FEATURED: Catholic Relief Services: Embracing innovation, technology to promote gender equality

Each year, on March 8, the world celebrates the International Women’s Day to honor the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The theme for this year is “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality,” which is aligned with the priority theme for the upcoming 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW-67). Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is an international organization committed to help poor and vulnerable people overcome emergencies, earn a living through innovative programs that combine nutrition, agriculture, economic strengthening, early childhood development, and youth empowerment to ensure that the most vulnerable households achieve integral human development and reach their full potential in an atmosphere of peace, social justice, and human dignity. Catholic Relief Services ensures that gender equality and women empowerment is given a priority in all programs and projects implemented in Rwanda and embraces technology to address the digital gender gap for both rural and urban participants. To champion the advancement of transformative digital technology for gender equality in youth entrepreneurs particularly those in rural areas, CRS implements in Rwanda the Youth for Youth project. This project provides hybrid solutions to some of the most pressing problems young entrepreneurs face in rural Rwanda. It provides them with digital and in person support and strengthens the enabling environment and ensures that it is inclusive of young women and their specific needs. The project prioritizes the gender equality profiles, by equally recruiting youth entrepreneurs of both sexes without any discrimination to participate in the project and by supporting the creation and training of field agents or private service providers (PSPs) as well as youth network agents (YNAs), mentors and other networking support. The Y4Y intends to reach 75,976 participants including women and girls to help them become digitally literate and access digital relevant business development services. In the same framework of empowering youth, CRS supports the youth to create their own microenterprises, while others get linked to paid employment. In 2022, CRS through the partnerships with the church, local authorities and the private sector, supported 3,212 youths (51% female) to be employed or start their own businesses. Among them, 2,533 (50% female) created their own income generating activities. From 2021, CRS is partnering with the government of Rwanda and other consortium organizations to improve maternal, infant, child and adolescent nutrition and development through the USAID funded Gikuriro Kuri Bose program. As child malnutrition continues to persist globally, various resources confirm that women carry the bulk of workload related to childcare, food security and child nutrition and development. The role of men in supporting children’s nutrition needs to be intensified. The USAID funded Gikuriro Kuri Bose program is using various approaches including male engagement in positive parenting using awareness raising sessions to encourage men’s engagement in child nutrition and development. The Gikuriro Kuri Bose program conducted a gender analysis in the districts of Rwamagana, Kicukiro, Burera, Nyanza and Nyamasheke to deeply understand the gender dynamics in the community. The program also promotes couple communication and formed “the fathers support groups” to strengthen men’s engagement in families’ nutrition and child development. The program digitally initiated and registered the Savings and Internal Lending Community (SILC) groups to boost vulnerable families’ economy to support them meet their nutritional needs. Women’s participation in SILC stands at 88% compared to men’s participation. To keep moving gender equality forward, CRS delivers equal digital and personal support to young men and women so they can reach their full potential, enhance their living conditions and have profitable businesses and regularly collect feedback and constraints hindering them from enjoying their access to some opportunities, support or rights in all project intervention. Catholic Relief Services joins the world to celebrate the International Women’s Day 2023 and will continue to contribute towards advancing gender equality and women empowerment.

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FEATURED: Catholic Relief Services: Embracing innovation, technology to promote gender equality