The funding allocated to the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), under the approved national budget for 2022-2023 fiscal year has been increased by 58.9 percent to more than Rwf2.9 billion from over Rwf1.8 billion that it was initially earmarked in the Budget Framework Paper. While presenting the 2022-2023 national budget analysis report to the Plenary Sitting of the Lower Chamber of Parliament on June 29, MP Omar Munyaneza, Chairperson of the Committee on National Budget and Patrimony, said that the rise in the ministry allocation is expected to support efforts to address issues affecting families. Munyaneza said that the MPs appreciated how the Government took into account the opinion of MPs on the national financial plan. “Particularly, the Committee members were satisfied by the fact that increasing the budget for entities was based on the parliament’s inputs, especially for MIGEPROF which was added Rwf1,094,394,760 equivalent to a 58.9 percent increase compared to the Rwf1,859,456,916 it was allocated in the BFP (Budget Framework Paper),” he said. “MIGEPROF was given this additional funding with a view to further solve the issues negatively affecting the Rwandan society,” he said. He said that those issues were observed by MPs when they were visiting families living in conflicts across the country from March 12 to 30 this year. On Friday, May 6, 2022, the Chamber of Deputies adopted a resolution to summon the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion to provide explanations to the issues affecting the Rwandan families, especially spouses. The Parliament said lawmakers interacted with over 800 families challenged with conflicts. MPs revealed there were families with conflicts in all sectors of the country, with some of them being moderate while others being at extreme levels. In most cases, they said, family conflicts were attributed to misunderstandings on how to manage family assets (and wasteful spending of family resources was also reported), concubinage, adultery, evading marital responsibilities, drunkenness, poverty, domestic violence, inflexibility, and not seeking forgiveness amongst spouses. Other reasons include illegal marriages, mistrust and lack of dialogue between partners and different beliefs such as those related to religion. MPs also disclosed that there was a problem where people who were released after serving their terms in prisons fail to live in harmony with their partners. During MIGEPROF budget hearing last month, Evariste Murwanashyaka, the Programs Manager at the Umbrella of Human Rights Organisations in Rwanda (CLADHO), said that the budget allocation to the Ministry should be increased to help tackle issues affecting Rwandan society in order to build the countrys bright future. The issues, he said, include teenage pregnancies that went up to 23,000 in 2021 from 19,000 in the previous year, and family conflicts. This ministry has a great role to play in terms of building the Rwandan society, addressing the issues affecting children,” he said, also citing school dropouts.
