Gender Equity Initiatives at Shurugwi Town Council, Zimbabwe

SADC PROTOCOL@WORK SUMMITS AND AWARDS 2024 INSTITUTIONAL COE Template Zimbabwe, Shurugwi Town Council, 11-13 November 2024 Presented: Sihle Nkalakata

OVERVIEW COUNTRY Zimbabwe COUNCIL Shurugwi Town Council GENDER CHAMPION Councillor Mdutswa GENDER FOCAL PERSON Lizzie Makohliso IS THE COUNCIL A HUB OR SPOKE COUNCIL? - Spoke Latest score (year) 60 Women Men Total % Women Council 5 12 17 41 Management 0 14 14 0 Council staff overall 37 117 146 26 Population served 23 000 Key characteristics Mining town with vasts deposits of gold, platinum and chrome

I. GENDER POLICY, ACTION PLAN, HUB AND SPOKE STC does have a gender policy and action plan that incorporates the Post 2015 SADC Gender Protocol, SDGs and other relevant targets. It is well known and has a high profile champion within the council. SHURUGWI TOWN COUNCIL GENDER POLICY 1.0 PREAMBLE Council acknowledges gender equity as an essential part of good localgovernance where women and men have equal access to decision making, equal access to services and equal treatment in the delivery of these services. Council recognizes gender mainstreaming in all areas of policy making and management as the most effective means of ensuring gender equity. 1.1 BASIS OF THE POLICY The National Gender Policy of Zimbabwe is the national instrument on gender. In addressing gender issues, Council will be guided by the National Gender Policy and the International instruments to which Zimbabwe is party which are referred to in the National Gender Policy.

I. GENDER POLICY, ACTION PLAN, HUB AND SPOKE We usually hold the hub and spoke meetings in the midlands province usually there is sharing of best practices The hub usually hold its meetings quarterly but due to financial constraints the hub and spoke meetings were not done for the midlands urban hub and spoke

III. WORK PLACE POLICY AND PRACTICE How gender sensitive is the workplace? There is a ramp at the main council offices for accessibility by people living with disabilities. Shurugwi Town Council offices

26% of the workforce is women The proportion of youth and PWDs employed by the councils is 17% the youths and the PWD are 27 out of 156 total workforce. council have a sexual harassment policy. All sexual harassment matters are dealt with and investigations done and disciplinary action taken according to the policy in place Council support women by developing gender equality policies eg the gender policy and the sexual harassment policy

II. GOVERNANCE Detail Elected women councillors is 1 out of 13 councillors and quarter we have 4 so its 5 out of 17. Six committees of council, Finance, Audit, Administration, Environment, Housing and Gender 1 Committee is chaired by a lady Gender committee There is no committees chaired by PWD Youths, PWDs participate through budget consultations For ladies we have gender champions trained by ZWRCN and they are 35 years and below and they champion gender issues Evidence Photos or video of women leaders.

IV. LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The Council does not have local economic development plan but have projects that target women, PWD, and youth entrepreneurs eg flea markets Market places designed and 80% of stands allocated to women, men, PWD and youth on an equal opportunity basis. There is no existence of entrepreneurship finance schemes linked to council that benefit women, men, people living with disability, and youth. Council does allocate tenders on merit and if women participate and are eligible to win they are awarded the tenders Normally tenders are allocated to companies so its difficult to come up with the sex disaggregated data on tenders. Proportion of the council budget allocated to LED activities is 6%

V. INFRASTRUCTURE AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Land and housing Sex disaggregated data of land allocations for council & community beneficiaries. Sex disaggregated data for housing allocations . Housing Allocations Proportion (%) Number Women 15 22 Men 53 88 Total 68 100 Water Committees Number Chairpersons of Water Committees Vice Chairpersons of water committees - Water and sanitation Council does have a resolution to have water and sanitation committees awaiting implementation Women - - Men - - - Total

VI. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, HIV AND AIDS How does the council promote SRHR? Council promote SRHR by ensuring that all its public places have got condoms for public use and the clinics are accessible by all the residents. Women, men, people living with disability, and youth have equal access to treatment and there is no discrimination. council ensure that health/SRHR facilities are more accessible to these groups by erecting ramps and also council built a poly clinic to reduce travelling distance to clinics Council encourage or support Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE) in schools?

VII. GENDER BASED VIOLENCE Include evidence here Shurugwi town council in partnership with ZRP sensitising the community on gbv

ZRP officer sensitizing the community on drug and substance abuse which may lead to GBV

Response and coordination Shurugwi town council is working with Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) and 50 gender champions were trained in the 13 wards and these ladies were capacitated in women empowerment and gender budgeting etc

VIII. CLIMATE JUSTICE Council does not have a climate change policy. Councillor Mdutswa the gender champion receiving bins for waste management, sustainable energy and recycling and benefit from economic opportunities arising from this. Council participate in tree planting day on the 1st week of December each year. Council does waste sorting which is being done at the dump site Refuse bins for waste management

IX. GENDER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Council does have a gender committee which hold meeting every month. The gender focal person is the resource person of the committee The gender champion is councillor Mdutswa

Gender management systems The council Gender Action Plan aligned to the Council s strategic plan. Gender is written into the job descriptions of Town Secretary and the gender focal person. Council monitor and evaluate gender through the gender committee and the gender technical team.

Gender focal persons from Masvingo and Mrehwa training Shurugwi Town Council gender committee in Kadoma

X. GENDER RESPONSIVE BUDGETING STC submitted an entry in the GRB category Template and Checklist for a Gender Responsive Budget Statement for Local Government in Zimbabwe1 Gender Budget Statement for SHURUGWI TOWN COUNCIL for the year 2024 I. SYNOPSIS This Gender Responsive Budget (GRB) Statement is a summary of measures taken by Council XX in response to the Ministry of Finance Budget Directive. The statement should be read together with the council s detailed revenue and programme expenditure budgets that include sex-disaggregated data of staff and beneficiaries (including youth, senior citizens, People Living with Disabilities (PLWD), day population, and night population) as well as gender budget notes. II. POLICY FRAMEWORK2 What gender provisions and policies guide the council budget? Cite the National Gender Policy, Constitution of Zimbabwe, National Development Strategy 1, Regional Protocols e.g., SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and International Protocols e.g., CEDAW - the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Does the council have a gender policy and does it address issues on gender budgeting? III. THE BUDGET PROCESS How did you integrate gender and inclusion into your planning? How did you integrate gender and inclusion into your budget consultations? (Include all the methodologies used during the budget consultation process e.g., civic engagements, online consultations, etc.) How did you ensure that the budget consultation process was inclusive i.e., no one is left behind , for example, that every resident including the hearing and visually impaired knew about meetings. Please cite methods used e.g., advertisements, radio announcements, public notices etc.? What time, venue and meeting strategies did you use to ensure inclusion? For example, did you consult women about what day/time would work best for them? Did you make use of technology to broaden your reach? How? For example, use of WhatsApp groups. If you used technology, how did you ensure that women and men had equal access? Do you have sex/age/PLWD statistics on those who participated in the consultations? refer to consultation registers if available and comment on these3. Yes Council drawn up a Gender Responsive Budget statement as per Ministry Guidelines. 1Adapted from Zimbabwe Ministry of Finance Gender Budgeting Guidelines May 2021 2 These can be drawn from the National Gender Policy, International Protocols such as the Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, the 1995 Beijing Platform on the promotion of Gender Equality the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 Ensure registers are in such a way that you are able to extract all the data required for analysis.

What are the key highlights? Gender specific budgeting Council does have a gender committee whose expenditure is budgeted for. 16 days of activism against GBV School fees and sanitary ware for the girl child Work place programmes

CHALLENGES Budgeting of gender specific programmes and this has been overcomed all gender specific programmes were budgeted for in the 2025 budget. Economic instability Due to the current economic hardships council is failing to fully implement gender activities due to other priorities Insufficient training and capacity building

LESSON LEARNED AND INNOVATION Sharing of best practices - gender budgeting Gender committee Council now have a gender committee learnt from Mrehwa Council Council learnt about gender budgeting and now we have included all gender specific issues on our budget

SUSTAINABILITY AND REPLICATION COE, Hub and spoke work can be sustained because STC now have a gender committee which hold meetings every month and all issues which are gender related are discussed and resolved. Council does have a gender technical team with representatives from all departments chaired by the gender focal person and the report to the gender committee By gender budgeting - Including all issues to do with gender in the budget Gender mainstreaming

The end Siyabonga Tinotenda Thank you