Rwanda has been crowned the 2025 WPL Award for Women’s Political Leadership. The award was announced at the WPL Summit 2025 in Montenegro and received by Senator Esperance Nyirasafari, who represented Rwanda. ALSO READ: Over 50% Rwandan judges are women – official The WPL Country Award that is based on the annual ranking of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report and the Inter-Parliamentary Union's ranking of Women in Politics. With 63,75% of parliamentary seats held by women, Rwanda has been honored for leading the world in women’s political representation. WPL Awards recognize and celebrate the achievements of leading women politicians or countries, whose leadership represents and inspires change. WPL Awards are in three categories. There is the WPL Award for Lifetime Achievement, which is given to outstanding female politicians who have shown with their work that it is possible to break the glass ceiling and ensure women have the place they deserve in politics. There is also the WPL Trailblazer Award, which is presented to incumbent and former women presidents and prime ministers for breaking political glass ceilings and reaching the highest echelon of political leadership. ALSO READ: Rwandan women trailblazers celebrated at 2024 Women in Leadership Summit and Awards The WPL Country Award comes third and acknowledges countries for their political empowerment of women, and countries that show regional leadership in closing the gap between women and men in politics. The aim is to inspire other countries to lead by the same example. The Index featured in the Global Gender Gap Report assesses 135 countries, representing more than 93% of the world’s population, on how well resources and opportunities are divided among male and female populations.
