Urban municipality of Soavinandriana
Urban municipality of Soavinandriana
A center of excellence since 2011, the urban municipality of Soavinandriana is located in the Itasy region. With around 46,633 population over an area of 192 km², the council has 14,000 hectares of arable land, of which 10,648 hectares are already cultivated. The school enrollment rate is 54.7%, with 33 primary schools, 1 middle school, and 1 high school. The has 4 hospitals and is known for its tourist sites.
Introduction
The municipality of Soavinandriana is a town and an urban council belonging to the district of Soavinandriana in the region Itasy. It is located 141 km from Antananarivo of the RNI and RN 43 of the town of Analavory. It has been estimated that the population of the municipality is approximately 44,669, the geographical area is 220 Km2, has 33 Fokontany (village). The municipality of Soavinandriana is a winner in the competition "council MENDRIKA 2008" thanks to the technical and financial support of the SAHA Program, it has been able to apply the principles of good governance.
Agriculture, livestock breeding, fish farming, and educational activities are the main occupations of the population. The integration of the gender approach is important for this municipality because it allows for greater efficiency in administrative and budgetary measures and a better evaluation of their respective impacts on men and women in the municipality. The presence of women at the level of the municipal administration allows them to express their opinion, thus giving a more global vision to the municipality; they are well connected at the grassroots level and, through their participation, open up local dialogue between the "Fokonolona" (population) and the council.
It can offer equal access to local services and allow women and men to exert an equal influence on the nature and quality of these services. It also allows to promote fair representation and participation from the Fokontany to the level of the municipality, which is to say at all levels and in all decision-making spheres. Women and men can express their grievances during the sessions at which decisions are taken.
The existence of the action plan initiated by Gender Links has brought a lot of change at the community level in the council. It has improved the functioning of the service with municipal officials. The existence of the gender committee legally created at the end of the training initiated by GL allowed women or men victims of violence to denounce in order to break the silence. The COE process makes the municipality more accessible to local women, peasants, because they can better identify with their communities more than in the past.
This change could take place thanks to the improvement of the quality of service offered to users, the capacities for coordinating care in cases of violence based on gender (responsibility shared between stakeholders but in a complementary manner), budget planning that takes into account the elements stipulated in the action plan "gender and development". The municipality of Soavinandriana has a good reputation compared to other municipalities thanks to the name «GENDER EQUALITY CENTER AND FIGHT AGAINST VIOLENCE».
