President Paul Kagame receiving the Gender Champion Award alongside Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, July 2016
Women Deliver Conference(WD2023) has chosen Rwanda, the champion of gender equality as their venue for the 2023 conference.
Women Deliver is a platform that brings together various people across the world to discuss the challenges women face and come up with tangible solutions for the inclusion and equal global community.
As one of the largest multi-sectoral convening to advance gender equality, WD2023J will convene 6,000 people in Kigali and 200,000+ people online through the virtual Conference, between from July 17 through July 20.
This year, the conference will spend good time on several topics, including; catalyzing collective action to advance gender equality, holding leaders accountable, empowering the feminist movement, reframing the “Who Leads” and creating space.
WD2023 is the sixth season, and before Kigali, it happened in London, Washington DC, Kuala Lumpur, Denmark, and Vancouver.
It will be its first time on the African continent and Rwanda will be hosting this big event.
Organisers said, it was not by accident to bring the conference to the country of a Thousand Hills.
“Rwanda stands tall both globally and on the African continent, in terms of women’s representation in decision making,” organisers write.
Some of the achievements are first of all to do with institutions that promote gender equality where a woman finds space and place.
Those include the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), the National Women Council (NWC), the Gender Monitoring Office (GMO) and Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum (FFRP).
In the legal framework, achievements that were cited include the 30% quota of women in decision making organs which is provided in Rwanda constitution.
The First Lady joined other women leaders to celebrate the achievements of RWLN and at the same time launch the AWLN-Rwanda Chapter in March this year
In this area, more organic laws provide for equality of men and women in electoral process, where a woman and a man have the same rights as candidates, voters, and observers.
Same applies to laws providing for equal allocation of finances among men and women and equal rights in participation of political parties’ activities.
Meanwhile, Rwanda globally leads in terms of women representation in governance with a high number of women in Parliament (61.3% female members) and ranked 6th globally (WEF/Global Gender Gap Report, 2022) in closing gender gaps.
At the grass root level, women represent 44.3% of community mediators (Abunzi) and 48% of the access to Justice Bureaus (MAJ). One of the MAJ staff in each District is in charge of GBV and child abuse related issues.
Women’s access to formal financial products has increased from 63% to 74% for women and 74% to 81% for men.
President Paul Kagame poses for a photo with women during his visit in Nyamasheke on August 27, 2022. Political will drives gender equality in Rwanda
According to the RDB’s recent annual report, female ownership of businesses increased from 27 per cent in 2017 to 34 per cent in 2022, indicating a trend towards greater gender balance in the private sector.
In efforts to prevent and protect every citizen against GBV, the Government established Isange One Stop Centres across all district hospitals. Currently the Isange project is operating in more than 44 district hospitals. Such services have supported victims of GBV to access services in one roof.
In addition to Isange services across districts, Legal aid services have also been decentralized at district level through MAJ staff. Recently, the Ministry of Justice (MINIJUST) assigned MAJ staff at Isange One stop centres.
