Rwanda will this week host the Women Deliver Conference, which has brought together at least 6,000 participants who will attend the meeting physically, and over 200,000 who have registered to participate online from different countries. This is one of the largest multi-sectoral gatherings with an aim of promoting gender equality. It has attracted multitudes of participants including grassroots advocates, multilateral governments, the private sector, philanthropies, and youth, including from and representing communities facing systemic discrimination. ALSO READ: Women Deliver: A look at the pre-conferences It is an opportunity to delve into different issues that inhibit gender equality and come up with actionable recommendations to address challenges affecting the advancement of women and girls in the global community. While Rwanda has made significant progress in promoting gender equality across different sectors, there is still a long way to go and hosting such gatherings will help our policymakers, gender equality activists and other stakeholders to learn best practices from elsewhere to address some of the prevalent challenges. ALSO READ: Meet the inspiring voices at Women Deliver 2023 Some of these challenges that Rwanda still grapples with despite gains in gender equality include gender based violence, unpaid care work, and some culturally ingrained biases which undermine the implementation of the good laws that are in place to promote equality. That the meeting brings together all stakeholders across board, including those at the grassroots level, is commendable because, in most of the cases meetings are attended by high level officials who discuss solutions that may at times be removed from the reality on ground which in most cases are well understood by those at the grassroots. Finally, hosting the meeting is yet another opportunity for Rwandans, especially the business sector to make the most of having all these delegates in the country. This however can only be done if we were all deliberate about harvesting the opportunity that comes with hosting a culturally diverse gathering such as Women Deliver Conference.
