Ruacana realising gender equality

Ruacana Town Council joined other local authorities and became a Centres of Excellence on 26 June 2013 through a council resolution. This came about after council was identified to be one of the Centres of Excellence, hence realising that our council should also be part of the rest of the country by implementing the SADC Gender Protocol and help achieve the goals identified. In our case, it has been difficult to grasp the difference between  ‘integration ’ and  ‘mainstreaming ’ in the context of strategies and programmes on women ’s rights and gender equality as well as their own institutional change. This is not a semantic issue, as the difference has serious implications when it comes to understanding gender analysis in connection with strategies in favour of gender equality and equity.

It was during the week of 29 July 2013  – 02 August 2013 that we conducted stages 1-5 through consultative meetings with various stakeholders and thereby came about with our Gender Action Plan.  Council appreciate the fact that it was identified to be part of the Centre of Excellence for gender mainstreaming and therefore getting gender on our council ’s agenda. This major step was then followed by interventions that brought together policy, implementation, capacity building through-on-the-job training, monitoring and evaluation and the sharing of good practices at various events held. It is important to note that this process/programme has helped council (councillors and staff) as well as the community at large to get a better understanding of gender related issues and realise its importance.

Considering the timeframe, council has been active for seven months as a COE and realising the various goals identified and areas of improvement, there is much to be accomplished. However, there are some positive trends among others, such as implementing ideas of the National Gender Policy, have a female councillor as part of the gender champions which will translate in political will, fair representation of women as councillors and in management position, leadership training attended by both politicians and technocrats community mobilisation through civic education programmes and community meetings.