Summit 2016: Gaborone City Council

Gaborone is the  capital  city of Botswana and located in the South Eastern Region of Botswana. The city is served by the  Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. It is an administrative district in its own right, but is the capital of the surrounding South East District Council. Locals often refer to the city as Gabs. Gaborone is also home to the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It joined the COE programme in 2010.

The council has put in place a number of gender-related policies to guide its work. The district council consist of 28 male councillors and 8 female councillors. The council aims to expand its percentage of female councillors from 22%. The Mayor, as well as the Deputy Mayor of the council are males.

The council is made up of 6 committees, one of which is chaired by woman. There are more women employed than men in their Workforce of the council.

Young people, people living with disabilities (PWD) and community members participate in community-based planning projects and meetings. Between 51 and 75 percent, women participate in public consultations.

The total workforce of the council employees consist of 52 percent women. The Council amended the recruitment, selection and promotion policies to increase the proportion of women in the workforce.

There are provisions for maternity leave but none for paternity leave. The council does not have a sexual harassment policy. Cases related to Sexual harassment, the council does not have an in-house policy but rather uses the regulations set by the government such as employment act and the public service act.

The Gaborone City Council allocates a substantial budget to gender-related projects, these amounts have increased from 2016 to 2017.

As part of the of the Council’s local economic development plan, six stands were allocated to women who have been funded under the poverty eradication scheme by council. There are 362 beneficiaries benefiting from jobs created by the council, 151 women and 211 men.

Click here to read more about the Gaborone City Council.