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Gwanda is a town in Zimbabwe. It is the capital of the province of Matabeleland South, one of the 10 administrative provinces in the country. The name Gwanda derives from the Ndebele word Kwanda. Gwanda’s largest and oldest suburb derives its name from that of a nearby hill known as Jahunda. It is located approximately 122 kilometres , by road, southeast of Bulawayo, the nearest large city. This location lies on the Bulawayo-Beitbridge road and railway. The town of Beitbridge, at Zimbabwe’s border with the Republic of South Africa, lies approximately 220 kilometres, further southeast.
The council has a gender policy that guide their operations vis-à-vis gender and service provision. Currently, there are no female councillors in Gwanda. Council has a junior council that is composed of more boys than girls whose leader is female. In Gwanda young people, people with disabilities and women in the community participate mostly in participate freely in consultative meetings, i.e, budget meetings. In most consultative meetings, women attendance is usually higher than that of men. Between 51-75% of women participate in public consultations.
Gwanda has a total workforce of 133 (88 men; 45 women). There aretwo women in the management team at Gwanda one of whom is the Town Secretary. In addition to the Town Secretary, the Director of Housing and Community Services Department, Deputy Director Of Finance, and the Human Resources Officer are women working in non-traditional areas of work.
Zimbabwe by law prescribes maternity leave thus Gwanda provisions for it. The council does not prescribe to paternity leave. The council’s is still to experience any reports of sexual harassment in the workplace. The council has ensured Disability-friendly access to people with disability. Almost all the Council buildings have ramps and the communal toilets are accessible to the disabled. The Communal taps are at elbow length hence accessible to the wheelchair users.
Gwanda allocates a substantial budget to gender-related projects, these amounts have varied from 2016 to 2017.
Category | Budget 2016 | Budget 2017 |
Resources allocated to gender policy process and action planning | $1 000 | $1 000 |
Resources allocated to promoting gender equality in decision-making and public participation | $2 000 | $2 000 |
Resources allocated to promoting gender equality/family friendly/ youth and disability friendly policies and practices | $1 000 | $2 000 |
Resources allocated to gender-responsive local economic development | – | – |
Resources allocated to promoting gender/youth/PWD responsive projects on climate change |
$2 000 |
$50 000 |
Resources allocated to promoting gender/ youth and disability friendly infrastructure and social development policies and practices |
$20 000 |
$15 000 |
Resources allocated to promoting gender/ youth and disability friendly SRHR, HIV and AIDS programmes | $5 000 | $5 000 |
Resources allocated to ending gender violence | $1 000 | $3 000 |
Resources allocated to visibility for the Council’s Gender Action Plan | $1 000 | $2 500 |
Resources allocated to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning for the Council’s Gender Action Plan | $1 000 | $1 000 |
In the area of sexual reproductive health and rights council holds campaigns in different wards from time to time. The Local Clinic usually works in collaboration with the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council and National AIDS Council campaigns from time to time around the town offering family planning advice.
Click here to read more about Gwanda Municipality.
Comment on Summit 2018 – Municipality of Gwanda COE