Never Again Rwanda celebrates International Women’s Day
Never Again Rwanda joined the world to celebrate International Women’s Day by assembling different stakeholders to reflect on women’s social and political achievements and also to look into what can be done to overcome the persisting challenges.
The reflection meeting held at Umubano Hotel on the 08th of March 2018 brought together 50 participants from various institutions who work in gender and women empowerment related initiatives, this included; public agencies, media, NAR’s spaces, local and international civil society organizations and development partners amongst others.
In his opening remarks, the Director of Programs at Never Again Rwanda, Eric Mahoro, highlighted some lingering gaps in women participation in various aspects of political and economic spheres as indicated in the research that was conducted by NAR. He also called for concrete efforts towards gender equality and women empowerment in communities, politics and economies.
The two panel discussions and the plenary dialogues centered on the theme “Transforming Women’s Lives: Best Practices and Gaps in Rwanda” with two sub-themes; women’s political participation and the socio-economic empowerment of women.
Annie Kayiraba, Director of the Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development, emphasized the need to change the status of women in rural areas. “Jobs of women in rural areas are not recognized. Women are in an informal sector and men always complain that their wives do not work,” said Kayiraba.
Saphia Mategeko shared her experience in leading and facilitating a citizen forum in Mukamira, which was created by NAR as one of the women-dominated forums. Saphia shared her experience and the role she played in the advocacy process to decrease land tax rates in Mukamira sector which resulted into decreasing land tax rates from 30 Rwf to 10 Rwf per meter.
Saphia said: “Before joining the citizen forum, I didn’t have the confidence to call the leaders like a mayor. But currently, when there’s an issue I confidently talk to the mayor and share my perspectives on how to address the issue.”
Immaculee Mukankubito, Head of Impact and Strategy at NAR, talked about NAR‘s participatory governance and society healing program that has provided spaces for both men and women to express their views and priorities in local decision-making processes. She expressed the need for special women’s spaces that can increase their openness, self-esteem and confidence.
The participants called on the different actors involved to create spaces for information sharing, improving strategies for political participation of women, and teaching gender equality from grassroots in order to improve equality, opportunity and equal representation.