Top FAWE officials decry poor implementation of gender policies

With only two years left to attain the eight Millennium Development Goals, many African countries are in danger of missing the targets, especially those related to women issues.A delegation of top officials of Forum of Women Educationalists (FAWE) from West Africa who are on a tour of Rwanda, have decried the lack of implementation of Gender based policies in their countries.The team of eight made the revelation when they met officials of the Gender Monitoring Office in Kigali yesterday. The delegation is also slated to visit the Minister of Education and the Speaker of Parliament.The team is in the country to borrow a leaf on how to deal with some of the challenges they are faced with. The FAWE chairperson in Congo Brazzaville, Perpetue Odongo, said the school dropout rate, especially among girls, was alarming, adding that school participation and retention were also very low.“Girls are married at an early age; most of them do not reach secondary level as many get pregnant while at school,” Ondongo explained, decrying the poor implementation of gender based policies.The team further seeks to understand how the country has managed to ensure effective monitoring of gender mainstreaming and fight against gender based violence in public, private, civil society and religious institutions in the country.“Rwanda is a role model in Africa and we are here to share ideas on best practices, achievements and challenges of attaining these goals before 2015,” Odongo explained.The Executive secretary to the Gender Monitoring office, Aquiline Niwemfura, shared with the delegation measures the government had put in place, citing women’s empowerment and gender equality as a hallmark of recovery and development. She added that the government had ratified and domesticated various international commitments including CEDAW, UNSCR 1325, MDGs among others, which had ultimately translated into legal framework, institutional mechanisms, policies, programmes and projects.Girls make up 50.9 percent and 49.1 percent in Primary Education and secondary education, respectively, however, girls show a higher enrolment than boys at the lower secondary level, which is the reverse at the upper secondary.

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Top FAWE officials decry poor implementation of gender policies