Kigali-10 may 2018- The Booklet was officially launched during the ‘Gender Conference which was held in Kigali from 10-11 May 2018. The conference which convened more than 200 delegates from public institutions, development partners, civil society, academia, the Private sector, Media and other Non-State actors from different countries in Africa and beyond discussed Strategies for acceleration of Gender Equality, exploring the role of ICT in driving the gender equality and assess how to bridge the gender digital divide among other topics. The launched booklet provides information about the situational analysis vis à vis to promotion of gender equality in the sector, and serve as a guide for effective planning and monitoring, policy development, gender responsive programming as well as advocacy for more acceleration of gender equality and closure of persistent gender gaps. The used data were obtained from different national surveys and administrative data provided by relevant government institutions and other stakeholders. According to the statistics published in ‘The Gender Profile in Information, Communication and Technology booklet’, there has been an increase in the use of ICT devices, especially mobile phone for both male and female headed households despite the fact that the proportion of female headed households is still low compared to that of men mainly due to the difference in income, literacy and exposure. For instance, women who owned mobile phones between 2010/2011 were 24.2% compared to 28.3% of male who owned telephones at the time. This number rose to 50.9% of women possessing telephones in 2013/2014. There has been also a decrease of the use of radio by women. Moreover, according to NISR, EICV 3 & 4 statistics, female representation in ICT related courses is still very limited in both public and private schools, reads part of the booklet. Speaking at the Gender Conference on Thursday, 10 May, the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion Honorable Nyirasafari Espérance said that there is a need to do more campaigns in giving platform to women to contribute in implementing various ICT related projects on the African continent. Government off Rwanda, has put in place mechanisms such as the Smart Rwanda 2020 Master Plan, an ICT Sector Strategic Plan developed in 2015 aiming at empowering Women and youth in ICT through capacity building and facilitate projects related to increasing women and girls in ICT related business. WEM-TECH Strategy (Women Empowerment through ICT) which is in line with the aspirations of the Smart Rwanda master plan, a WEM-TECH strategy is also being developed to address digital gender divide which limits women’s ability to fully participate towards building an equitable knowledge based society.   The Government of Rwanda also committed to accelerate telephone penetration especially in rural areas, and connect rural communities to economic opportunities through improved infrastructure including ICT; which will evidently help both men and women contribute and benefit from outcomes of Rwanda’s economic transformation.