Lesotho: Khoelenya Communilty Council

Khoelenya Council will be the fourth council working with Gender Links in the district of Mohale’s Hoek. The council has in many instances approached the District gender officer wanting to become a COE and they thought it is about time that they also work with gender eye and make difference in their communities. The have been doing a lot of work with many organisations related to gender but have never been able to document the work or have a guiding tool such as the gender policy. The gender policy is therefore going to be a very useful tool to guide their work.

The council has put in place a number of gender-related policies to guide its work. The district council consist of 8 male councillors and 10 female councillors. The council aims to expand its percentage of female councillors from 56%. The Mayor, as well as the Deputy Mayor of the council are males.

The council is made up of four committees, two of which are chaired by women. 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 76 and 100 percent, women participate in public consultations.

The total workforce of the council employees consist of 59 percent women, and 41 percent youth. Women are only three of management. The council has Physical Planner as a woman. The Council amended the recruitment, selection and promotion policies to increase the proportion of women in the workforce. There seems to be a very good understanding of Gender Equality in our council and we even have a gender committee.

There are provisions for maternity and paternity leave. The council does have a sexual harassment policy. In cases related to Sexual harassment, they are reported at the police. Most of the time the Councillors brings such matter to the gender committee and the gender violence victims are advised to report such cases at the police or meet with the social workers.

The Khoelenya Community Council allocates a substantial budget to gender-related projects, these amounts have increased from 2015 to 2016.

There are no economic development plan, because our council does not have them as it is a rural based council. There are 25 beneficiaries benefiting from jobs created by the council, 15 women and 10 men.

Women, men, PWD, and youth are involved in the planning, management, and maintenance of water and sanitation. There is a total of 30 water and sanitation committees. There is 18 women and 12 men on the committees, eight of which are chaired by a women.

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