Gender activists urge men to take lead in promoting gender equality

By Elias Hakizimana.

Various activists and stakeholders of the government of Rwanda in gender equality promotion urged men to be fully engaged in promoting gender equality principle in order to drive the country’s efforts in boosting a participatory approach for development.

During a training on the use of CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) GR 30 for monitoring and reporting and joint implementation on the WPS and YPS resolutions, gender sensitive crisis response and CEDAW, held on March 31, 2021, it was revealed that men engagement in promoting gender equality is still low.

This workshop which gathered representatives from the civil society and the government of Rwanda’s Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) had the objective to strengthen the knowledge and skills of Rwanda government and civil society representatives to embrace a participatory approach towards successful implementation of CEDAW.

“We need to continue sensitizing mutual respect specifically in young people to ensure they respect gender balance. We have programs for households aiming to help people understand well the rationale of gender balance in families.” Said Therese Mukeshimana, the Vice chairperson of BENIMPUHWE Organization.

Fidele Rutayisire, Executive Director of Rwanda Men’s Resource Centre (RWAMREC) said that they tell both men and women to play their role in promoting gender balance by changing negative mindset that women are the only ones to do domestic unpaid care works.

“Unpaid care works take all the time of a woman and prevent her from embracing income generating activities, within the revised gender policy, we need that men come on board and understand that a woman’s development is the development of the whole family.” Said Emmanuel Ntagozera, Head of Gender Promotion Unit at the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion.