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I am an auditor in the Council, and I am the head of the department. We do management oriented appraisals of Council functions and activities to determine their appropriateness in the context of Council objectives (including, but not restricted to accounting and financial management information, performance monitoring and control systems). I review the reliability of accounting and financial management, assess the systems of internal control, evaluate the compliance with relevant legislation, local law, local law policies, Council policies, operating guidelines and delegations, and the protect assets and resources under the control of management. I am also responsible for offering independent and confidential advice on action to be taken to improve operational effectiveness, efficiency and economy.
As the department of audit at the Council, what we are now trying to address is the problem of gender balance. In our department there are only two people and both are males. We hope to correct the anomaly and have a bias towards females. We have to ignore the principle of justice where we employ someone on the basis of competency only. I just hope that the gender policy we have drafted will be adopted and used as soon as possible so that our gender issues may be rectified.
I first worked with Gender Link in 2009. I was a new employee in the Ruwa Town Council, and I went to a workshop on Gender mainstreaming. Gender Links has taught us many things, such as gender mainstreaming, budgeting for gender issues in our Council budget, and also that we must have a gender policy for the organisation rather than wait upon the national gender policy. They are a good organization, and they must keep the momentum on gender moving.
Gender issues had never been of concern to me as an individual; I just thought that things were good as they were until I met Gender Links. My view for women has now completely changed. I have now learned to accept other people’s ideas, especially my female counterparts. I was used to viewing them as those people who are marginalized. I thought that they did not have anything meaningful to contribute. Through Gender Links, I have come to understand that gender equality does not mean that women and men will become the same, but rather imply equal treatment of women and men in laws and policies, and equal access to resources and services within families, communities and society at large.
Gender equality is not solely a women’s issue; in fact, it seeks to tailor activities to the beneficiaries of the project from both sexes. I have also learned that gender equality is to the advantage of both men and women, and cannot be achieved without the full engagement of both. As Council, we are working to adopt the draft gender policy that we have, and start making use of it.
My future plans start with encouraging the department that I work for to engage a female auditor, so that we have a balance. I would like to see the gender policy draft being adopted by the council and being used. This is the first step I wish the council must take so that everything as far as gender is concerned may start happening. Then we can start to look at matters of the budget and equal opportunity.
I would also like to take a role in encouraging other female workmates to further their studies so that they can have equal opportunities to their male counterparts. I am quite happy at the moment that at this council we have a chief executive officer who is a woman. That should inspire other females, so that they can also assume more senior positions in any workplace, just like men. Personally, in a business I am running I would like to train my wife so that she can manage it.
3 thoughts on “Nathaniel Munhamo – Zimbabwe”
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Gender mainstreaming is the only way to go. Proponents of gender equality are encouraged to support all efforts aimed at redressing gender inequality in any organisation.
bm how are you