The Global Gender Gap Report for 2022 has ranked Rwanda the first in closing gender balance on the African continent and number six in the world.
The Global Gender rankings are conducted by World Economic Forum annually and aims at improving gender balance, but also creating equal development opportunities for both males and females.
According to Global Gender Gap Index, the benchmarks of gender parity cuts across four key dimensions including Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
These factors are the longest-standing and help on tracking progress towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.
This year, Rwanda scored 81.1%, leading the African continent and ranking 6th on closing the gender gap.
Namibia scored 80.7%, becoming the second and 8th globally. In Africa, only Rwanda and Namibia featured in the list of top ten, according to the report.
Iceland leads global ranking with 90.8% score and other Scandinavian countries including Finland came second with 86% scores, Norway, third with 84.5% scores, New Zealand fourth with 84.1%, and Sweden with 82.2% on the fifth position.
For Latin America, only Nicaragua appeared on the list of the top ten with 81% scores on the 7th position.
Ireland scored 80.4%, in the ninth position and Germany came to close the list of top ten with 80.1%.
Rwanda is the first country in the world to have majority female representation in its parliament with 61.3%.
MP Chantal Mbakeshimana argued that schools must teach youngsters about gender equality if they are to develop a sense of equal rights.
Mbakeshimana who doubles as head Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum, stated that there are still gender inequalities in several industries that need to be closed by updating regulations and making use of available opportunities.
While there have been improvements in encouraging girls to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) disciplines and encouraging them to pursue their education, she believes that gender mainstreaming in schools still needs improvement.
“For pupils to grow up understanding what equal rights imply we need to impose gender equality education in schools at a young age,” she said.
