but is silent about women
Climate change and sustainable development / Stands allocated to staff in exchange of salary arrears and flea market allocation list
Leases issued to stand owners
Water supply and refuse campaigns
Recycled beer and mineral cans
Continuous nurses training on HIV and AIDs
Budget for purchase of netball and footballs
Land and housing
Water and sanitation
Environmental health
HIV and AIDS and care work
Social development
Gender specific projects
Gender based violence
Others
Employment Practices
Selection and recruitment
Capacity building / Report submitted by a partner Practical Action
Working conditions and environment
Gender Management System
Gender structures
Budgets / Budget for road maintenance, tower light repairs and cleaning brooms
Monitoring and evaluation / The employment of a monitoring and evaluation officer and the presence of an adopted strategic plan
Resource mobilisation for work on gender equality
Amount local currency (specify) / Amount in RandGender specific allocation
Borehole rehabilitation
Clean up campaigns
Gender in mainstream projects
Training workshops
Clean up campaigns
Road shows / 278 000 / 2 780 000
Gender links / 1 000 / 10 000
In kind contributions to the COE process – eg venues
Use of Tendayi Hall for training workshops
Use of council boardroom for training workshops
Use of council fuelled vehicles for clean-up campaigns and road show
Travelling and subsistence to training workshops for nurses / 3 600.00 / 36 000.00
Funds raised from donors or the private sector for gender work
T shirts, hats and bantanas / 700.00 / 7 000.00
TOTAL
THIS WORD DOCUMENT WILL BE UPLOADED TO THE WEBSITE
1. INSTITUTIONAL PROFILE
COUNTRY / ZIMBABWECOUNCIL / BINDURA MUNICIPALITY
GENDER CHAMPION / SHANGWA MAVESERA
GENDER FOCAL PERSON / FABIOLA MARY GOZHO
Baseline score (year) / 38
Progress Score (year) / 45
Latest score (year) / 59
Attitude score –baseline
Attitude score – follow up
Women / Men / Total / % Women
Council / 2 / 10 / 12 / 17%
Management / 6 / 13 / 19 / 32%
Council staff overall / 81 / 258 / 339 / 24%
Population served / 43 675
Key characteristics / Bindura is the provincial capital of Mashonaland central and it houses most of the administrative offices. The district is known for its rich soils. The area mainly concentrates in crop cultivation although it has some commercial farms which specialise in animal husbandry. It is also the surrounded with mines mainly the Freda Rebecca nickel and the Trojan Mine gold mine.
Synopsis
Bindura Municipality provides the following services to the community- arable water, sewerage, fire and ambulance services, refuse collection and town planning services. It came a time when Bindura Municipality failed to provide the said services. There was erratic water supply, there was no water running from the tapes they had gone dry. The residents had resorted to boreholes for water. That also saw the cholera outbreak in Bindura.
There was sewerage flowing all over the town. The sewer reticulation system had broken down. The waste was no longer flowing to the sewerage ponds. There refuse was no longer being collected. Council had old tractors which were always down. Residents used to dump refuse anywhere.
The municipality no longer had service delivery services. The residents no longer had trust with the municipality and no longer paying bills. There was no public participation by residents.
Bindura bought service delivery vehicles for service delivery. The council also partnered with UNICEF and rehabilated the water treatment plant and the water pumps. They hired an excavator to open the blocked drains. UNICEF also engaged a company which cleared the sewerage ponds and sewer reticulation was restored.
The municipality also bought two refuse compactors for refuse removal. The WASH programmes in the wards also managed to restore the trust and relationship between council and residents.
Key objectives
The key objectives of the centre of excellence are to ensure that the Municipality put into place the necessary mechanisms and operational guidelines that promote a culture that will facilitate gender mainstreaming in the municipality. It also seeks to ensure that necessary human and financial resources for gender mainstreaming are mobilised for training, capacity building and programme implementation. The COE seeks to ensure that the commitments of the integration and development objectives to gender equality and women’s empowerment are effectively implemented at municipality level. The municipality wants to contribute towards a gender sensitive society where opportunities and responsibilities are shared equally by women and men. The municipality wants to everybody to enjoy the life they determine in accordance with their individual skills, their needs and their desires. Through this mainstreaming women and men will no longer be seen as a uniform group of human beings, but will have their social, ethinic and ages difference taken into account. There should be a fair distribution of unpaid and paid work among men and women, wages and salaries that men and women can live on independently
Background
Lack of gender sensitive policies
Women depended on men for financial support
Lack of knowledge on reporting procedures of reporting on gender based violence
Key activities
Drafting gender sensitive policies
Provision of service delivery
Gender based violence campaigns
Empower communities
Resource allocations
Local currency / RandsCouncil allocations to gender-specific projects / 90 000
Council allocations to gender in mainstream projects / 30 000
In –kind support to the COE process / 3 000
Challenges
The main challenges that the Municipality was facing was mainly lack of participation by the community. The community no longer had trust with municipality to the extent of not paying their bills, not even want to participate in any programmes to do with council.
There was also an erratic supply of water and the likelihood of cholera outbreaks were imminent water was no longer flowing from the tapes. Women had to spend most of their time queuing at boreholes.
There was also a challenge of garbage collection and the community had to dump the garbage everywhere. There was no longer control and use of refuse bin since these were no longer collected by council.
The council had no functional policies to support any decisions made. The management with comprised of six women came up with the strategic plan which is the main document that drives the operations of the organisation. All other policies are developed from this main document.
The community had stopped participating in the budget operations and this caused the budget ownership a challenge. With the coming in of private partners the public participation has since greatly improved. The community pays their bills in time and the municipality is now able to pay its workforce and am glad to inform that the municipality is up to date with salaries.
Results
Women’s empowerment
Women are usually absent or underrepresented in decision making processes. The municipality has seen to it that in the council policy makers appoints a female into the position of a deputy mayor. Had it been without the gender sensitive they would have appointed a male in that position.
The Director of Housing is a female and also her deputy. The deputy director finance a female is a signatory to all bank accounts of the council. Council has also appointed a female civil technician in the roads section.
The community has been trained in different areas and mostly in hygiene and one woman who was a beneficiary of the training has started a poultry project and she had been capacitated. Susan Marunga of ward 6 is into chicken raring. “my kids will never be expelled from school and my bill will not be in arreas”.
Men for change
One of the community members who attended at training workshop Mr Marire of ward 9 has teamed up with a group of three women and have started a recycling project. They move around collecting used cans which they used to prepare refuse bins, jackets and caps. He is a member of the group chaired by a woman and they work very well.
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The same group also want to venture into paraffin making using ‘tsviriyo’’ bottles.
Mr Maraire said he would continue working with women because they are hardworking and are strategists.
Changes at household level
Women are included in the lease application forms and co-own their property with their spouses.
Financial empowerment
Improved contributions in family matters
Changes in attitudes
Men appointing a female deputy mayor.
The community being involved in the clean-up campaigns
Attending public meetings and public activities initiated by council
Attending to the breakfast meetings
Changes at the work place
Promotion and appointment of women into supervisor posts
Training workshops for staff
Appointment of a female roads civil technician
Service delivery
Provision of arable water
Provision of accessible roads
Public participation
The community now attends budget participatory meetings of council
The community is now involved in clean-up campaigns and road shows
Attending national events
Budget inspection
Outreach through the media
The municipality now has a web site where services offered and all policy makers are with their images and the public kwon the local leadership. The local and national newspapers have now started to report positively about the municipality. Gender issues are to be included on the web site upon a resolution of council.
Changes at a policy level that have come about as a result of the COE work
Council now has an operational strategic plan which was crafted with the inclusion of all females in the management.
A task team which has been appointed to work on policies were given three months to come up with gender based violence policy, sexual harassment policy, HIV and AIDS policy, gender mainstreaming policy and other relevant policies of council.
Any other changes that have come about as a result of the COE work
Clean up campaigns and training workshops by men
Women now engaged in male dominated positions
Lesson learned and innovation
Record keeping is key in all activities of councils and report writing. All activities of council should be kept in record form for continuity.
Public participation is a key tool in ownership of all activities in council.
Public interaction and regular feedback should be done to and from council.
Creating voice for the voiceless
Continuous training and research on gender issues.
Peer learning and look and learn progammes
Keeping disaggregated data in all reports of council
Learning and sharing with other councils
Service level bench marking exchange visits with other local authorities.
Exchanging notes with other local authorities.
Touring of projects in all wards
Sustainability and replication
Appoint a balanced gender committee that reports to councils on gender issues
Budget allocation for gender programmes – training and clean up campaigns
Engage in private partnership with NGOs
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