Partnerships

  Fact file Country South Africa Province/Region Western Cape Baseline score Post 2015 score Population 102024 Number of women councillors 11 Number of men councillors  13 Joined the COE programme […]

Fact file Country South Africa Province/Region  Eastern Cape Baseline score Post 2015 score Population 834, 997 Number of women councillors  22 Number of men councillors  38 Joined the COE programme […]

  Fact file Country South Africa Province/Region  Eastern Cape Baseline score Post 2015 score Population 867, 864 Number of women councillors  24 Number of men councillors  36 Joined the COE […]

Photo Fact file Country  South Africa Province/Region Northern Cape Baseline score  50 Post 2015 score Population   61,321 Number of women Councillors  18 Number of men Councillors  23 Joined the […]

957 528 Photo Fact file Country South Africa Province/Region Gauteng Baseline score Post 2015 score Population 957 528 Number of women councillors  21 Number of men councillors  25 Joined the […]

This case study traces the origins, challenges and successes of work by Gender Links (GL) to establish Centres of Excellence (COE’s) for Gender in Local Government in 143 councils across ten Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.

Reflecting GL’s growing confidence in managing complex partnerships, Irish AID approached GL to help manage the implementation of a GBV project in the Limpopo province of South Africa after the provincial government failed to deliver. Both the Limpopo Department of Health and Irish Aid expressed satisfaction at the efficiency and innovativeness of GL.

The partnership between Gender Links and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development (MWAGCD) goes back to the time when both organisations were lobbying for the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, in 2008. Gender Links did a lot of capacity building work for member states around lobbying.

Gender Links and the Ministry of Gender and Youth, Sports and Recreation (MGYSR) have been working in cooperation for more than a decade. “We first started working with Gender Links when SADC was holding a conference on SADC gender ministers in Lesotho on violence against women and children; that’s now 13 years ago,” muses Matau Futho-Letsatsi, of MGYSR.

The Ministry of Gender and Child Development (MGCD) in Zambia and Gender Links enjoy a strategic partnership that cuts across three of the four GL programme areas: Alliance, Gender Justice and Governance.

The Swaziland Local Government Association (SWALGA) is the single representative and authoritative voice for all the Urban Local Authorities in the Kingdom of Swaziland.

On the 28th November 2011, Gender Links and SWALGA held a meeting and discussed issues of the Centres of Excellence process in Swaziland, challenges faced by GL in working with councils and a partnership.