Summit 2019:City of Francistown Botswana

The gender champion is Mr Badubi Lekang and the gender focal person is Mrs Natasha Maphane. 54% of council’s total staff are women. Women also represent 25% of the council seats and 39% of the council management. The gender committee was appointed in May 2016 and the council’s previous score was 50%.

The council doesn’t have its own gender policy but implements the National Policy on Gender and development of 2015. As an improvement from last year, the council now has a Strategic plan for 2016-2020 which has been adopted. The strategic plan incorporates the Post 2015 SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, the SDGs and the National policy on Gender and Development.The city of Francistown signed the statement of commitment in August 2018, during the full council session.

The city has 24 councilors and like last year only 25 % of them are women. The city’s mayor is a woman and women occupy other senior positions in the council such the Chairperson in Finance, Chairperson in Social Development.

Workplace Policy and Practice

The council’s management is in full support of the gender agenda. This is evident in the fact that although the council has no budget for gender, all the committee’s activities were held without fail, such as the GBV Men’s seminar in July 2018, GBV fashion show in November 2018, and the National Gender and Development training for honourable councillors and the council’s management in September 2018.

Local Economic Development

The council has a LED committee in place and is currently consulting with the Ministry on financial assistance for the implementation of the projects. Meanwhile the council has market stalls that are awarded to women, men, PWD and youth, on an equal opportunity basis. The local procurement scheme is implemented at the local authority. For the financial year 2018/2019 tenders allocated to women stood at; January – March=1.3%, April-June=73%, July – September =36%, October – December =16%. The council promotes small businesses through its annual mini shows where private sector and parastatal s invited as a way to promote access to finance.

Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Council has an empowerment garden where members of the community practice conservation horticulture. There are 24 beneficiaries and 19 of them are women. Council discourages open burning of waste and also has a recycling project at the landfill.

Infrastructure and Social Development

10333 plots have been allocated thus far within the council and 7500 of the said plots have been allocated to women.28 persons who own plots have benefited from the SHHA turn key loan programme.

Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV & AIDS

The council has two officers trained in SRHR, who conduct SRHR related discussions fortnightly, during the council’s morning prayers. The council donated sanitary pads at Moremogolo primary school.

Ending Violence

The council has conducted various activities in pursuance of raising awareness on GBV such as the GBV men’s seminar and the GBV women’s seminar in held in July and August 2018 respectively. The council also held a GBV fashion show in November 2018 and it supports and empowers women through sunrise campaign. Moreover, the council refers GBV survivors to stakeholders addressing GBV issues such as the Police, S&CD and Gender Affairs Department and the streets of Francistown stay illuminated as a measure against GBV.

Communication, Campaigns and Visibility.The council has a Facebook page that is uses to communicate issues on gender and its activities.

Gender Management System-There is a gender committee in place that comprises of the gender focal person, the gender champion, the commissioner and the departmental focal person. The committee reports at the BALA committee and the issues from the BALA committee are reported to the executive committee and are eventually escalated to Full council for endorsement. In terms of monitoring and evaluation the gender focal person reports directly to the office of Deputy Town Clerk. The gender committee is also evaluated for council performance awards and it recently received an award as the best team in the organization.

Resource Allocation-The council has no budget for gender mainstreaming activities.

Challenges-One of the challenges the council faces is the absence of a budget to drive gender activities, hence the committee depends and operates by requesting funds from organizational departments in order to execute its mandate. There are also no donors to fund sunrise campaign projects. The number of GBV cases reported is still high and some people still misinterpret gender as a struggle for women only.

Lessons Learned and Innovation-The committee has resolved that Gender should be part of the strategic map of the council in order to intensify accountability.

Sustainability and Replication

For the sustainability of gender mainstreaming, gender activities should be on the overall recurrent budget. The Gender committee will continue to lobby to be included in the strategic map and to subsequently be cascaded to the political wing.