EDITORIAL: Women MPs' forum should make its impact felt across the board

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Forum for Women Parliamentarians in Rwanda (FFRP), a hitherto 91-member association of mostly female MPs (62) and a few of their male counterparts. And, on Friday, the forum elected new leaders who will be at its helm for the next two-and-a-half years. The new leadership, under Anitha Mutesi, pledged to build on the achievements registered under their predecessors, singling out advocacy for women in business as a top priority. Over the last two decades the forum played an instrumental role in bringing to the fore issues affecting women, especially through their legislative work, including ensuring that both chambers of Parliament set up standing committees with a special focus on gender equality. Rwanda is a world leader as far as representation of women in parliament is concerned, with women constituting 64 per cent of the country’s Lower House – an unprecedented feat globally. Now, that’s just a fraction of what Rwanda has achieved over the years with regard to gender equality. But the journey remains long. There are a few urgent issues that need to be attended to if the gains made in this area over the last couple of years are to be sustained. One of them is to ensure that girls do not drop out of school for whatever reason. One of the main factors blamed for increasing dropout of schoolgirls is teenage pregnancies. The magnitude of this matter calls for urgent action with view to keep every schoolgirl in school and to empower her to stand up for herself. But the women lawmakers will need the support of other stakeholders, including the family, the core unit of society. There are so many challenges facing the family today that parents and other household heads can no longer sit back and simply hope for the best. Such issues as early pregnancies, street children and human trafficking are real and we must confront them head on. The family has a major stake in this effort. Coincidentally, this week also saw the appointment of a new minister for gender and family promotion as well as permanent secretary in the same ministry (MIGEPROF). The new MIGEPROF chiefs will need to join hands with the women parliamentarians’ forum and all the lawmakers in general, the family, other sectoral stakeholders, and the public in general to decisively tackle these and other emerging challenges facing women and society. As such, as FFRP celebrates 20 years of existence, it should aim even higher and build more strategic partnerships with such actors as MIGEPROF and other government institutions as well as the private sector and the civil society to ensure a far greater impact over the next two decades.

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EDITORIAL: Women MPs' forum should make its impact felt across the board