First Lady hails women’s role in nation building

• UNIFEM launches 2008/2009 report NYARUGENGE - First Lady, Jeanette Kagame Tuesday hailed the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) for the major role they have played towards promoting gender equality and women empowerment. This was revealed during a dinner ceremony that also marked the launch of the organisation’s 2008/2009 progress report which highlights accountability as a major element of tracking women’s progress in relation to implementing gender policies. While delivering her key note message, Mrs. Kagame noted that Rwanda has taken huge strides towards development adding that emphasis has been taken to ensure that all citizens participate in nation re-building. “We all know that Rwanda’s economic growth for last year was 11.2 percent. I am pleased to note that women were the key players in registering this growth and this is mainly through the agricultural sector that they dominate.” “Although much has been attained globally, there are significant challenges like poverty, lack of finance and credit and lack of access to information technology among others, which still hinder the development of women in various frameworks,” she noted. In this regard, the First Lady applauded UNIFEM for raising the issue of accountability saying it will help bring about gender-responsive changes that will see women’s performance improve in global reports. The UNIFEM Executive Director, Inés Alberdi, Chief Justice Aloysia Cyanzaire, Prime Minister Bernard Makuza, UNIFEM Resident Coordinator Aurélien Agbenonci and the Minister of Gender and family promotion, Jeanne d’ Arc Mujawamariya were among those who attended. According to Alberdi, the report reveals that backing international commitments made to women with stronger accountability measures would bring Rwandans a lot closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. “This report highlights the challenges that remain for gender equality to be realised in practice, but it also draws attention to the efforts of millions of women who expose discrimination, demand redress and have changed the meaning of accountability,” she said. While assuring UNIFEM’s committed partnership, the Director also commended Rwanda on spearheading gender equality pointing out that it will take about 40 years to achieve gender equality worldwide but Rwanda must teach other nations how to do it. Under the theme- “Who answers to Women? Gender and Accountability,” the report points out the need to include women in oversight processes, and that advancing women’s rights must be a key standard against which the performance of public officials is assessed and, if necessary, sanctioned. Agbenonci also hailed Rwanda’s progress stressing that MDG 3 which aims at promoting gender equality and empowering women is in line with the country’s vision 2020 development programme. As a major concept that will ensure realisation of gender related policies, officials maintained that there is a crisis of implementation and to bridge this gap, accountability and implementation must be done. Gender responsive budgeting is also needed to ensure that equality is attained. Ends

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First Lady hails women’s role in nation building