Summit 2016-Koeneng Council COE

Koeneng Community Council is situated in Bela Bela in the rural area of Berea District. The council has joined COE process in 2015.

The council consists of 17 members; 11 men and six women. The chairperson of the council is a woman and deputized by a man.There are three committees and two of them are chaired by women. The social services committee is chaired by a woman, hence more leverage in the decision making of the council.

The women in the council have equal voting rights as their male counterparts and they participate equally even at the public gatherings, between 51%-75% women are part of the decision makings made by the public.

There are seven council staff and three are women and one is in the management. The council has managed to employ females in positions that give them chance into the decision making of the council, physical planner and finance personal are one of them.

There is a provision for maternity leave of three months paid but none for paternity leave. After the first three months of giving birth the mother is again given nursing hours for the three months. The council does not have a sexual harassment policy but report cases at the police station if occur. The council’s building is disability-friendly and accommodates everybody.

Koeneng Community Council gender budget allocations for the 2017/2018

In terms of local economic development the council has embarked on a mission to attract women to engage in entrepreneurship, with the assistance from the Caritas Lesotho. It has also allocated market space for women and youth to sell their products and try to advertise their products at the council note board.

Land and housing;16 women have applied for land and there is also more interested in applying after the council taught them about land act. Also the council has provided community with water tanks, stand pipes and spring protections, this is to bring services closer to women as they are the ones who normally travel long distances to fetch some water. These were also used as gender based violence preventative measures has also help in the fight of gender based violence because most women are raped while they travelling to fetch some water.

Click here to read more about the Koeneng Community Council.