About the Directorate of Gender Promotion and Women Empowerment

The Gender Promotion and Women Empowerment Directorate oversees all interventions related to Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, develops all policies related to the advancement of Gender equality and Women Empowerment. It also coordinates all partners who intervene in the areas of Gender Promotion and Women Empowerment.

Key achievements

For the past 25 years after the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, as result of a strong commitment and the political will of the Government, Rwanda has registered significant achievements in promoting gender equality and empowerment of women ranging from; an enabling policy, legal and institutional framework, enhanced socio-economic and political participation, setting a global pace for equality between men and women. 

Particularly, the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda of 2003 revised in 2015 provides for equal rights between men and women without discrimination of any kind.

The Government of Rwanda has adopted regional and international treaties, conventions and other instruments that promote gender equality including but not limited to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979), Beijing Platform for Action (1995), the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000),  Maputo Protocol to the African charter on human and peoples' rights on the rights of women in Africa (2003), and Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (2004), Kampala Declaration on Sexual and Gender Based Violence (2011), Sustainable Development Goals (2015), #HeForShe Campaign(2015) , Sustainable Development Goals (2015) among others

The Government of Rwanda positioned gender equality at the forefront of national and sustainable development as the country takes gender equality as a strategy for inclusive development, good governance and respect of human rights. For this cause, gender equality is embedded in different legal frameworks right from the Constitution, which highly positions respect of gender equality among its foundational principles. 

The Government of Rwanda has put in place an enabling legal framework to support gender equality and women empowerment. Existing legal framework to that effect include:

Enabling legal framework

• The Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda of 2003 revised in 2015, providing for “equal rights between Rwandans and between women and men.
• The Law Nº 27/2016 of 08/07/2016 governing matrimonial regimes, donations and successions: This law provides for equal inheritance rights between boys and girls as well as equal property management among married couples.
• The Law N^o 43/2013 of 16/06/2013 governing Land in Rwanda: guarantees equal rights on land access, ownership and utilization to both men and women.
• The Law N° 66/2018 of 30/08/2018 regulating labor in Rwanda providing protection of workers against gender based violence and any kind of harassment at the work place.
• The Organic Law No. 12/2013/OL of 12/09/2013 on State Finances and Property: This law has supported to institutionalize financing for gender equality across Government expenditures (Gender Budget Statement – GBS).
• The Law N° 003/2016 of 30/03/2016 establishing and governing maternity leave benefits scheme: This law guarantees security of women employment and protection of a child.
• The Law Nº 68/2018 of 30/08/2018 determining offences and penalties in general criminalizes GBV offenses, child defilement, human trafficking, marital rape and forced marriage. 
• The   Law N° 71/2018 of 31/08/2018 relating to the protection of the child: This guarantees the protection of all children against all kind of abuse.
• The LAW Nº 71/2024 OF 26/06/2024 GOVERNING PERSONS AND FAMILY: This law promotes the principles of gender equality through governing persons and family as well as relation between persons.

Enabling policy framework

• The Revised National Gender Policy (2021) under revision, National Policy against Gender Based Violence (2011), National Policy for Family Promotion (2005) among others have been developed to ensure that the principle of gender equality is mainstreamed across sectors. 
• More to this, the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) sets to strengthen and promote gender equality and ensure equal opportunities for all Rwandans whilst fostering the culture of solidarity with vulnerable groups.

Strong and enabling institutional framework

• The National Gender Machinery institutions were set up to synergize efforts in overseeing coordination, implementation mechanisms in the areas of gender and women empowerment. The Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), the Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), The National Women’s Council (NWC) as well as the Rwandan Forum compose the NGM for Women Parliamentarians (FFRP). These institutions have specific mandates but with complementary roles on the advancement of gender equality and women empowerment.
• In terms of coordination, the National Gender and Family Cluster (NGFC) was revamped as mechanism to share information and avoiding duplication of efforts among MIGEPROF’s stakeholders. In addition, four sub- clusters namely Gender Equality and Women Empowerment sub-cluster, Family and GBV sub-cluster, Child Protection Sub- Cluster and Earlier Childhood Development Program Sub- Cluster were also established to smooth the work and the scope of NGFC).      

The Country has recorded remarkable strides in promoting gender equality and women empowerment accross different sectors. Read the State of Gender Equality in Rwanda.

Global Position

• The Global Gender Gap Report 2024 of the World Economic Forum ranked Rwanda as the 39^th country globally and the second country in Africa in bridging gender gaps. The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks the evolution of gender-based gaps among four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment) and tracks progress towards closing these gaps over time. The report benchmarks 156 countries.
• Rwanda is the first in the world to have majority female representation in its parliament at 63.8%.
• Rwanda was ranked the best place to be a woman in Africa (5th in Africa) and ranked 39th Globally - Global Gender gap report 2024.

Political participation

• Women in Rwanda play important role in the country’s political development as they are represented at different leadership position levels from local to national levels.
• With the constitutional requirement of a minimum quota of at least 30% of women in decision making organs, Rwanda is ranked to be the first country globally to have the highest women representation in Parliament. Currently, women who are in Parliament, Lower Chamber stands at 63.8% as opposed to 38.4% women in Senate. whilst 45.4 % of cabinet members are women.
• The participation of women in leadership has provided space for women helped to fast track the implementation of gender equality commitments and increased confidence among other women to play role in decision making organs around the country.
• Women make up 50.2% of community mediation and conflict resolution committees “Abunzi”;
• Throughout the Rwanda’s reconstruction process in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, women have played a key role in promoting peace, unity and reconciliation.and Women actively participated in Gacaca jurisdictions.
• 52.4% judges and clerks are women,
• 29.6% of District mayors are women,
• 14.8% of District vice mayors in charge of economic affaires are women,
• 77.8% of District vice mayors in charge of social affaires are women,
• 46.1% of members of District councils are women,
• 38.4% of Sector Councils are women,

Women in ICT

• 84% of females and 88% of males in Rwanda have access to mobile phones, which boosted rapid information sharing among Rwandans and helped to increase access to financial services through mobile cash transactions.
• E-learning offers great opportunities for students to access required skills and education without leaving behind the rest of their daily responsibilities. For instance, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and others with little children are able to upgrade their education through e-learning while limiting their mobility and still taking care of their children and homes.

Women/Girls’ Education

According to the Education  Statistical Yearbook 2020-2021, Primary Net enrolment rate stands at 99.1% for girls compared to  98.7% for boys contrary to the past years where families less valued girl’s education.
The number of female enrolled in TVET level 1-7 also stands at 44.2% for female and 55,8% for male while
Tertiary school’s attainment stands at 39,691 for females and 55.1% for males (Public & Private universities). This allows both males and females to equally embrace employment opportunities.

The 2022  Rwanda Fifth Population and Housing Census revealed that
Adult Literacy rate among women stands at 76.7 % compared to 81 %for men within the age bracket of 15+ .

Rwanda has surpassed the MDGs target of cutting the illiteracy rate by half by 2015 and the country is in top 3 countries globally to achieve Universal Primary Education Goals

Health

• Rwanda is the first low-income country to provide free universal access for the HPV vaccine for adolescent girls.
• The maternal mortality ratio has significantly declined to 210 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014-2015 down from 1071 in year 2000.
• Mortality rate for children under 5 years old reduced from 196/1000 in 2000 to 50/1000 in 2015.
•  Assisted births were at 91% in 2015 up from 27% in 2005 and 69% in 2010.
• Fertility rate currently stands at 4.2 children per woman dropping from 6.1 children in 2005.
• Health workforce and infrastructure has developed, and community based health insurance scheme was introduced.
• Innovative data collection tools including Rapid SMS for emergency labour and tracking the Maternal and Child health have led to considerable decrease of maternal and infant mortality rates.
• The proportion of children receiving all basic vaccinations by 1 year of age has reached 90.0%

Peace and Security

• Rwanda adopted a National Action Plan (2018-2022) for the Implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 which aims to reinforce the capacity of women in peace and security processes.
• By 2020, up to 1,400 female police officers have served in UN and AU peacekeeping missions in Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali and Central African Republic.

Media

• An Association of Rwandan Female journalists (ARFEM) was created to raise awareness on gender equality issues in the media.
• Gender mainstreaming strategy in Media sector which is under review has been developed to ensure a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media.