Goromonzi Rural District Council

50 50 men used to be very scary about this word some even assumed that women now wanted to take their fatherhood positions thereby would mean that the wives would disobey them. Although work was done we never bothered to see how far we where mainstreaming gender. As a local authority we did not budget for gender specific Most men in the district were not willing to attend the meetings thinking that it was a women thing that was there to destroy their marriages as women were going to be the family heads .In the first by in meeting one of the councilors was not happy about addressing gender issues he shouted out and said that “what is so special about gender “yet there are people with disabilities and hunger. We became a centre of Excellency in November 2012. After becoming a Centre of Excellency as a local authority we advocated for a responsive gender budgeting that contributed to the advancement of gender equality and fulfillment of women ’s rights. We try by all means to identify and to carry out needs assessment to address gender gaps. With the little resources available we try to provide a sustainable economy to our community .We seek to advocate and educate our communities on gender issues. We started showing gender segregated data on our minutes. Gender based violence and climate change messages are now on bill statements, bins and the Planning department. New polices were formulated to address gender issues. Functions campaigns used to happen but only a report was produced now we have increased our evidences and documentation we are now taking photos and videos .Also we have noted that we need to include people from the media to showcase our workers in all corners but it was silent and not documented. After several trainings of various leaders and the community gender is now everybody ’s talk .Its mandatory to conscientious the community at any gathering about gender mainstreaming. Every activity done now should be gender balanced. The communities are now gender aware and various structures put in place in all the wards to make sure that there is gender talk and gender agenda. The management is now gender sensitive, a bye inn for local leaders was done and it was a success.