Rwanda will join the rest of the world to celebrate the International Day of Rural Women that will take place on the 15th of October 2015. The Rwanda National Women Council Executive Committee Members have through a performance contract made resolutions to Put in place mechanisms to promote synergies and complementarities between National Women Council and its key partners with a similar mandate to empower women, helping women street vendors to formalize their business and to fight all forms of injustice and corruption associated with service delivery. The council also committed to eradicating poor hygiene within families, sensitizing women to do physical exercise, preventing and fighting gender based violence and fighting malnutrition among others. According to the Executive secretary of the National Women Council Jackline Kamanzi, this is a time for women to celebrate their liberations. “The strong representation in the Chamber of Deputies was a natural result of conscious efforts to remove the obstacles that prevented Rwandans, including women, from using their talents and abilities to full potential. Women were the first ever beneficiaries and we attribute this President Paul Kagame and his role in empowering women and lifting them from poverty” Kamanzi said She further praised and thanked the Rwandan women and their commitment to sustain what they have already achieved ‘We should also recognize and appreciate the hardworking women who juggle many important responsibilities, at the same time in many cases, as professionals, entrepreneurs, wives, mothers and much more, often in challenging circumstances,” She added. She called upon women to help fellow women through sensitizing and mentoring them to fight poverty to achieve economic freedom and to believe that they are capable of being leaders and at all levels of governance. “Women today have the right to make decisions in government and the overall progress of women is promising. We need to involve more stakeholders to come up with innovative ways to help women achieve economic freedom” Kamanzi added Rural women, the majority of whom depend on natural resources and agriculture for their livelihoods, make up over a quarter of the total world population. In developing countries, rural women represent approximately 43 per cent of the agricultural labour force, and produce, process and prepare much of the food available, thereby giving them primary responsibility for food security. 76 per cent of the extreme poor live in rural areas; ensuring rural women’s access to productive agricultural resources contributes to decreasing world hunger and poverty, and makes rural women critical for the success of the new Sustainable Development agenda for 2030.
