Health Development Initiative (HDI) and the Ministry of Family and Gender Promotion (MIGEPROF) have encouraged youth and women-led organizations to join and actively participate in the technical working groups (Gender Equality, Women’s empowerment, family Promotion, and child protection).
While meeting the country’s Civil Society Organisations, HDI’s Senior Program Officer in charge of Gender and Inclusion, Annonciata Mukayitete, emphasized the value of the participation of youth and other groups in promoting gender equality and fighting gender-based violence.
"All partners need to work together to improve family welfare and solve issues affecting society, such as domestic violence, teenage pregnancies, negative social norms, and the lack of participation from women in decision making,” she said.
Value of Family Gatherings
The Founder of SEVOTA (Solidarity for the Development of Widows and Orphans of Genocide); Godelive Mukasarasi, said that despite the establishment of the 'Umugoroba w'Imiryango' program that is supposed to bring together families on the communal level, men have consistently ignored them leaving only women to attend.
She explained that this platform is an excellent opportunity to pave the way for fighting against gender-based violence.
"We need to assess why most men do not participate in "Ümugoroba w’Imiryango,” he said.
The Director of Planning at MIGEPROF, Theophile Murwanashyaka, added that they are training men who will train others in a move aimed at changing mindsets.
"Since September, we have been sampling some villages as a baseline to assess men’s participation in these evenings that were put in place for families. We are collecting data that will inform us in the evaluation,” he said.
He said that in order for men’s mindsets to change, MIGEPROF needs to work with civil society organisations.
Murwanshyaka urged CSOs interested to join to make an official request to the chair of the sub-cluster Family promotion and GBV prevention and response through MIGEPROF and to the sub-cluster Gender Equality and Women Empowerment through the National Women’s Council. He also encouraged participants to avoid centering their work in urban districts, but instead, go to rural districts where their help is needed.
According to Murwanshyaka, only three out of the 26 CSOs that attended the meeting belong to a technical working group, which presents an opportunity for MIGEPROF to increase the number of CSO members, Murwanshyaka, encourages them to join the subcluster.
In order to increase efforts to fight GBV, Generation G Rwanda, a coalition that brings together CSOs including the Rwanda Men’s Resource Centre (RWAMREC), Health Development Initiative, and African Youth and Adolescent Network (AfriYAN) was also set up in 2021.
The organizations have been collaborating in gender-related advocacy efforts to engage youth meaningful for a gender just and violence-free society that gives impetus to the Gender and GBV policies in Rwanda.
The Generation G Rwanda coalition intends to contribute effectively to the amplification of young feminist voices, strengthening the role of young men as allies, by focusing on human rights and youth participation and reversing harmful norms and unequal power relations to embrace sexual and gender diversity through a gender-transformative approach.