Engaging men and boys and promoting positive masculinity aligns with Rwanda’s journey towards achieving gender equality.

With a focus on positively encouraging men and boys to enhance gender equality and targeting behaviour change and attitude towards understanding gender for development, Aegis Trust initiated a project to equip leaders of different organisations with knowledge on the matter.

The project dubbed ‘Promoting Positive Masculinities Attitudes and Behaviours Change through Education, Dialogue, and Civil Society Capacity Building’ was launched in January 2022 to enable business owners, public institutions, NGOs, and faith-based organisations to learn the role that men and boys play in ensuring gender equality, and transfer that knowledge to others, because "engaging men and boys and promoting positive masculinity is imperative in the journey towards achieving gender equality.”

At the end of the programme, out of 3,500 participants, 22 individuals from various districts like Huye, Nyagatare, and Kicukiro, were rewarded as ‘gender champions’ for their remarkable progress in promoting positive gender norms, positive masculinity, and strengthening gender equality.

Julie Wamwiza, the head of the project at Aegis Trust, said during the event that the training saved marriages that were on the brink of divorce, reunited broken homes, and curbed poverty as husbands and wives understood their responsibilities in a home and the essence of working together, hence living in harmony, educating their children, and so forth.

One of the gender champions awarded was Goreth Mbanjimpundu, the founder of Hope Club. This youth-led initiative operates in Kicukiro District with teen mothers and other youth to promote gender equality equity, and positive masculinity in her community.

After completing Aegis Trust’s programme, Mbanjimpundu trained men and boys in Busanza cell, Kanombe sector on gender equity and equality which most of them were naive about—this changed their attitude towards how they relate to and perceive women.

"We work with local authorities who recommend some families with conflicts, in poverty, and we approached 12 men and 12 women, and so far, eight families are now well aware of gender equality. Some men who forced their wives to stay at home and do house chores instead of working have now comprehended the importance of dual income, thus changing their financial situations, and taking their children who had dropped out back to school.

"My team and I have created a high school club that helps learners at GS Busanza to be acquainted with gender equality in a detailed way. We have trained 203 people including teen mothers, which wasn’t easy, but we are proud of the progress and transformation,” Mbanjimpundu said.

ALSO READ: 'Gender champions' to be recognised for promoting positive masculinities, fostering gender equality

Present at the event, Silas Ngayaboshya, the Director General of Gender Promotion and Women Empowerment at the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), said the revised gender policy approved in 2021 highlights that as a country, "we should be promoting the role of men and boys as allies and positive partners on the journey to achieving gender equality.”

He added that the same policy states that society should be liberated by transforming negative social norms, like how it "constructs what it means to be a woman or man.”

Ngayaboshya urged Rwandans to redefine how society perceives womanhood and manhood, promote positive social norms, and dismantle negative social and gender norms, stressing that negative patriarchal attitudes and gender stereotypes are the root causes of gender inequality.

He further said that poverty, among women and girls, GBV, teen pregnancies, and malnutrition, are some of the consequences of gender inequality that are embedded in the persistence of cultural norms.

"We ought to improve women’s participation in different sectors, although there is progress in political participation. MIGEPROF has invented the use of gender transformative approaches, analysing the realities of what is happening and allowing people to find solutions—we are also working with schools, and higher learning institutions to deliver gender transformative dialogues with university students,” Ngayaboshya said.

He also emphasised the ongoing awareness in schools on GBV, fighting and preventing teen pregnancies, and working with schools and the educational sector at large to mainstream gender equality into the sector.

Ngayaboshya said gender equality promotion and transforming negative social norms, should be the responsibility of everyone, and not just an obligation of MIGEPROF.

He called upon the media and other institutions to invest more in promoting positive social norms, for a positive outcome.