Summit 2016 – Zvimba Rural District Council COE

Zvimba Rural District Council is located in Mashonaland West Province, with a population of 263,020. Zvimba RDC covers an area of 6 275 square kilometres. It is known for its Agriculture activity. One of the few local authorities in Zimbabwe which boasts of a stand-alone gender committee.

The Council has a gender policy that was adopted in December 2012. The Post 2015 SADC Gender Protocol, action plans were written and submitted to gender links country office on the 31st of October 2016. Council has a high profile champion in the gender focal person who spearheads the gender policy and action plans. The council has 35 councillors, of which 24 are men and 11 are women. The Deputy Mayor is a female.

Women, PWD and youth actively participate in the council work through consultative meetings in wards such as ward development committee meeting, budget consultation meetings. Normally the number of women surpasses the number of males in these meeting and women contributes evocatively to issues on the agenda as most of the development issues have to do with women and youth.

Zvimba Council has allocated a budget for promoting gender-related projects, from 2015 and 2016.

Category	Budget 2015	Budget 2016
Resources allocated to promoting gender equality in decision-making and public participation	$783 707	$783 707
Resources allocated to promoting gender equality/family friendly/ youth and disability friendly policies and practices	$40 000	$40 000
Resources allocated to gender-responsive local economic development	$20 000	$24 500
Resources allocated to promoting gender/youth/PWD responsive projects on climate change	$31 175	$31 175

Zvimba Rural District Council prior to becoming a centre of excellence had no female head of department. After becoming a centre of excellence council then adopted an affirmative action on recruitment. Zvimba District Council created a town board in Banket and it wanted an administrator or Manager. Three people scored highest in the interviews and the third person was a female.

Most of the flea markets stalls in the council are used by females. The percentage of stall allocation to females is about 80. This is part of the council’s economic development plane to assist the residents to be able to sustain themselves economically.