The Government on Monday received US$1.01m from the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to support the Gender Equitable Local Development (GELD) Programme.

The two UN bodies signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

The GELD programme is aimed at achieving gender equitable local development by improving women’s access to resources and services through gender responsive planning.

According to Finance Minister John Rwangombwa, the donation will be used to support programming and budgeting, facilitate institutional reforms and empower funding mechanisms as well as local government planning by ‘applying the gender’ to support a participatory role by women.

"These funds will also help local government to be gender-sensitive in their planning to enable us implement what we say about gender equality. We will also be able to monitor and evaluate in terms of numbers the efforts we have put in place to ensure gender equity,” Rwangombwa said.

He thanked the UN for supporting gender equity programmes in Rwanda, adding that the government strongly supports gender equality and it is included in all government plans. 

The UN Resident Coordinator, Aurelien Agbenonci, commended Rwanda for ‘walking the talk’ by giving women their place in society and involving gender equality, adding that the UN is committed to continue supporting the country’s programmes in gender equitability.

"Rwanda is doing well in terms of equity, if you take the case of the Parliament, it is clear that Rwanda is one of the world champions, but we know that the country still needs our support in terms of maintaining sustainable gender equitable levels,”

He said that Rwanda’s good performance in the gender area is one of the reasons the country was chosen to be among the first five African countries to benefit from the GELD fund.

The others include Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Senegal.

Ends