While Rwanda has been ranked 6th in closing the gender gap globally, MP Chantal Mbakeshimana said that schools must incorporate gender equality in education for children to grow with an understanding of equal rights. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2022, Rwanda advanced one place in bridging gender inequality globally at 81.1 per cent and remains the leading country in Africa. The country has made enormous strides in improving access to education for boys and girls at all levels, yet, female students continue to lag behind, particularly at the secondary and tertiary levels where girls’ enrolment, achievement and graduation rates are lower. According to indices in the report, Rwanda ranks 108th in educational attainment with an improvement from 115th place in 2021. Mbakeshimana, the head of Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum, said there remain gender gaps that need to be addressed across different sectors by renewing policies and using available opportunities to tackle them. While there are steps made in promoting the uptake of girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) studies and pushing them to further their education, she finds that more needs to be done in gender mainstreaming in schools. “We need to enforce the education of gender equality in schools at an early stage for students to grow up understanding what equal rights means,” she said. Apart from the educational attainment index, Rwanda ranked 7th in political empowerment, 33rd in economic participation and opportunity, and 59th in health and survival. Generally, the global gender gap has been closed by 68.1 percent in 2022, and at the current rate of progress, it will take 132 years to reach full parity while it was estimated to take 100 years with the pre-2020 trend, states the report. Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, said the economic and social consequences of the pandemic and geopolitical conflict have paused progress and worsened outcomes for women and girls around the world. “Conversely, the increasing representation of women in leadership in a number of industries, engagement in tertiary education overall and rebound in professional and technical roles, are encouraging and may provide a basis for future efforts,” she added. The report forecasts that at the current rates of progress, it will take 155 years to close the political empowerment gender gap, 151 years for the economic participation and opportunity gender gap, and 22 years for the educational attainment gender gap. The time to close the health and survival gender gap remains undefined as its progress to parity has stalled, it adds.
