2015 SADC GENDER PROTOCOL SUMMIT AND AWARDSCENTRES 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 Beitbridge Town Council is a modern investor friendly town providing sustainable excellent services to its community.

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 Beitbridge Town Council_Zimbabwe_73% L M B 27/04/2015

GENDER SCORECARD FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

NAME OF COUNTRY: ZIMBABWE NAME OF COUNCIL = BEITBRIDGE TOWN COUNCIL

SCORE OUT OF FOUR WHERE 0=none; 1=POOR; 2=SATISFACTORY; 3=GOOD; 4=VERY GOOD

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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 NAMESPolicy framework Gender policy, action plan, GBV action plan Governance Sex disaggregated data on the council Mainstreaming gender into existing programmes

Action planStrategic plan.Photosvideos

Procurement PhotosMinutesAdvertsThere is a procurement committee that is regulated by a governmental regulations.

Climate change and sustainable development

Sex disaggregated statistics, allocation of housing stands waiting list.Photos VideosLand and housing. Council has partnered with private property developers to service more stands that can be availed to people to address the issues of accommodation, water shortages and poor roads.Borehole committees on a 50/50 basis.Campaigns/ workshopsMinutes/ counselling/ videos/ photosPhotos/ videos

Photos/ videos/ campaigns have increased awareness in the town on gender issues, HIV and AIDS / malaria .

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

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT EVIDENCE UPLOADED – PLEASE RECORD FILE NAMESSelection and recruitment Job adverts encouraging women or men to apply where they

are under-represented Capacity building Evidence of gender training at different levels and sex

disaggregated statistics to accompany this. CampaignsWomen employees have undertaken education to greater levels as they are studying.

Working conditions and environment

Photos/ videos/ minutes

Gender Management System Gender structures minutes of meetings.Budgets Your council budget showing specific allocations for gender

work, as well as how gender is being mainstreamed into all budgets. Copy of budget

Monitoring and evaluation Your score card and or any other evidence of how you are going about gender mainstreaming. –photos / videos

Resource mobilisation for work on gender equality Amount local currency (specify)

Amount in Rand

Gender specific allocation – please state the names of the projects Public and street lighting $58312Public toilets $37000markets $18140Gender in mainstream projects (please specify) Stands servicing $82400Water allocation $635000Sdp/ forit/zb bank stands $20 millionSiyaso $35000

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In kind contributions to the COE process – eg venues (please specify)

Free boardroomClinic services for different stakeholdersFuel for freeStadium for freeDonations to women’s day

Funds raised from donors or the private sector for gender work – (please specify)

World bank 2012ZiNaRA grants for roadsPEP at the clinic is donor funded

TOTAL

THIS WORD DOCUMENT WILL BE UPLOADED TO THE WEBSITE 1. INSTITUTIONAL PROFILE

COUNTRY ZIMBABWECOUNCIL BEITBRIDGE TOWN GENDER CHAMPION MRS S TAKAWIRAGENDER FOCAL PERSON

MISS L BALOYI

Baseline score (year) 2012Progress Score (year) 73%Latest score (year) 2015Attitude score –baseline

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Attitude score – follow up Women Men Total % Women

Council 3 3 6 50Management 0 4 4 0Council staff overall 100 176 276 37%Population served 42319Key characteristics Informally employed population with a major business

of buying and selling and the clearing agents.

SynopsisSum up the situation of the Council – how far has it come, how far has it progressed, what evidence is there of change. If possible begin with an anecdote that demonstrates this change. - 300 words

As a council that was starting on gender issues it was difficult to get the buy in from councillors and management. There was one gender champion who was a female councillor and the only female councillor out of the six. It was difficult for her to penetrate and convince everyone on how paramount the gender issues were.Councillor Patricia Ndlovu who was the gender champion in 2009 was very vocal and took gender issues seriously. She managed to convince management and other councillors that women empowerment was crucial. This led to the Council employing a systems administrator who is a female that is Miss Magic Shoko.After the employment of the systems administrator in 2012 the Council employed female drivers. The posts of drivers were always viewed as jobs for the man. The council started being involved in women’s day commemorations, 16 days of activism and partnerships with other stakeholders like family Support Trust, Ministry of women affairs, Child line Zimbabwe and victim friendly Unit Police. With the buy in of Councillors in order to address the issues of gender a committee called residents association was born. This committee is formed by different groups of people who come together and address issues with their local area and act as the voice for their local community. The Beitbridge residents association was established to advocate for effective representation of Beitbridge residents in local governance issues.

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In 2012 the Council employed a female farm manager k. This shows that the council was now gender sensitive. As the Council advertises its pots it states that women are encouraged to apply as a way of encouraging a 50/50 representation.

Council is now active in gender issues as it now has a gender champion and focal person. It has since been active in gender issues, participates in awareness campaigns with other stakeholders for example FST, VFU, PSI and ministry of women affairs. Council also offers markets to the women, allocates stands and also gives plots for people to practise peri urban agriculture.

Key objectivesPlease state the key gender mainstreaming objectives of the COE – 300 words

Beitbridge Town council is taking gender mainstreaming serious thus thriving by all means to achieve 50/50 equal representation of both men and women. BTC has sine achieved this on councillors. Gender mainstreaming is an important tool of achieving sustainability programmes and economic development. This is so, because gender mainstreaming involves both men and women equally and being given the same opportunities. Gender mainstreaming brings about unity, peace, love and ownership of programmes as both men and women are involved equally.

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Background

• Give some background - What was the situation before the intervention? Include evidence.

• Council has been active in tackling gender and GBV issues. It is a key stakeholder in committees and sittings that involve government departments and NGOs which handle the two issues in the border town.

Local Economic Development has seen establishment of 8 market stalls in all the six wards. These are clothing and vegetable markets. The stalls are occupied by more women at 75%. In partnership with ILO/SEDCO 5 Savings and Credits Cooperatives (SACCO) have been established in the town. Their members have undergone entrepreneurship skills training and so far 2 SACCOs have accessed loans from the two partners. The main objective of the project is to reduce HIV/AIDS infection along the transport corridors through economic empowerment. The 2 SACCOs were allocated pieces of land to operate from by council. Council on its part has embarked on a viable cattle fattening project which is being spearheaded by a female farm manger.

• Climate change challenges have seen council initiating the gum tree projects. Plans are underway to roll out a programme of giving each residential property a tree next month. These trees will be from our two nurseries. The gum tree plantation was initiated in order to avert pollution of Limpopo River by sewage effluent from our sewer ponds. So far gum tree trees are close to harvesting about 3m .Besides avoiding pollution the plantation will be source of revenue for the organisation. Fields have also been cleared for irrigation of pastures and maize plants for cattle feed is in progress.

• HIV AIDS and care work is being rendered by the council clinic and the district hospital. Services offered include VCT, ART,PMTCT, CD4 Count, rapid tests for malaria and TB. Health education and awareness campaigns are carried out in the community by trained focal persons who comprise both sexes. Partners such as MSF, Batsirai and IOM have

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standing MOUs and are complementing these efforts. Plans are under way to expand clinic infrastructure to have maternity admissions and have an additional clinic.

• Community initiatives are being implemented at ward level with councillors and residents association members spearheading activities. These are area clean ups, bore-hole maintenance and waste recovery for recycling.

• Employment practices for council are that both male and female aspirants have a 50-50 opportunity for recruitment. This has seen female System administrator, farm manger and finance personnel being placed in employ.

Key activities

Please list at least five in bullet form – 500 words Public participation- This approach promotes participation of both men and women on council and gender activities.

The public is involved in clean up campaigns, meetings, gender activities and takes part in the planning of council business. Through the residents association the Beitbridge community participates actively in gender issues.

Water quality monitoring - this is done by borehole committees that were formulated by the residents. Counselling and testing of HIV to reduce morbidity and mortality Community based management trainings Control of diseases through education and disease investigations. Clean up campaigns to reduce diseases and to have a clean environment Investigation of public health complaints from the communities and actioning them for example if there are sewer

blockages, people are educated on sewer disposal and the blockages are cleared on time. Community based management trainings. Water connections for Beitbridge household since it are expanding.

Please put a summary here from the information uploaded

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Local currency Rands Council allocations to gender-specific projects

$30000

Council allocations to gender in mainstream projects

$21000000

In –kind support to the COE process $10000

Challenges

What have been the main challenges? How have these been overcome? 300 word.

• The buy in from councillors and management and council officials was a challenge. After the training from Gender links and councils active participation in gender issues for example commemorations of women’s day, Council is actively involved in observing 16 days of activism , this has made a change as people are now considering gender issues seriously and now know where to go whenever they face gender based cases.

• Women being employed in formerly male dominated environments for example heavy plant operators-lack of prerequisite skills.

• Inadequate funds were also a challenge for the council. The council has since resolved to have ward meetings especially in budget consultations. In these meetings people were enlightened of the budget and then prioritise what they would like to be done according to the first priority and budget. This was a way of addressing the inadequate funds challenge. Coming up with the 5-year strategic plan which outlines objectives for equal representation of man and women. Also this will be used when carrying out a gender audit to see whether the planned activities were carried out. And whether the council was gender sensitive or not. Coming up with the 5-year strategic plan which outlines objectives for equal employment opportunities in influential positions

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• Residents association and councillors take an active part in council activities hence it becomes easier to reach out to people for example if people are delaying to pay for water services councillors and residents association will convince the communities to do so. If people have a need that the council needs to urgently address the residents committee will quickly enlighten the council.

• The key gender challenges are finding qualified female staff to occupy decision making positions such as HODs.• In service delivery allocation of commercial and industrial stands which have been male dominated to females is still

a far cry as women are not taking up the challenge because of historical economic imbalances and lack of collateral as most of the assets are said to be for the man.

• Council’s involvement in awareness campaigns and gender issues sensitizes people on gender issues hence bringing a positive attitude in people and maximum cooperation.

• The other challenges that the council is facing in terms of offering a gender sensitive service delivery is inadequate funds. Even if they want to provide an additional clinic or increase water facilities, economic challenges of finances will still crop up. At the end of the day we have imbalances.

• Expanding town and a lot of households not connected to sewer and water• Lighting system that is not adequate for every household in town. Some new suburbs have no electricity, water and

sewer lines.• Crude dumping of waste since there is no proper landfill site for solid waste disposal.• Use of tractor drawn trailers instead of the refuse compactor for waste collections.

Results (Please fill in what is relevant to your COE)

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Women’s empowerment How have women been empowered as a result of the COE work? – 200 wordsClinic services for free

• In order to promote sports for the marginalised, women netball has been promoted and supported by council. • Budget for gender activities has been taken on board in the council budget • Monitoring and evaluation is an ongoing activity to determine if gender mainstreaming is being realised. • Market stalls have been built of which women occupy 75% of them. Women have been given land to practise peri

urban agriculture that is SACCOS and ufarana youth group.• Council has facilitated that the women get free services for birth control that is depovera, jadelle and tablets.”

Umkami ubesengitshiya ethi ngiyazala kakhulu, ngiyabonga kakhuli icouncil esebenza kanye le PSI esipha indlela

zokuvikela ezefamily planning’’ says Thilivhali Muleya after being given jadelle as a family planning method.

Thilivhali is a local resident who resides in ward 4 after the road show campaign of PSI and the council.

Evidence

Please provide at least one quote from a woman beneficiary to support your statement on women’s empowerment. Please remember name, surname and designation.- 100 words photos

Men for change Have men become more supportive of gender equality as a result of the COE work? Please give examples – 300 words

”Gender Links workshops have taught us how we could react to council initiatives that are inExistence. As council, we are gradually getting there as we are trying to obtain others incouncil to support this initiative,” he says. From the time BTTC began the COE process, its work towards gender mainstreaming and especially empowerment has become more focused. Women are actively involved in the selling of wares

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at the market . ’’This has been benefitting the local women tremendously as they are the ones given first priority, especially in allocation of market place stands. You can even find that through empowering women economically their lives and those of their families have also improved significantly,” says Muleya. Literacy Ncube , a market place owner who sells fruits and vegetables as her main source of income, concurs with Muleya. “Council has fully rolled out this market exercise for everyone to benefit. What could be the problem is the capital to inject into the business. Our rentals too are reasonable. We pay $1 per day and they enable us to make us a lot of profit. Our market place is also very safe as there is security patrolling here even during the night. We are grateful because council is very active in responding to the problems that may arise here,” she says. The Beitbridge Town Council has also been able to respond to the needs of the previously marginalised groups like the blind. ’In our allocation of land and markets, we consider the physically challenged community. We have been able to create a market for them close to where they reside. This is helping them sustain themselves and not resort to begging.The council is however facing several challenges. Lack of funding at the town council is fuelling challenges that it faces. Due to its location, the town has high immigration levels as people migrate to Beitbridge, especially from the surrounding rural settlements in a bid to make an improved living. This influx into the town creates challenges for the council as the Population begins to weigh heavily on the infrastructure, initially built for a much smaller Population. Provision of water becomes difficult. Water reticulation systems like sewer structures continue to experience blockages. It then affects council ability to provide good water and sanitation and responding to the different needs of women and men. Council has also not been able to erect new lights. Nevertheless, this council is trying to mitigate these problems through revenue collection.They collect rates from homeowners, as well as rentals from the market places and truck parking port. They also receive some revenue from the council farm. When people come to see our projects, it revives our efforts regardless of the challenges we might be facing. This COE process has strengthened us as local authorities.

Evidence Please provide at least one quote from a man involved in the COE process to support your statement on the improvement of service delivery. Please remember name, surname and designation - 100 words

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The COE has taught us that “we should treat each other equally. The cleaning of the environment that was traditionally viewed as for women only now we man can do it as well” We are proud to clean and keep our environment clean says Swarez The ZIMRA Manager for Beitbridge in a cleanup campaign. photos

Changes at household levelHas the work of the COE resulted in changes in power relations at the household level? Please give a few examples – 300 words. Men and women respect each other as they can all do the same jobs equally. The boreholes that the council has surrendered to the communities are also manned by man. Water point committees were formed where both men and women are looking after them.

Evidence Please provide evidence of changes at household level through at least one quote from a community member. Please remember name, surname, organisation and designation. 100 wordsFind attached photos

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Changes in attitudesAre attitudes in the community changing as a result of the COE work. Please provide at least one example. 200 words An increased number of reported HIV/AIDS cases in the clinic meaning people are sensitized and willing to take up treatment. This has seen the Council realising that there is need for the expansion of the present clinic and to put an additional clinic to accommodate the large numbers of people that are coming for treatment.There are also interested stakeholders that work with council in gender issues that is Legal resources foundation, Family support trust, Ministry of women affairs, child line, social welfare and ministry of education that offer counselling services, shelter for the victims, treatment and these have also received large numbers of people coming for help, counselling, advice and projects to sustain themselves.People have a positive mind when it comes to gender issues; the Council has since received people coming who want to do small projects and given them land that has amenities at Siyaso to do their projects. Women have also been given markets to sell what they want and sustain themselves. Women and men actively participate in projects that will help them get an income.There is a youth group that cleans the town by recycling papers. The council has given them land to operate from.Evidence Please provide at least one quote that demonstrates changes in attitudes. Please remember name, surname, organisation and designation. – 100 words Video- gender cleanup campaign

Changes at the work placeWhat changes have taken place at the work place as a result of the COE work. Please give examples.

Good governance as the council has an open door policy whereby the community is allowed to attend our meetings and know what is happening at council for example full council meeting. This has seen council having a reasonable budget , zero tolerance to corruption and attending to community needs timeosly.

• In order to promote sports for the marginalized, women netball has been promoted and supported by council.

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• Budget for gender activities has been taken on board in the council budget • Monitoring and evaluation is an ongoing activity to determine if gender mainstreaming is being realised. • Policies have been put in place for example sexual harassment policy and the dressing policy.

Evidence Please provide evidence of these changes through at least one quote from a Council functionary. Please remember name, surname, organisation and designation. 100 wordsCopies of policies and budget

Service delivery Council clinic now provides a variety of activities eg counselling, PEP, ART and treatment of major and minor illness.Public health complaints are attended within 24 hours.Council maintains its equipment that is dozers, tippers, TLB and water bowers that the residents can hire at affordable

rates.

Evidence Please provide at least three quotes from beneficiaries to support your statements on the improvement of service delivery. Please remember name, surname and designation- 150 wordsDocuments of equipment hire, photos

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Public participationHow have you involved the community in the COE work? What impact has this had? 200 words Being involved in cleanup campaigns and ward meetings to discuss on how to improve council.Public toilets maintenance has since improved , people after trainings now know how to keep the toilets clean.Maintenance of vegetable markets where these places are kept clean and people know that they have to pay a dollar to Council without being pushed around.Trenching of sewer lines where Council has limited funds to trench people do it on their own and trench then council will only come for connections.Evidence Please provide evidence of community involvement through at least one quote from a community leader. Please remember name, surname, organisation and designation - 100 words

Videos/ photos

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Outreach through the media How do you engage with the media to popularise the SADC Gender Protocol and the work on gender equality? 150 wordsWe have a magazine that we produce quarterly to showcase what we do as council, educate and inform the community on who to consult when they have challenges.WE also had a reporter who would witness what we do on activities for example bush clearing to reduce GBV cases and then broadcast in the newspapers.Evidence Magazine and newspaper cuttings/ Flyers

Changes at a policy level that have come about as a result of the COE workPlease use this space to note any changes that have come about at a policy level as a result of the COE work. – 300 wordsTown Clerk can now report gender issues and take them seriously as they are now part of his contract.Council now gives its employees stands so that they can also build their houses.Council has gotten into partnership with the bank so that everyone in the management or supervisory role can get a car for easy travelling when they are carrying out their duties.Evidence Please provide evidence of these changes. – 100 wordsCrafting of sexual harassment policy, induction and dress code policy.Any other changes that have come about as a result of the COE workPlease use this space to note any other changes that have come about as a result of the COE work. -Ufarana youth group being active on cleanup of the town. The Town has seen the youths rising up and being active in recycling of solid waste and being active in cleanup campaigns.-Borehole committees actively participating on water and sanitation issues-SACCOS on farming issues that is both woman and man living with HIV.-Council has availed stands to reduce housing back log-Council has partnered with more private developers to service and avail more stands to -reduce the housing backlog.The Council has given three women land who have now opened private schools that is Aoukleigh, Welton and Adriel.

Evidence

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Please provide evidence for any additional information you have provided. Offal letters for stands/ videos / photos

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Lesson learned and innovation What lessons have been learned in the COE process?

300 wordsI have learnt that the partnership of council with residents, workers and business community is paramount when you want to achieve sustainability and behaviour change. The community wants its needs to be addressed timeosly. Council has also held ward budget meetings with the community and coming up with the rates that are reasonable and also influencing the rate payers to comply. This has been achieved as the rate payers don’t want things to be imposed to them but to be discussed with them and agreed.

Learning and sharing with other councilsHow have you learned from and shared with other Councils involved in the COE process? Please be specific – give names of the Councils, where and how you met and shared. Evidence Please provide evidence of this engagement, for example a quote from a Councillor in another COE.- 100 wordsOur gender champion had a chance to go to Sweden and united Kingdom. She has been active in cleanup campaigns and raises awareness campaigns on gender mainstreaming. Council now has a gender focal person who is active in gender issues and has partnered with interested stakeholders on awareness campaigns and participation. Council has learnt from Plumtree, Chipinge, Zvishavhane and Vic Falls Council.Find attached agenda as evidence

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Sustainability and replication How can the COE work be sustained within your organisation? How can the COE work be cascaded to other Councils? How can your Council contribute to the cascading process? 300 words

Community participation through the residents association can help to sustain the COE process. We learnt that people are more concerned with the issues that they are involved in rather than the ones dictated to them. Also the COE can be sustained through the private partnerships for example partnership with Forit, SDP for stands servicing in Beitbridge Council. The COE work can be sustained through the empowerment of the gender champion and focal person in our local authority. These will surely need the buy in of the management and policy makers, who will then cascade the information down to the wards.Exchange visits from other councils by sharing of ideas. Influential people need to be identified to address the people. Compliance to policies and legislation is also paramount as these are going to guide people when carrying out the duties.

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