National Gender Policy in Rwanda

Caitie G.

Kigali City, Kigali

 

Recently I had the opportunity to be a VAT (Volunteer at Training) for Pre-Service Training for the 5^th Health group to serve in Rwanda. In Peace Corps Rwanda it is common to have experienced volunteers spend a week at Pre-Service training facilitating technical trainings and sharing their experience. I’ve been in country for a year and three months now, which means one year down, and one to go.

While at training, I lead a session on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. During the session a member of Peace Corps staff said something very interesting that reminded me of perspective, and the importance of maintaining a good perspective as a volunteer. The thing he said went something like this: the laws and policies have not always trickled down to the village level yet, but at least, at the national level, they are written and understood.

In the year that I have been here, I often lost sight of this, frustrated by the ever present gender imbalances, and overall patriarchal society system. But it is important to remember that Rwanda does have a National Gender Policy, they do know what gender equality is and have government offices promoting and creating gender equality daily. This has not trickled down to the village level, but it is a start.  

President of Rwanda Paul Kagame stated at the 63^rd United Nations General Assembly, New York, 2008: “With regards to empowering women and promoting their socio economic and political participation, we continue to make modest progress. We believe that, besides improving gender relations in our country, this marks healthy progress towards realizing our vision of a united, democratic, and prosperous Rwanda.”

I agree with this statement, and find it accurate on the national level.

I’d like to briefly review the National Gender Policy, specifically focusing on the Health and Education Policies for Gender Equality. Why those specifically? Health and Education are the two programs Peace Corps Rwanda has here, it is where volunteers are focused and can intervene. I find that volunteers are usually unaware of this information, or have forgotten it in the midst of village living. So as a reminder, here it goes.   

The National Gender Policy: is a tool that helps facilitate and obtain equal opportunities for women and men, girls and boys in all sectors.

-          The mission is to set society free from all gender based discrimination; for men and women to fully participate in all aspects of the development process

-          To eliminate all forms of gender inequalities in order to obtain sustainable development

The Education Policy within the National Gender Policy States:

All girls should have access to an education.

All women should have access to a catch up program for women who have  not completed their secondary school.

Schools should have gender sensitive mechanisms for the improvement of a quality education.

Increased participation of women in science and technology at all levels.

Education and Health overlaps within the Gender Policy:

No girl should be expelled from school because she is pregnant.

Girls should be allowed back to their schools after producing a baby.

Every school should have a room for girls to rest if they are on their periods.

Every school should have a room where girls can clean themselves, and change their sanitary pads while on their period.

Health Policy

Both men and women should have access to health facilities that have trained medical personnel, appropriate equipment and medical supplies.

Family Planning - Every woman and girl should have access to reproductive health services.

-          The reproductive health services should be gender sensitive and easily accessible to both women and men

-          Ensuring that women, men, girls and boys are provided with equal and correct knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards reproductive health

Women and men should have equal access to HIV information for prevention, treatment, and care of the victims with a special attention to women.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personally, as a volunteer I have never seen most of these things implemented in the villages. For example: every school should have a room where girls can clean themselves, and change their sanitary pads while on their period.  This did not exist where I was placed, and is a major problem. Girls wouldn’t come to school during that week because of the lack of hygienic resources. They would fall behind, and unfortunately the majority of the teachers were not sympathetic to this, and did not give them any resources to catch up.

But it is important to maintain perspective, and hold on to it. The National Policy, stemming from Vision 20/20 (a document of development goals Rwanda wishes to achieve by the year 2020), is what the government wants, hopes, and has implemented for its country. And government in Rwanda is serious and respected. These policies are opportunities for volunteers to pick up the missing pieces and links, between the national level and grassroots village level.  We can implement these policies in our villages and strive for gender equality on these fronts!

The parts I included in this post are very small portions of the Gender Policy.  To find out more about the Gender Policy click here for the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion's website. Also, the link to the Gender Monitoring Office here, and the National Women's Council here. For more information on the Government of Rwanda click here.

Lastly the Peace Corps's National Coordinator of GAD, Sarah Doyle, wrote a post on gender roles establishment resulting from the Genocide. Interested?  Click here.