Gender in Local Government Zimbabwe

Key Facts

• 43 Councils have joined the Centres of Excellence (COE) process.
• The 43 COE councils cover a population of 8,675,789; approximately half the population of Zimbabwe.
• The COEs include the capital city, Harare, and all the major cities of Zimbabwe. In total there are 21 Rural Councils and 22 Urban Councils.
• The COEs cover all ten provinces of Zimbabwe, and include ten rural district councils.
• GL has succeeded in working equally well with the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing (MLGPWNH), Ministry of Women Affairs ,Gender and Community. This collaboration has seen the 2 ministries’ officials receiving training on cascading the COE model.
• 41 of the 43 councils now have and are implementing gender action plans (see summary analysis as a result of the verification exercise in the table at Annex A). A full report of the verification exercise and entries to the summit has been uploaded on share point.
• The COE process has resulted in high level political support, across ministries and political parties, as reflected in the high level attendance at the summit.
• Zimbabwe is currently looking at aligning the local government laws i.e. Urban, Rural and Traditional Leaders Acts so that they are in tandem with the Constitution.
• Local Authorities are using the findings of the Violence Against Women (VAW) to curtail GBV.
• GL Zimbabwe has forged a new partnership with NetOne which will see the 2 organisations working together to empower women in the Entrepreneurship programme.

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Objectives

The Zimbabwe Centres of Excellence in Gender Mainstreaming Programme sought to:

•  Raise support for the roll out of the COEs to over half of Zimbabwe’s 92 councils by 2015, the deadline for the achievement of the 28 targets of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. This rollout started with 10 councils in 2012 (11%). To date it has grown to 43 councils (47%). This figure is set to have risen to 57 (62%) by the end of 2015.
• Come up with a strategy of rolling out the COE work through multiple partners including government ministries.
• Popularise and enhance application of the SADC Gender Protocol through the village level workshops that accompany the COEs and incorporating its targets in the local action plans in order to increase community outreach and impact of the Protocol@work.
• Encourage councils to localise the results of the GBV indicators at the local level and use these to measure the impact of gender.
• Extend the roll out of the entrepreneurship programme using the results of National Gender Based Violence Survey.

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Background

The COEs bring together research, policy, action plans, on the job support and capacity building in a unique model that gives local expression to the 28 targets of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development – the sub regional roadmap for MDG 3 (gender equality). As in the case of the MDG’s, these targets are to be achieved by 2015. 43 councils have joined the COE process in Zimbabwe. 41 of the 43 councils have reached the action planning stage of the COE process while the remaining 2 councils are at stage 2. A list of the councils that are COEs in Zimbabwe is indicated below:

COE Councils as at June 2015

From the inception of the COE process GL Zimbabwe was working with the Local Government Associations i.e. Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) and the Association of Rural District Councils in Zimbabwe (ARDCZ). Through multiple engagements with the parent Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing (MLGPWNH) they have become the major partner and recommended the COE programme as their developmental choice in regards to gender mainstreaming. This partnership has since seen various changes being implemented in local authorities through the directive of the Ministry of Local Government e.g. Gender has now been written in the contracts of all Town Clerks and CEOs. As such this has pushed the pressure for all councils to ensure that gender issues are dealt with in their councils. The partnership with the MLGPWNH has proved to be monumental in the thrust to mainstream gender. Zimbabwe Local Government is currently in a move to align the local government laws which are governed by the 3 main statutes which are the Urban Councils Act, Rural District Councils Act and Traditional Leaders Act into one Local Government Act. Not only has GL partnered with MLGPWNH, but also with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development (MWAGCD) in a move meant to see both ministries collaborating in COE programming as well as gender-based activity programming. This collaboration will prove to be vital for the sustenance of the COE programme beyond the existence of GL.

A milestone achievement was the study visit conducted by the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) led by the Ministries of Local Government, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs as well as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in their quest to move for a local government representative quota since the adoption of the new Constitution in 2013.

GL Zimbabwe has also engaged in a strategic partnership with the International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD). The programme is aimed at capacitating local female councillors with leadership skills. This partnership afforded 24 female councillors from both COE and non-COE councillors with the opportunity to learn how other countries campaigned and ran their local elections. Of particular interest was their study visit to Sweden where a selected group of  Zimbabwe’s female councillors had the opportunity to witness how councillors from Sweden undertook their elections, from campaigns right up to Election Day. This was a major milestone for the Zimbabwe office as the Zimbabwe country manager, Priscilla Maposa was part of this visit. These visits will help capacitate the councillors who serve as Gender Champions for moving forward policy and challenging stereotypes at community level. This will be critical in Gender Links programming particularly for the stage 2 which is critical for moving the knowledge on the SADC Protocol on Gender & Development as well as the Post 2015 Agenda.

Target groups

The target groups for the programme are the local government councils, both rural and urban, in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a dynamic country and as such over the year it has been noticed that there was a need to shift the existing strategy and work with the principal ministries in order for the COE programme to progress. The continued support from the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing has seen more councils join the COE process.  The MWAGCD has also helped in this regard as both Ministries have greater interface with the people on the ground. The bottom-up approach of working from the ground upwards has proven the best way to integrate policy and community actions in gender mainstreaming as this is streamlined into the service delivery approach of local government. The use of the Gender Based Violence (GBV) indicators research done in 2012 has proved to be critical in the fight against GBV as councils are now at the fore of using the results at local level in their planning and programming. 10 Councils managed to align their GBV action plans to the results of the 2012 survey and have already started implementing strategies to curb GBV.

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COE Programme

The COE approach includes a unique blend of research and evidence, applied to strategies and action planning, with on-the-job capacity building and applied learning, vigorous Monitoring and Evaluation, affirming of good practise, and sharing of learning at the annual summits. Emerging evidence suggests that this is an effective and sustainable model. Learning from the first phase has been incorporated in the second phase, which has expanded the original six phases to ten phases. Strengthening of action plans through additional content and practise on climate change and sustainable development; care work and local economic development, and IT skills of councillors are all being strengthened as part of the communications component.

 Zimbabwe is divided into 10 provinces, with 92 councils (32 urban and 60 rural). The COE  process has high level buy in from the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing (MLGPWNH) who have been active in sending out circulars to all councils through the District Administrators. The then minister of Local Government, Public works and National Housing Dr Chombo declared at both the 2012 and 2013 summits that he wished all 92 councils would be COEs by 2015. In 2014 the message was the need for councils and government to evaluate the progress of the government in implementing the targets of the SADC Protocol. He urged that the post 2015 strategy should look at the continued cascading of the COE programme. At the 2015 National Summit the Minister declared that the Post 2015 agenda on gender was critical and the Government of Zimbabwe was committed to ensuring that the targets were going to be observed. The Minister clearly said, ‘Gender equality now and post 2015, yes we must! Now that the African Union has declared 2015 as the year for women empowerment and development, this is the road map which we should follow’. The support of the incumbent Minister, Honourable Kasukuwere will be critical in leading the gender process.

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Training of trainers workshops

The Zimbabwe model for cascading the COEs

The implementation of the COE activities in Zimbabwe has taken a new direction with the integration of both the MLGPWNH and MWAGCD coming to the fore in helping to cascade the COE process. Zimbabwe held a training of trainers’ workshop that incorporated Gender Focal Persons from all COEs (both old and new) and officials from the Ministries of Local Government and Gender. This strategy has seen active interface between both Ministries at implementation level as some of the participants have already started taking the COE programme implementation seriously, albeit in the face of the SADC Gender Protocol and the Post 2015. Thanks to the greater interface, there is life in the COE process given the fact that no one NGO can be able to move this process single-handedly.

• Gender focal persons: In Zimbabwe, the MLGPWNH requires that all councils should have a GFP, and as such, GL took advantage of this directive and works closely with the GFPs to drive the COE process from within. All 43 councils have GFPs who are pushing forward the COE process. The Gender Focal Persons have been strategic as they work together with officers from both ministries of local government and gender. A particular case in point is the work done by the Manicaland Province whose Provincial Administrator sanctioned for an audit of all councils in the province with the intention of finding out which of the councils were in the COE process. Consequently the province advised all councils to become COEs.

 The COE programme has gradually gained momentum with other districts taking a leading role in the coordination of gender activities.  For instance, Murewa Rural District Council formed a District Gender Committee comprising of all the key partners and functionaries within Murewa District. Likewise, at council level some councils have followed the concept initiated by Harare City Council of having Gender Focal persons at departmental level (Ruwa, Chegutu) depending on the size of the council. However, some GFPs are still going it alone. Despite all this, it has been a major achievement to have these structures set up as even the MLGPWNH now has a GFP. Another important facet that has been learned through GFPs is their ability to have a succession plan in place for the sustenance of the COE programme. This was evidenced by Harare City Council and Chegutu Municipality which have managed to have new GFPs succeeding their previous GFPs. Surely this will help to extend the longevity of the COE process.

•  Gender champions: Almost all COE councils in Zimbabwe have Gender Champions (GCs). Each council identifies a gender champion at political level within the Council to be trained in the COE process. The gender champions will have particular responsibility for bringing awareness on the SADC Gender Protocol Village workshops and community mobilisation linked to this. Although the trend is that GCs have been councillors who mostly bring awareness of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, some councils are now having their Town Clerks and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) as GCs as they are championing the cause to move gender related issues in their councils. Typical examples are Chegutu Municipality, Rusape Town Council, Bindura Rural District Council and Manyame Rural District Council. There is however, still a need for councils to ensure that politicians take ownership and drive the process at community level.

In the same vein GL held a ToT for new COEs in August 2015. GL is trying to ensure the sustainability of the COE process by integrating GFPs into the COE process. As such the ToT had existing GFPs mentoring the new GFPs on the COE process. This was worthwhile as critical lessons stemmed from the ToT as outlined below:

• There is need to capacitate CEOs and Town Clerks from all councils both old and new in gender issues and training by targeting other non-COE forums like Town Clerks and Directors’ forums.
• GL and councils should twin with local authorities close to them. E.g. Chegutu Municipality and Chegutu RDC.

Women in Local Government Forum (WiLGF)

Women in Local Government Forum (WiLGF) held an induction workshop for female councillors in February 2015. The workshop saw a total of 176 participants in attendance, 153 women and 23 men. This was a milestone achievement because it was the first time Urban and Rural councils (councillors and officials) met at the same event to discuss issues that affect women in local government. It is hoped that this will help in strengthening coordination of activities between urban and rural women in local government, especially towards advocacy for a local government quota. Over and above the induction workshop, participants were urged by the Head of Corporation for the Embassy of Sweden, Maria Selin that it was imperative that the beneficiaries of the training used this as a basis for achieving results on the ground. It is essential that trainings like these do not just end at workshop level but extend to the communities where the real work is done. This will help in realizing the actual impact on the ground which is the overall objective of such events. As such the training proved to be essential as it will be a basis on which GL will be able to monitor progress in articulating gender issues at the grassroots level thus also moving the gender agenda through GCs at the same time. As a way forward participants agreed that there was still a need to continue lobbying for a legislative quota at local government level, as well as the need for WiLGF as a body to monitor and evaluate the activities of their member.

COE Verification

Since 2012 Gender Links (GL) has been having annual verification processes. Through this process, GL has managed to monitor and evaluate the progress made by COE councils in gender mainstreaming. The verification process forms part of the COE process also known as Stage 9. In Zimbabwe the verification process started off with 3 councils (Beitbridge, Chiredzi and Gweru) as well as one non-COE council at the time Kadoma, growing to 11 councils in 2013. The 2014 verification exercise took a different form. Since the COE has grown to 23 councils. In the 2015 verification exercise the number of COEs that were verified went up to 29. GL held another independent verification exercise with the Embassy of Sweden in August 2015 with Hurungwe RDC, Kariba Municipality and Karoi Town Council. This enabled GL to assess the real work on the ground following the completion of the 2015 National Summits. The projects of these councils are discussed in this document on the section on emerging impact of evidence.

COE Verification Process Comparisons

The above figure shows the number of councils both urban and rural who have been verified since 2012. The verification process has seen an increase in the number of councils from 3 in 2012 to 29 in 2015, an increase of over 900%. The increase in the number of councils is attributed to the encouragement put by the MLGPWNH for councils to adapt to gender mainstreaming processes.

As such, GL convened 2 district local summits held in Nyanga and Masvingo respectively. This was a platform where councils self-evaluated themselves at the same time evaluated by a set of independent judges. These self-evaluations included a prior review of the scorecards to check for changes in their scores. New councils used their baseline scores for adjudication. These were judged at the 2 DL summits. 29 councils namely Beitbridge Town Council, Bindura Municipality, Bindura RDC, Bulawayo City Council, Chegutu Municipality, Chiredzi RDC, Chitungwiza Municipality, Goromonzi RDC, Gweru City Council, Harare City Council, Hurungwe RDC, Kadoma City Council, Kariba Municipality, Karoi Town Council, Kwekwe City Council, Makoni RDC ,Manyame RDC, Marondera Municipality, Masvingo City Council, Mutare City Council, Ruwa Town Council, Shurugwi Town Council and  Victoria Falls Municipality all participated in the DLS with the exception of Beitbridge RDC, Chiredzi Town Council, Tongogara RDC and Zvimba RDC.

Verification Outcomes and Outputs

SADC Gender Protocol@Work Summit

Zimbabwe continues to host the SADC Protocol@ Work Summits at country level. Since 2012, the summits have been the highlight of the COE programme. Not only does it bring together COE councils but also members of the Alliance, Faith Based Organisations and the media to showcase their good practices in gender mainstreaming. These summits have enjoyed healthy competition, while at the same time providing a learning platform over the years. The 2015 Zimbabwe Summit which ran under the theme ‘Now and Post 2015, Yes we Must’ was arguably one of the biggest events since the inception of country summits. The summit recorded the highest number of participants (169) and entries (134) since the summits began at country level. The increase in the number of entries from different thematic areas were namely Leadership, Gender Based Violence (GBV), Sexual, Health and Reproductive Rights, Economic Justice & Education and Climate Change.

Below are quick facts for the summit:

The 2015 summit was by far the biggest challenge the Zimbabwe office had to meet considering the economic conditions. However, the office managed to successfully use their skill in negotiating to ensure that the Summit was undertaken. This also underlines the importance in the value of partnerships

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Emerging evidence of impact

Women advancing the cause for institutional transformation in the COEs:

Merjury Svisva is the Assistant Chamber Secretary for Marondera Town Council. Working in an environment dominated by men was a challenging undertaking for her. She soldered on in the face of gender inequality at institutional level that was quite apparent given that about 80% of the staff was male and she has this to say: “African society has been highly unequal in terms of gender and traditionally the sexual division of labour ascribed women the role of manual labourers and the situation eroded women’s rights along with their status in general. This can also be confirmed by the disparity in staffing levels at council.” Svisva is lobbying for every effort to broaden women’s participation at all levels of decision making and that council take practical steps to embrace the diversity of local communities to achieve gender equality, equity and justice in its policies and service delivery. She is willing to ensure that there is a change in some traditions and stereotyping of women that contrive to reinforce inequality, exclusion and gender neutral policies which fail to address practical gender needs. Svisva reiterates that “Council for a long time has had a male dominated management team and work force therefore I am also making an effort to ensure that council develop Human Resource policies which support gender equality and equity and promote a gender sensitive organisational culture as well as establish gender management systems that will safe guard the gender equality and gender justice of staff.”

Rural councils shine:  Rural Councils continued to lead the way in showcasing best practices throughout the COE programme as evidenced by the results at the 2015 National Summit.  Since 2013 Zvimba RDC has been the best overall COE council at the National and Regional Summits. This feat has now been taken over by yet another rural council, Hurungwe RDC who are the overall best COE council based on the 2015 national summit. It is essential to also note that even the upcoming rural councils like Mazowe, Umguza RDC and Zibagwe RDC are at the fore of exceptional gender mainstreaming as also evidenced by their exploits at the 2015 National Summit.

Ending GBV in localities:

Following the publication of the results of the Violence Against Women (VAW) Survey report in 2012, local authorities have moved on to use these to curtail GBV in their communities. GL has embarked on a drive to ensure that local authorities review and implement their GBV Action Plans making use of the VAW research findings. To date 10 local authorities have implemented these and have pledged to fight GBV. Rusape Town Council has pledged to monitor and evaluate the impact of all awareness campaigns as well as collect best practices on GBV. The 2015 summit also showed councils’ commitment to ending GBV as there were 26 best practices in the GBV category from various councils and institutions.

Lessons learned

• Male involvement in the COE process is key. Their support is essential as it can also show the changes that have occurred in their mind-sets and perceptions.
• The value of fostering relationships is a very important aspect to the survival of any organization. Partnerships are a foundation to which some work can be navigated easily e.g. International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD) played a crucial role in profiling GL at the Sweden HQ in Stockholm. Swedish Embassy facilitated the partnership between GL and ICLD.
• Team spirit and commitment is critical for the success of any project- as evidenced by the successful Swedish Embassy audit.
• Programming should go beyond workshops that end at policy-making level as the impact of the programme is usually felt at the grassroots levels. Councils are willing to implement their action plans, but they lack the necessary funding.
• COEs have evolved over the last few years with the growth of Gender structures going beyond the responsibility of the GFP. Councils and stakeholders alike are beginning to see the importance of integrating gender activities into all aspects of service provision. This has seen multi-stakeholder gender committees being formed.
• The sustainability of the COE process is critical, even beyond the completion of the 92 councils in Zimbabwe. It is essential that GL looks at other opportunities learnt in the COE process and integrate them into other projects or programmes that may ensure the continued existence of the Zimbabwe office.

Successes/Opportunities:

Throughout the programme period under review the country office has been met with successes as outlined below.

• Rolling out the COE process to 58 councils.
• Successfully hosting the 2015 District and National Summits.
• Launch of the Zimbabwe barometer.
• Conducting a study visit with the Government of Mauritius on the need for a representative quota for women in local government.
• Zimbabwe representatives at the regional summit managed to scoop overall most resourceful rural council (Makoni RDC) and runner-up most resourceful urban council (Bulawayo City Council).
• GL has been identified as one of the organizations with sound gender indicators and as such has been targeted to assist other organizations in developing these into their proposal documents by the Embassy of Sweden. This presents an opportunity for the office’s continued sustenance.

Next steps

• Entrepreneurship Programme and Growth of New Partnerships: The entrepreneurship programme has grown from 5 councils in 2013 to 10 in 2014. This is perhaps one of the avenues where GL has found the opportunity to forge new partnerships. The emancipation of women in this programme has seen their growth into entrepreneurs. The programme has seen GL getting into a partnership with a mobile service provider in a programme called the ‘vendorship programme’ where the entrepreneurs will market the service provider’s products for a commission. GL is currently concluding a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the network service provider.

• Donor Funding: GL Zimbabwe will continue to seek funding to implement their programmes. The ability of the office to acquire funding for programmes will prove to be critical in the survival of the country office. Since 2012 the Zimbabwe office has been backed up by funding from the Embassy of Sweden, whose grant is headed towards an end and it is vital that other opportunities are sought.

• COE cascading and roll out: Another important milestone that is closely linked with the organization’s ability to acquire funding will be the roll-out of the COE programme. GL Zimbabwe is currently in the process of concluding a second phase grant from the Embassy of Sweden. As such it will see the office rollout the COE process to 57 of the 92 councils in Zimbabwe by the end of 2015.

• Continued relations with the Alliance:The alliance has proved to be a critical partner in the implementation of alliance activities. As such it is critical to ensure that this partnership is not severed so that we may continue moving the activities of the alliance, particularly the Post 2015 Agenda which is critical to the work already done on the SADC Protocol.

Download : Zimbabwe-Local-Government-COE-Learning-Paper_tzkcpm_092015.pdf