Cultural stigma and laxity to acknowledge gender mainstreaming efforts are some of the challenges still hampering Government’s pursuit of gender equality, stakeholders in gender promotion have heard.

This was observed, yesterday, during a media briefing hosted by Gender and Family Promotion ministry at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kigali.

The meeting also attracted officials from the National Women Council, the National Children Council, Rwanda National Police, Private Sector Federation, and civil society, among others.

According to the Minister for Gender and Family Promotion, Dr Diane Gashumba, an all-encompassing citizen’s participation in gender mainstreaming, would effectively put Rwanda’s effort on gender equality to a much higher scale.

"We still have issues of girls who haven’t acknowledged the fact that they have as equal rights as their brothers. I relate this to social and cultural beliefs, which are a big challenge to gender equality,” said Gashumba.

"It is from this that we ask each citizen to take it upon themselves to support girls in overcoming cultural fear and realise that the country considers the notion of gender equality seriously.”

He4She campaign

Minister Gashumba urged Rwandans to sign up for the HeForShe, the global campaign for gender equality initiated by UN Women, whose goal is to engage men and boys as agents of change for the achievement of gender equality.

The campaign, which can be joined by signing up on the portal www.heforshe.org, is an international initiative aimed at mobilising global citizens to create and increase awareness and support towards gender equality, the fight against gender-based violence and promotion of ICT for all.

President Paul Kagame is one of the global champions of the campaign. Rwanda has pledged that at least 100,000 Rwandan men and boys will sign up on the campaign, joining one billion men and boys worldwide who will be mobilised to commit to the campaign.

"Rwanda is not just going for numbers, that is not our target. Our main target is to ensure that gender equality becomes a culture. Once women have fully realised their rights, the nation will become even more prosperous,” Gashumba added.

Under the HeForShe campaign, Rwanda has pledged to bridge the gender digital divide and attain parity in information and telecommunication technology access by the year 2020, triple girls’ enrollment in technical and vocational training to advance women’s employment opportunities, and eradicate gender-based violence in all its forms.

Studies show that for every one additional year of education for women, child mortality decreases by 9.5 per cent.

Gender activists believe that equal access to resources and services for women farmers would boost output and eliminate hunger for 150 million people, while women’s impact on the global future prosperity will be a global game-changer.

In Rwanda, more than 72,500 people have committed to push for gender equality, of which 60,346 are men, while 7,681 are women.

The latest figures indicate that, Rwanda is second behind the US with the highest commitments in HeForShe campaign. Mexico, United Kingdom, Ecuador follow in that order. editorial@newtimes.co.rw