Programme seeks to produce next generation leaders in gender promotion

By The Inspirer writer.

At least 30 young leaders from different youth-led and youth serving organizations were  trained in series of three workshops  and had a chance to get taken deeper into differentiating gender and sex, concepts of gender inequalities and inequities.

The move seeks to ensure meaningful and inclusive youth participation in policy and decision-making at different levels in gender promotion.

The series of three workshops dubbed “The NextGen Leaders in Gender Promotion” were organized by the African Youth and Adolescent Network on Population and Development-Rwanda (AfriYAN Rwanda) through the Generation G Programme.

 The youth were taken through different forms of Gender Based Violence {GBV}, how to deal with it and help the victims.

They also learnt different gender related pressing issues in the Rwandan society and how youth can participate meaningfully and inclusively in Gender Advocacy and programming with a focus the on root causes of the existing issues using a gender transformative approach to ensure a positive and quick change around those pressing issues.

According to the Programmes Manager of AfriYAN Rwanda, Evode Niyibizi, “Rwanda has made tremendous progress through its political will which is in favor of the participation of adolescents and young people in the country’s development.”

 However, he said, there is a need to explore and address different barriers to meaningful and inclusive youth participation in policy and decision Making.

“ Adolescents and Youth’s voices must be well heard, counted and be placed at the core of every decision to enable youth friendly solutions and services, the youth should be looked at as a diverse group of people and that should drive decision making. To achieve this we need to strengthen the capacities of adolescents and youth for them to be able to play a major role in expressing their ideas, point of views and designing solutions to address the pressing issues they face,” he said.

Uwamungu Marie Ange Raissa, the Executive Director for Impanuro Girls Initiative said that in Rwanda the population below the Age of 30 years accounts up to around 60% of the general population; the majority being adolescents and youth.

As long as we expect the decision and policy making process to be inclusive, such a major population should never be left behind within their full diversities, she said.

Generation G partnerships in Rwanda brings together AfriYAN Rwanda, RWAMREC (Rwanda Men’s Resource Center) and HDI (Health Development Initiative) with the aim to create a gender just and violence free society with and for youth through the amplification of young feminist voices, strengthening the role of young men as allies, by focusing on human rights and youth participation and reversing harmful norms and unequal power relations stemming from intersecting identities, to embrace sexual and gender diversity through a gender-transformative approach.

AfriYAN Rwanda represents, connects, and engages every day with an inspiring and engaging network of youth-led organizations working closely with other youth-serving organizations that aims to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender promotion, Youth Empowerment, and Leadership and general health and wellbeing among adolescents and youth by enhancing their meaningful and inclusive participation in policy and decision making at different levels.