Advancing and Sustaining Gender Equality Gains in Rwanda
The program “Advancing and Sustaining Gender Equality Gains in Rwanda” is a joint program between the Government of Rwanda, represented by the National Gender Machinery institutions including the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), the Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), the National Women’s Council (NWC), the Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum (FFRP) and the ONE UN in Rwanda, represented by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The 05-years program that started in October 2013 and ended in June 2018, was funded by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) with a total budget of USD 6,818,401
The program priorities were in line with national development and the United Nations Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP). The program pursued the following key strategic objectives:
(i) Institutional strengthening of national gender machinery
(ii) Grounding gender equality into policies, programs and budgets at all levels
(iii) Strengthening accountability mechanisms for gender equality across economic sectors and districts
(iv) Increasing access to productive resources for vulnerable women
The program strengthened the capacities of the National Gender Machinery Institutions and National Women Council Executive Committee Members through skills enhancement in critical areas where we had skills gaps, production of credible knowledge materials, reviving of the national gender and family cluster, upgrading of the websites to enhance communication and information sharing as well as development of the Gender Management information system.
The program helped further to deepen gender accountability and oversight through institutionalization of respect gender principles in planning and budgeting processes, gender accountability days and members of FFRP oversight visits. To strengthen gender mainstreaming and generation of sex-disaggregated data, sector and District gender mainstreaming strategies and profiles were developed and disseminated
The women empowerment flagship of the program improved living conditions of vulnerable women and girls including former street vendors and teen mothers through earnings generated from startup capital as well as trainings in entrepreneurship, mentorship and leadership that was provided.
In regard to mindset change on gender equality issues, men engage approach was strengthened through HeForShe outreach campaigns and other home grown initiatives like Umugoroba w’Ababyeyi. Implementation of the HeForShe national commitment is ongoing till 2020.