Municipal Council of Quatre-Bornes COE Institutional Profile

Living up to the slogan of “Ville de Fleurs” (the flower town)

“The Score Card is a real eye opener. We now know where we are, what the gaps are and what need to be done to
breach the gap” the Mayor

Change is possible when there is commitment from the top.

The New Local Government Act with its gender neutral quota has done miracle in Mauritius. From 6.4% women in local government the figure has gone up to 31%. In 2012 the Mayor was the only woman to sit at the Council table. Now there are more women than men: eight women councillors compared to seven male councillors. Quatre Bornes has become a model as far as female councillors are concerned.

The Municipal Council of Quatre Bornes has shown lots of resistance to Gender Links Centre of Excellence. It was difficult to organise workshops but when we finally did all became quite smooth and Gender Links did all the stages of the Centre of Excellence. An Action Plan was developed but it never went to Council and yet the Mayor was a woman when all this work was done.

Gender Links has not been able to work with the Council to develop a strategic campaign on Climate Change or Local Economic Empowerment of Women like it has done in other Councils. But to give credit to the Council, the former Mayor helped Gender Links in organising a workshop for women in politics.
At the meeting for the verification the Mayor committed herself to put the Action Plan on the Agenda of the Council and this will be discussed at Council meeting of 22nd February 2013.
Although the Action Plan has not been tabled yet, part of the policy framework and especially governance and climate are being implemented.
While doing the verification it was pointed out that Quatre-Bornes is at the heart of development with the cyber city and all facilities offered. The flea market in Quatre-Bornes is very popular with Mauritians and tourists. The good sports facilities are used by men and women, old and young all participants climate change. The Council gives a variety of wellness courses for women of all ages.

The main challenges have been finance, lack of staff and no real commitment in gender issues from the former Council. The former Mayor was the only woman on Council. The Welfare Officer in charge of activities on gender was on maternity leave and nobody took over from her activities. The Council did not participate in the cyber dialogue training given by Gender Links for the 16 days campaign. There has been a lack of communication between staff.

On a positive note the Mayor herself has taken the commitment to send the Gender Action Plan to Council so that it is approved before the Summit. The Council is now more aware on gender issues. Climate change is among one of the priorities of the Council. The Council will make sure that all households have free bins. Women are being trained on composting.
“The score card has been a real eye opener. We know where we are, where there are gaps and what need to be done to breach the gaps.”

After the meeting with Gender Links, the Council agreed to go more towards grassroots and organise job fairs to encourage women to do their own businesses.

The Municipal Council of Quatre-Bornes is the Council with the biggest number of female Councillors. There was a high level of commitment when the verification was done. Women chair high level Committee and are putting new items on the Agenda.

According to Statistics Mauritius on development index, Quatre-Bornes is among the top.
The Council is twinning with St. Benoit in Reunion Island and do regular exchange programmes. The most popular one being the tour of the town in Quatre-Bornes as well as in St. Benoit.

The Council has a good collaboration with the private sector and sponsor the best sportsperson on a regular basis. There is also a good collaboration with the National Computer Board.

Now that all councillors are new the participants present said they would like to see more workshops by Gender Links and invite male to participate. Giving a Driver of Change Certificate for the Council at the Summit as a recognition that the Council is doing well will be a good incentive.

The Council must have a better partnership with the Ministry of Health to put projects on HIV and AIDS.

Gender Links agreed to help the Council to help them develop a policy on Sexual Harassment and once this is done the policy will be put up on strategic places.