Zambia – Mongu District Council

Mongu is the capital of Western Province in Zambia and was the capital of the formerly-named province and historic state of Barotseland. It is also the headquarters of Mongu District.

The progress that the council has made on this front include developing the Gender Action Plan to guide its work. The council has 24 councillors, but none of those have a female representative. The council is working towards implementing strategies to attain gender equality in Mongu.

The council has five committees. Out of all of these committees, none is being chaired by a woman. Women, youth and people with disabilities (PWD) still need to be involved in the council’s committees, especially because there is no Junior Council as well.

Young people, women, and PWD participate in community projects planned by the council. Between 26 and 50 percent women participate in the public consultations. Usually they participate in the community meetings to resolve the encroachment of the grave yard, sensitization meetings held to promote Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), training of Area Pump Menders, Community planning meetings for the World Bank funded project (Pilot – Programme on Climate Resilience), and formation of satellite disaster committees in disaster prone communities.

The council’s workforce has a total of 43% men, 13% women, 43% youth and 1% PWD. There are two women in the council’s management. The Assistant Civil Engineer and Admin Officer are both women. Women are also in Health and Community Development. Recently, a woman who had upgraded her education was promoted as a Community Development Assistant.

The council has provisions for maternity leave and paternity leave. Maternity leave takes three months and one month for paternity leave. The council has no policy against sexual harassment. There has not been any reported case of sexual harassment. However, it has been proposed to develop one by September 2017. All office blocks have rams, and security guards have been assigned to assist people with disabilities who come to seek for help. The council also have plans to construct modern toilets which are disability friendly.

The Mongu council allocated budget for some gender related projects in 2016.

As part of the council’s local economic development plan, it has promoted registration of women clubs and encouraging them to develop businesses. Also, many youth members have been engaged as suppliers and contractors by the council. This strategy helps to uproot entrepreneurs and help the people to gain basic income to survive.

Women, men, PWD, and youth are involved in the planning, management, and maintenance of water and sanitation. There is a total of 8140 water and sanitation committees. There are 2442 women and 5698 men on the committees. Women chair 200 committees of water and sanitation.

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