Gaborone City is situated between Kgale and Oodi Hills, near the confluence Ngotwane River and Segoditshane
River in the south eastern corner of Botswana, and 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the South African border. The Sir Seretse Khama International Airport serves the city. It is an administrative district in its own right, but is the capital of the surrounding South-East District. Locals often refer to the city, as Gabs Gaborone is the economic capital as well as the government capital; it is headquarters to numerous companies and the Botswana Stock Exchange. Gaborone is also home to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional economic community established in 1980. Many languages are spoken there, Setswana (Tswana) being the main tongue. English, iKalanga, and Kgalagadi are also spoken. Gaborone City Council is situated here.The council has a gender action plan 2016-2020, which incorporates the Post 2015 SADC Gender Protocol, SDGs and other targets. The progress of the action plan was presented to council management. The council Gender champion is Mr O. K. Mafal and Gender focal person is Ms M Keitshokile.The council has 36 members and 22% of them are women. Only 15% of women head council departments and 17% chair decision-making committees in council. People with disabilities chair 17%. Women, youth, PWDs participate in council consultations and decision-making through -kgotla meeting, workshops/seminars, and community committees (disability committees, CPCs (11), WDCs (48)).The council has gender sensitive services for instance it has tailor made toilets for people with disability and has provided parking lot spots for people with disability. The elderly clients of the council are treated with outmost care and respect they need (principle of botho). There is also a call centre/customer care (brochures) toll free 0880600061 that clients can call on.Gaborone City Council has allocated 6 market stalls to women funded under the poverty eradication scheme. It also has entrepreneurship finance schemes i.e. poverty eradication scheme. The council has furthermore collaborated with Gender Affairs Department, and various stakeholders. The council’s LED initiatives target destitute persons, unemployed persons, out of school youth and have a current enrolment 39 persons. Through its initiatives, the council has created employment for 211 men, 151 women, 7 youth and 1 person with disability.Through the council’s home economics initiative, emerged a graduate who makes a living out of crafts such as pottery, handbags and more, made from recycled waste. The council also has the Green school project in partnership with CSR company, which is a youth intervention targeting schools. Through green school project a school project competitions will be held and students individual essay and quiz competitions.In response to the president’s housing appeal, an elderly destitute person was built a house in Old Naledi by GCC. The house was handed over to her early November 2016. Gaborone City Council also has a day care centre whose sole purpose is to meet the needs of young mothers, orphans and vulnerable children. The children are admitted through a screening process and it is budgeted for annually.Gaborone City Council gender budget for the 2017 to 2018.
Category
Budget 2017
Budget 2018
Resources allocated to promoting gender equality in decision-making and public participation
$0
$0
Resources allocated to promoting gender equality/family friendly/ youth and disability friendly policies and practices
$66396
$66396
Resources allocated to gender-responsive local economic development
$0
$0
Resources allocated to promoting gender/youth/PWD responsive projects on climate change
$116956
$363300
For its efforts on ending violence the council disseminates information through stakeholder workshops/seminars. GCC has also participated BTV talk shows and radio stations to speak on these issues. The council targets the root cause of violence to reduce dependency on the perpetrators .To empower and support victims of violence it offers programs such as poverty eradication, youth centre (sewing), home economics projects such as bakery, sewing. More over council initiated Mosadi-Thari support group.GCC has a customer-care call centre, for information dissemination, overlooked by administration and the public relations office. There are publicly available pamphlets outlining the various departments of the council and their activities. GCC utilises media, radio stations and TV to sensitise the community. Three of the council’s disability empowerment workshops have been aired on the BTV news. CPCs trainings have also been aired on radio and BTV. The council has furthermore has also taken up the 50 minutes with the kids (video clip) UNICEF campaign.
The GCC gender structure includes the gender committee, which is yet to be trained and inducted, a youth focal person, a gender champion, and a gender focal person .Council management agreed that the committee meet on a regular basis to fast track gender work and reporting to management for support.Click here to read more about the Gaborone City Council
