Address gender imbalance collectively, women activists say

Rwandans, civil society organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have been urged to join hands in the fight against gender imbalance in the country. The call was made by Mary Immaculate Ingabire, Rwanda’s representative to the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Women Forum on Wednesday. Ingabire was speaking during consultations on the preparation for the 58th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) due in New York from March 10 to 21. “Generally, girls are tasked to do domestic chores after school while their male counterparts are left to play,” she noted. Ingabire said the forthcoming global meeting will present Rwanda with an opportunity to showcase its good practices in the area. Donah Kamashazi, the UN Women Rwanda programmes specialist, said though the government is committed to fostering women emancipation, implementation remains a challenge. “A lot has been achieved in the past year with regard to gender-based issues. For instance, we had only two one-stop centres but we expect to have 27 by the end of the year,”she noted. The centres provide counselling and primary health care to gender violence victims. She pointed out that the meeting will highlight gender mainstreaming issues. “This consultative workshop aims at finding a uniform position as the Rwandan delegation before heading to the global meeting,” she noted. Rose Rwabuhihi, the Chief Gender Monitor, said the meeting aimed at assessing the progress, existing challenges, and finding possible solutions. According to statistics from the Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), Rwandan men in the country work for an average of 31 hours per week, while women work for 24 hours only. Rwanda has made tremendous strides in women empowerment; for instance, it remains the only country in the world with a female dominated parliament. Female parliamentarians occupy 64 per cent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies (51 out of the 80 seats in the Lower House).

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Address gender imbalance collectively, women activists say