Chingola Municipal Council painting a compelling picture of Gender Equality.

There is a famous quote by Heraclitus that â € ˜change is the only thing that is constantâ € ™ in life. This is true for everything, everything flows, nothing remains the same except change, even for organisations such as Chingola Municipal Council change is the only constant thing. Chingola Municipal council is coming from a place where certain values were almost nonexistent in some councillors and employees. It was an organisation where most workers lacked the personal drive, the passion to be who they wanted to be. This was characterised by decreasing performance, lack of innovation and low employee motivation.

The organisation has under gone major transformation starting from policy driven changes to changes driven by the economy. The past was dotted with stories of councillors getting into council for the purpose of grabbing as much land as possible. Members of the community also would just set eyes on a piece of land and straight away begin to develop it without the consent of the Local authority. Land is such a great asset that one would just grab as many plots as he could and begin to sell them off one by one to have a constant source of income, the same applied even to the employees. Service delivery was not really top on their agenda. But since Chingola became a Centre of Excellence things have changed for the better. The council and the management have under the leadership of Town Clerk George Mulenga and Mayor Cuthbert Kalebaila come out strongly against all illegalities in terms of land allocation. The council has been strictly following the laid down procedures of letting off parcels of land to the general public by properly planning for the development, advertising and allocating accordingly while taking note of vulnerable groups such as women, and the marginalized in society who cannot qualify on merit of financial status.

At the same time the council has moved from a place where only a few women held management positions. In top management there are now three women and middle management has…… females and â € ¦males. Service delivery has also improved greatly. The members of the public are now gaining confidence in their local authorityâ € ™s abilities to deliver on their mandate. They are confident their needs will be attended to in the best way possible.

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