Summit 2018 : Chobe District Council Botswana

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Entry 13855

Chobe District Council winner of COE rural[/caption]

Chobe District is located on the northern part of Botswana, where the country shares its border with Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Chobe District is the home to the famous Chobe national park, the second largest in the country and a home to one of the largest elephant’s population in the world. The tourism attraction of Botswana, Chobe District attracts tourist with its river, Chobe River, which gives amazing views to the wild life in the national park.

The council has a gender policy and action plan that incorporates the Post 2015 SADC Gender and has a high profile gender champion who is the Deputy Council Secretary (Technical). The council has a gender committee made up of a Chairperson, Secretary, Focal person, Gender champion and 8 members. The committee utilizes the gender action plan for monitoring and evaluation.The council’s gender champion is Mr. Lesang Leloba, who is the Deputy Council Secretary under Technical Services, and the gender focal person is Ms Reginah Lesedinyana Mojaphoko. There council has 8 council men and only one council woman. Women represent 37.5% of the council management and 45.9% of the overall staff. The council has a gender policy and action plan that incorporates the Post 2015 SADC Gender and has a high profile gender champion who is the Deputy Council Secretary (Technical).The representation of women in council management currently stand at 37.5%, which is 6 women and 10 men. The percentage is a 17.6% increase from 2016, when there were only 2 women in management .Women in the council occupy positions of architect, physical planner, electrical engineer, roads engineer, water engineer and attorney. Moreover women, youth and PWDs within the Chobe District are free to participate in council consultations and are involved in decision-making processes through forums like Kgotla meetings, workshops and seminars.In order to foster gender practices within the workplace, the Chobe District Council has structural design elements within its premises in consideration of PWDs. PWD s have for instance reserved parking, toilets specifically designed and reserved for them, ramps to accommodate wheelchair users. The District also has within it the only school that caters for children living with disabilities, that has boarding facilities. It has furthermore hired caretakers for PWD’s under the council’s care, one male for boys and 8 women for the girls.

Entry 13857

Local Economic Development The council has 8 market stalls located by the bus rank .3 of the stalls have been allocated to   PWDs, 2 to youth and 3 to women .Council through the S&CD organizes workshops for PWDs, women and youth to acquire skills to start their own business. The council allows the women, youth, PWDs to enter into CESSION agreements in order to assist them with funds to fulfill tenders awarded to them. In relation to LED funds the council has allocated P64 854.50 to women and youth catering companies, P306 883.00 to w omens groups supplying bread to primary schools and P4984. 00 to a youth company that supplies land fill cover material. 20% of the LED funds were allocated to disadvantaged grouChobe District Council gender budget for the 2017 to 2018.

	2018	2017
Resources allocated for the processes around gender mainstreaming	58182	58182
Resources to promote employment equity	1028	1028
Resources allocated for gender specific programming	0	0
Resources allocated to gender responsive mainstream activities	416423	416423
TOTAL GRB $	495833	495833
TOTAL BUDGET $	10200000	10200000
% GRB/overall budget	1.7

On issues of climate change and sustainable development the district has women who produce flower pots from paper mache, a woman who does landscaping and sells ornamental trees. There are also people within the community who salvage metal at the landfill. The Council also supports the Kachikau special unit where children and people living with disability use paper mache to make artifacts and beads from paperChobe district has allocated land to 1167 people in total. 367 of the sum were male and 800 of the sum were female. In its effort for social development, it has established reception classes at 9 of the 10 primary schools that are within the Chobe District. One of the reception classes was a donation by the Japanese embassy and meant for low-income parents who cannot afford to take their children to private paid pre- schools.The council has an Education, Health and Social Services Committee, which deals with various issues, including water and sanitation. It also has a water reticulation project along Nyunge road for new plots and a sanitation project, which has utilized as labor, persons from low-income groups to empty cages in 8 villages. The tender for the latter project was awarded to a woman. Every Wednesday morning the council has wellness meetings where issues relating to sexual reproductive health and HIV /AIDS are discussed and an invited health workers sometimes  facilitate these discussions. Condoms are placed in all the toilets within the council premises.Women, youth and PWDs have equal access to health care .The main hospital also has a youth clinic and preference is given to women and PWDs. Moreover, the hospital has a special arrangement with the Kachikau Special Unit that enables them to assist children with disabilities under the council’s care.The council’s efforts towards fighting GBV are through morning discussions with staff about such issues.  The council also uses platforms such as kgotla meetings and school addresses to raise awareness on GBV issues and participates in public awareness initiatives by other entities such as 1 billion rising.The council assists GBV survivors within the district with their business funded under LED financing. They also support them organizing market days and purchasing the products made through these businesses. Gender Links has trained 20 women under Entrepreneurship training and taking part on the sunrise campaign. The council’s gender committee sets a stall whenever there are public awareness activities within the district.