[allAfrica.com]  [celtel.com]


Rwanda: Setting the Pace in the Region

African Woman and Child Feature Service (Nairobi)
NEWS
November 2, 2004
Posted to the web January 19, 2005

By Rosemary Okello.
Nairobi
Formerly referred to as the tiny tea and coffee-producing country in Central
Africa, and which eventually became to be known as the place where one million
people lost their lives in the 1994 genocide, Rwanda is now setting the pace on
gender and politics worldwide.
Now leading with the number of women in parliament at 48.8 percent, surpassing
even progressive countries like Sweden, Rwanda is the only country in the world
which is rapidly and steadily, inching towards gender parity in national
parliament. .
Women are now present in every sphere of influence in government and other
organs that matter. For Rwandese women, what has made them to easily swing in
legislative posts was the new constitution that recognizes the Affirmative
Action (AA).
Adopted last May, the constitution mandates that women hold at least 30 percent
of all positions in government and other decision-making positions.
Due to this principle, out of the 80 seats in the National Assembly, 24 are
reserved for women. But women also won 15 non-reserved seats in competitive
politics, yielding a total of 39 seats held in the lower house and six out of
20 seats in the Senate.
Rwanda's case confirms one thing: that the only way to improve representation
of women in any parliament and decision making organs in the African region is
through Affirmative Action.
In Kenya, both men and women attending the Bomas conference joined hands and
agreed to mainstream Affirmative Action in the draft constitution.
If the draft is adopted in its present form, it is going to avail unprecedented
opportunities to Kenyan women.
With nine women in parliament and three in the cabinet, Kenya may just inch
closer to the situation in Rwanda, but this might be compromised considering
that among the issues considered contentious in the draft constitutions is the
provision of Affirmative Action.
Yet, this number is just a third of what is the case in Rwanda. Out of the 28
cabinet ministers, nine are women.
For a country that recently commemorated the 10th years since the genocide this
year the number women representation in cabinet is the highest in any cabinet
in the world.
According to Anne Gahongayire the Rwanda's Permanent Secretary in the Ministry
of Gender and Promotion of the Family, the achievements in her country have
very important lessons to the rest of the world.
Says an upbeat Gahongayire: "We have been able to add value to policy
formulation and also bring on the table issues which otherwise could not have
been there."
"The fact that we have the highest number of women in cabinet does not mean
that the ministries they head are not powerful.
We have women heading ministries such as Economic Planning, where they are
giving the voice to the poor, education for girls and boys in both primary and
secondary, Ministry of Lands, Ministry of Environment and Agriculture, among
others," she adds.
Her counterpart, Val�rie Nyirahabineza the head of the country's Ministry of
Gender, has promised to empower the Rwandese women through resources which is
key to women's development.
Other key ministries held by women include the Ministry of Justice, the
Ministry of Rural and Social Affairs and the Ministry of the Presidency.
Constance Mukayuhi, adds that women are not merely present in Parliament but
also hold positions of responsibility and authority and head a number of
technical committees.
With women and girls making up 52 percent of Rwanda's eight million people, the
country's success story can also be explained by the nature of its leadership.
Having a progressive president like Paul Kagame who pledged to empower women
and youth, as well as the disadvantaged, has been an instrumental force behind
the phenomenal changes.
Kagame is quoted as once saying: "The pillar of the new democratic order in
Rwanda depended on many women winning the legislative seats, which is a good
step towards development in the country." And he has put this into practice in
every aspect of the words.
But for Gahongayire, "It is not enough just to have women in leadership
positions, but to measure how this translates to empowering women at the
grassroots level." Concurring with her views, Constance Mukayuhi Rwaka, a
Member of Parliament and an economist who chairs the Rwandan National
Assembly's Budget Commission, points out that women are not merely present in
Parliament, but also hold positions of responsibility and authority, besides
heading a number of technical committees.
Rwanda's women legislators, she says, must strive to further improve their
performance through training.
" Even though we have a gender policy in place and decentralization policy that
makes sure that the rural women are involved in governance, capacity is still a
challenge to many of them," she observes.
Gender analysts attribute Rwanda success to broad consultations with all
stakeholders during the countdown to a new constitution.
This resulted in gender sensitive document that recognizes equal participation
of men and women, as both voters and as candidates.
Inter-Parliamentary Union also reveals that Rwanda's recent history is the main
reason they have risen to such political prominence in a country where 60
percent of the population still lives in extreme poverty.
Because of such progressive initiatives Rwanda is now set to achieve key
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including Goal 3, which calls for
countries to promote gender equality and empower women.
Yet, the case in many countries like Kenya is a far cry from this. With an
economic growth record that is far below the seven percent growth required to
achieve the MDGs, Kenya may be far from achieving her targets within the
remaining decade that works out to 2015, the time when countries are expected
to have achieved these goals.
"If we have such a high percentage of seats today, it's not a question of
chance," said Mukayuhi Rwaka. Adding "After 1994, Rwanda was in a peculiar
situation and women had really been mobilized across the country." She recalls
how women throughout the country joined forces, either informally or through
associations, to help out those who were widowed or orphaned during the
killing.
According Athanasie Gahondogo, the Executive Secretary of the Forum for Rwandan
Women Parliamentarians, a body that brings together women from the country's
eight political parties with the aim of improving their status and heightening
their profile, at the end of the genocide, they were inspired to campaign for
new laws.
This included campaigns to change the law on succession of property-to allow
women to inherit land from their husbands or fathers-and to stiffen the
penalties for child rapists.
Ms. Gahondogo, a teacher from southern university town of Butare who grew up in
exile in neighbouring Burundi, was elected in October to fill one of the seats
reserved for women.
She believes that women parliamentarians should "serve as a role model" for
other women and that they should carefully review all the country's laws in
search of legal provisions that discriminate against women.
"Had it not been for the genocide," she says, "Rwandan women would never have
dared ask for succession rights." So when the polls time came, women had
mobilized themselves to ensure they are in the driver's seats as far decision-
making is concerned.
The strong showing for women candidates at the polls was also due to a UNDP
initiative, with US$1.5 million in funding from the Netherlands, to train women
in decision-making positions, strengthen women's civil society organizations
and establish governmental units to look after the concerns of women.
"Since the genocide we have contributed to the economic empowerment of women,"
says Gahondogo.
And we played a major role in the high turnout of women candidates in the last
election. We did a lot to enable them to dare to stand for an election." The
UNDP programme also supported the Ministry of Gender and Promotion of Women,
which launched a number of awareness campaigns aimed at sensitizing society as
a whole to the advantages of fully involving women in decision-making.
Apart from the participation in elective positions, other mobilization
strategies also paid off. Across the country, women were encouraged to take an
active role in drawing up the new constitution that guaranteed the AA.
Meanwhile, women legislators say even after accessing political and other
government positions they, still have to juggle home life responsibilities,
with parliamentary duties. Solange Tuyisenge, 32, is an example of women who
have to go through this.
Although she felt bad about spending little time with her two-year-old daughter
during the campaigns, she says she always wanted to have an opportunity "to
contribute something to our society." Ms. Tuyisenge, who was elected to one of
the reserved seats in the western Kibuye province, says "I want the women of
Rwanda, from the rural poor to the urban elite, to be independent, to be
educated. I want them to become peacemakers."

   

  =============================================================================
     Copyright © 2005 African Woman and Child Feature Service. All rights
        reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
  =============================================================================