UN Women Transparency Portal

Region:Asia Pacific Current UN Women Plan Period Afghanisthan:2018-2022

World Bank Income Classification:Low Income

Least Developed Country:Yes

Gender Inequality Index:0.575

Gender Development Index:0.723

Population:209,497,025 Male:19,976,265 (9.5%) Female:189,520,760 (90.5%)

Disclaimer

outcome XM-DAC-41146-RWA_D_1.1

A diverse cohort of women leaders is formed to lead in governance at local and national level

UN Women Rwanda made strong progress in supporting a diverse cohort of women leaders to lead in governance at both local and national levels. In 2022, UN Women continued to support National Gender Machinery Institutions (Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Gender Monitoring Office, National Women Council, and Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum) and other Implementing partners to ensure that women’s capacity to compete for leadership positions and leading in decision-making processes is strengthened. As a result, 1061 women and girls (including 30 women with disabilities and 30 women and girls living with HIV) increased their leadership potential and abilities as well as their confidence to perform their respective responsibilities through the provision of transformational leadership trainings, peer learning, networking dialogues and mentorship programmes. At local level, 20 out of 120 (17%) young women graduates from the first cohort of a 6 months’ professional internship initiative which started in 2021 and initiated by the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) and UN Women in collaboration with the Rwanda Association of Local Government Authorities (RALGA) were elected in leadership positions in local government structures after being equipped with skills and knowledge in transformational leadership. The second edition of professional internship initiative of 120 young women graduates was launched in August 2022. The initiative will continue to sustain internship placements for young women graduates in local government entities to inspire them to take up leadership roles. Furthermore, at both national and local levels, networking and mentorship opportunities further helped to strengthen connections and mutual support among women and girl leaders at different levels and provided a good opportunity for inspirational experience sharing. Noteworthy is a Women Leaders Network Summit that was convened by the Ministry of Gender and Family promotion in collaboration UN Women that brought together 500 diverse cohort of women leaders that included, ministers, parliamentarians, senators, senior officers from Rwanda National Police, CEOs from financial institutions, provincial governors and newly elected women and leaders representatives from National Women Council elected from village to national level among others. The summit aimed to strengthen women and girls’ connection, mutual support among women leaders and also reinforce their influence at different levels. As such, the summit enhanced women’s vertical and horizontal peer learning, mentoring the next generation of women leaders and sustaining achieved results. The women and girls shared challenges and ideas on how to fully exploit their potential, nurture young women and girls’ leadership through programmes aimed at empowering them and, allow those already in leadership positions give back to the community through mentorship, entrepreneurship etc. The diverse group of women leaders also included women in sports, women with disabilities, youth councils and youth volunteers which allowed for diverse viewpoints and discussions on leadership and gave them strategic direction on how to play their role and be more influential in their different areas of work.

outcome XM-DAC-41146-RWA_D_1.2

Women are perceived as equally legitimate and effective leaders as men throughout all spheres of society

In this reporting year, UN Women Rwanda is on track in ensuring that women are perceived as equally legitimate and effective leaders as men in all spheres of society. In an effort to support women to actively participate in leadership positions and change perceptions on their legitimacy as effective leaders in society, UN Women in partnership with Gender Monitoring Office (GMO) organized awareness-raising campaigns in which 2500 community members increased their knowledge and understanding of gender equality and women’s rights to equal participation in decision-making processes. One of the forums used to build awareness of the community on gender equality and women’s rights is a special community gathering known as ''inteko y'abaturage'' that involves community meetings held weekly and is used as a platform for discussing and resolving issues within the community. In this regard, GMO with support from UN Women brought together residents from the Northern Province, Government institutions, Civil Society Organisations (CSO), Faith Based Organisations, development partners and UN Agencies to raise awareness on the principles of gender equality including leadership, and accountability to ensure that going forward ‘’inteko y'abaturage’’ includes in its agenda gender equality and civic understanding of women’s rights to equal participation in decision-making processes. In addition, under the unpaid care work programme, UN Women in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender and Family promotion (MIGEPROF) commissioned a baseline survey to assess the status of unpaid care work among women and men in 8 Districts of Rwanda. The report's findings showed that on average women spend 7.1 hours per day working on unpaid care work compared to 2.1 hours for men. This indicates that women and girls carry a heavier burden of care work than their male counterparts. As such, UN Women, MIGEPROF and other Gender Machinery institutions convened national and local policy dialogues that brought together experts from UN agencies, Civil Society Organisations, and Academia to discuss and raise awareness on the burden of unpaid care work on women. As a result of the baseline findings and the policy dialogues, an Inter-Ministerial Consultative Council (IMCC) recommended a review of the family law to consider the value of unpaid care work. The draft bill is currently still at the ministerial level discussion and will soon be tabled before the cabinet. If it is approved by parliament, unpaid care work will not go unvalued, at least in a divorce settlement case. Furthermore, if this bill passes, Rwanda will become among the few countries in the world compensating spouses for unpaid care work in divorce settlements. https://www.newtimes.co.rw/article/4025/news/rwanda/unpaid-care-work-to-be-valued-in-divorce-settlement-cases The above negative social norm and other gender stereotypes holding back women in leadership and governance were addressed by the CO using other approaches including engaging men and boys as well as the media. In this framework, UN Women in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion developed a National MenEngage and Gender Transformative Strategy for Gender Equality which puts more emphasis on the role of men/boys in the journey to gender equality promotion. The strategy also aims to promote positive forms of masculine behaviors and engage men and boys as positive and supportive partners in women's socio-economic development and in the prevention of and response to gender-based violence, including the reduction of intimate partner violence, as well as to improve the reporting and response to GBV victims. In addition to this, the strategy is meant to harmonize effort on men engage among different stakeholders including government, CSOs and NGOs. Furthermore, UN Women conducted an awareness press breakfast meeting with media and public influencers which discussed existing negative social norms that hinder gender equality promotion and women’s leadership and governance. The breakfast brought together over 80 reporters and journalists from different media houses. Other key stakeholders who participated at the press breakfast included representatives of different Government institutions, members of Parliament, members of civil society organizations and UN agencies. The key recommendations from the breakfast meeting discussions were that media should avoid practices that fuel negative social norms and gender stereotypes in their profession which would lead them into GBV crimes and defamation, the media needs to change the narrative and shift the focus from the victim to the perpetrators so as to seek for justice. Moreover, relevant institutions such as Rwanda Media Council (RMC) should establish a gender-responsive editorial policy for media and there is a need to compile harmful social norms (words, thoughts, attitudes, cultural beliefs, and proverbs) that fuel negative social norms and gender stereotypes to be able to address and review them (develop the dos and don’ts).

outcome XM-DAC-41146-RWA_D_1.3

Implementation of gender equality and women’s empowerment commitments strengthened at national and local levels

UN Women Rwanda in 2022, made strong advancements in the implementation of gender equality and women’s empowerment commitments at national and local levels. As such, the capacity of Gender machinery institutions were strengthened with UN Women technical and financial support to effectively coordinate and oversee gender mainstreaming at national and local levels. UN Women continued to provide technical assistance to these Institutions by availing technical hands-on support that facilitated the coordination, and improved delivery on gender commitments, quality assurance and oversight of these institutions at different levels. Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum (FFRP) secretariat benefited from the provision of technical support on its day-to-day functioning which is instrumental in conceiving and operationalizing FFRP plans and programmes of action. In this regard, FFRP was also financially supported to implement planned interventions that strengthened gender responsive oversight and accountability of Parliamentarians through community oversight as well as expanding strategic partnerships with other stakeholders involved in gender promotion and women empowerment at national, regional and international levels. UN Women has also supported the functioning of the National Coordination Mechanism on Gender through the National Gender and Family Cluster (NGFC) by ensuring efficient coordination and strengthening the technical capacity of its secretariat so as to effectively deliver on national and global gender equality commitments as well as to utilize partner efforts to improve gender-related interventions. Moreover, in this reporting period, UN Women strengthened different Sub-clusters under the NGFC including Family Promotion and GBV Prevention sub-cluster, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and Child Development to bring together actors who intervene in these sub-clusters to discuss pertinent issues and plan key interventions related to gender equality and women’s empowerment. The stakeholders under these sub-clusters include Government institutions, Development partners, Civil Society and Faith-Based Organizations. Furthermore, GBV prevention and response coordination mechanism was strengthened at the local level through UN Women’s financial support to the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF). Provincial coordination meetings were organized in different provinces including the City of Kigali under the Leadership of the Minister of Gender and persisting issues were discussed that resulted in a commitment by local government leaders to ensure the development of joint action plans are in place and implemented by districts. Furthermore, policy advices, programming and informed advocacy were strengthened through the availed and updated gender data that were produced by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda with technical support of UN Women. As such two gender statistics reports were produced namely (1) National Gender Statistics Report 2021 with gender-specific data in twelve different development areas including governance, economic empowerment, EVAW, etc. and (2) Gender thematic report from the Establishment/Business census of 2020 with data on women ownership of businesses, their sizes, working capital, annual turnover, etc. The data will inform the development of the next National Strategy for Transformation (NST2, 2024-2031) and development partner's strategies including, United National Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF, 2024-2031) and UN Women Strategic Note 2025-2029. In addition, Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), with support from UN Women and in collaboration with several partners and stakeholders that include ministries and government agencies, CSOs as well as development partners organized and conducted the Gender Accountability Day (GAD) events in the Northern, Eastern, and Southern Provinces. This GAD was organized under the theme “Gender accountability, a driver for inclusive and transformative Governance”. One of the key achievements of the GAD is the development of the gender profile of one of the participating districts (Gicumbi district) which indicates the district’s increased commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women. The gender profile will be used to inform the planning and decision-making of different partners in the district. It will also instruct the district in gender-inclusive and transformative planning and decision-making in the future. The gender profiling exercise captured some of the significant players and stakeholders in Gicumbi District that have innovatively and inclusively contributed to the promotion of gender equality and women empowerment in different sectors and domains. This exercise however, revealed a gap in collecting sex-disaggregated/gender-relevant data at the district level and it is recommended that collection and analysis of gender-relevant disaggregated data be embraced to facilitate evidence-based decision-making that takes into account the needs of women and men in the district. Furthermore, with UN Women support, 148 staff (79 males and 69 females) from Government Ministries in the infrastructure and agriculture sectors, as well as districts’ focal persons including directors of good governance, National Women’s Council elected coordinators at sector level, chairpersons of the Economic Commission of the district councils and the Directors of One Stop Center committed to ensuring that all plans and budgets including the gender budget statements are gender-responsive. This was a result of capacity-building sessions in Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and Gender Economic Policy Management Initiatives (GEPMI) for them to execute gender-responsive development strategies, sector strategies, district development plans and budgets at national and local levels.

outcome XM-DAC-41146-RWA_D_2.1

New opportunities are unlocked for women to benefit from Rwanda’s expanding private sector markets

In this reporting year, UN Women made solid gains in unlocking women’s potential to benefit from Rwanda’s expanding private sector markets. UN Women worked with stakeholders including the Ministry of Trade and industry, Private Sector Federation, Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA) and Civil society organizations to improve the lives of women involved in the business by exploring national and regional business and market opportunities. Women benefited from access to markets with national and international exposure in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya and exchange in African continental free trade area (AfCFTA). Specifically, businesswomen with support from UN Women participated in Africa Accelerate Summit which took place in Kigali in November 2022 under the theme: “Investment and industrialization, Regional Integration of Africa’s SMEs for the smooth implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)’’. The event brought together more than 200 participants and key development actors across Africa for a unique business and investment opportunity. Women entrepreneurs with support from UN Women participated in the event to learn and share experiences with entrepreneurs from other African Countries as well as showcase their products through the exhibition organized during the summit. The Country Office also shared its experience toward strengthening and positioning women entrepreneurs to venture into AfCFTA market opportunities and encouraged all stakeholders to include women and girls in their agenda for inclusive and sustainable growth. UN Women will continue to organize forums that benefit women and youth in trade, especially through its quarterly gender dialogue series that will bring AfCFTA experts to discuss how to position women so that they can fully benefit from AfCFTA. In addition, 110 vulnerable women who increased their start-up capital and skills in entrepreneurship, business, and financial literacy with UN Women support in partnership with Association pour le Developpement du Peuple (ADEPE) have ventured into more viable businesses and explored new market opportunities. As a result, through a company, MAHWI Tech, which specializes in connecting businesses to customers these women have secured 10 contracts from different markets including 5 hotels, 2 secondary schools, and restaurants which helped them to increase their income in a more consistent and sustainable manner. In the context of leaving non one Behind, through UN Women support and in collaboration with different partners (CSOs), 2,730 vulnerable women of different categories that included women sex workers, women with disabilities, women living with HIV, young women, and teen mothers enhanced their entrepreneurship and business skills including 83 young women who increased their skills in TVET. As a result of the acquired training in entrepreneurship, business plan development, cooperative management, technical vocational skills, financial literacy and exposure visits, 2,418 out of 2,730 total women (88.6%) confirmed applying saving skills through 130 village saving and loan associations and opened bank accounts to build bankable history in order to access future finance opportunities. The participants were able to save a total of 87,908,600Frw (82,116$) which was used as capital to start income-generating activities such as running small business shops, buying and selling cereals or small livestock, tailoring and fashion design businesses, vegetable and fruits business, selling agriculture inputs, handcrafts, video filming, etc. These women have also been able to access health insurance for their families and build assets. Furthermore, UN Women provided financial and technical support to Hanga Pitchfest, the largest in-person technology event in Rwanda designed to ignite and inspire innovation. The annual startup pitching competition festival organized by the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, to showcase tech-entrepreneurs from all over the country and promote the use of technology and innovation in Rwanda attracted over 400 applicants from all over the country. The event saw a women-led solutions Lifesten health, an initiative that seeks to develop incentive-based health and wellness programs to help people adopt healthy behaviour win the first-place award of $50,000 for top innovator prize. During this reporting year, UN Women has also strengthened engagement with Private sector institutions through the gender equality seal (GES) programme implemented in collaboration with Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), Private Sector Federation and UNDP. Consequently, gender accountability has increased in 32 public (the National Bank of Rwanda) and private institutions which committed to implementing gender equality and women empowerment principles (WEPs) and gender seal certification because of training and peer-to-peer exchange on WEPs/GES. So far, 9 out of the 32 institutions have acquired the gender seal certification after complying to the certification requirements. These private companies and public institutions are actively playing their role in creating an inclusive gender-sensitive environment by strengthening the implementation of gender equality policies and practices in their respective organizations. The others have also committed to putting in place gender mainstreaming policies, strategies, and guidelines to promote gender equality for more women to benefit within their companies. Women and girls have started benefiting from these commitments which boosted institutions’ productivity as asserted by the private sector company leaders during the peer-to-peer exchange.

outcome XM-DAC-41146-RWA_D_2.3

Women farmers and cooperatives’ engagement in higher segments of the food and agricultural value chains is increased

In this reporting year, UN Women in Rwanda is on track in increasing Women farmers’ and cooperatives’ engagement in higher segments of the food and agricultural value chains. With UN Women’s collaboration with Nile Basin Club, Rwanda Development Organization (RDO), INADES Formation Rwanda, 2,772 women agripreneurs with timesaving, productive, and transformative technologies. In an effort to strengthen women’s access to transformative technologies, the agripreneurs received cooking kits such as improved cooking stoves and wonder boxes that helped women to save up to 80% of energy normally used for cooking and promotion of the use of climate-smart technologies. Time-saving technology and equipment such as water tanks, Tri-motorcycles, harvest crates, grain silos, sprayers, and wheelbarrows were provided to women agripreneurs which helped to reduce and redistribute the care burden and allowed for more productive dedicated time to income-generating activities. Furthermore, tools and guidelines on the use of timesaving and climate-resilient equipment were developed by UN Women in partnership with INADES Formation Rwanda to provide regular guidance to women beneficiaries on how to properly maintain and sustain the time-saving technologies. https://africa.unwomen.org/en/stories/news/2022/09/un-women-provides-time-saving-energy-efficient-kits-to-reduce-domestic-care-work-for-rural-women-in-four-districts-of-rwanda Additionally, UN Women collaborated with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM), New Faces New Voices (NFNV) and Hexakomb to develop the e-commerce platform “buyfromwomen e-commerce platform” for women entrepreneurs to undertake the advantage of new technologies through buying and selling their products and services online, access to business opportunities information and market linkages including in the context of AfCFTA. In this context, the “buyfromwomen” platform was upgraded with e-commerce functionalities/features informed by women entrepreneurs’ needs represented by selected 25 women entrepreneurs who also piloted the testing phase to improve its functionality. The e-commerce platform when operational, promises to be effective in supporting women-led businesses and contributing to the government of Rwanda’s GEF commitments. Efforts to bring in many stakeholders and harmonize with existing similar interventions in the country are being discussed in collaboration with the Ministry of trade and industry, FAO, and UNCDF which will also assure the platform’s sustainability.

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