Creating a nation where women can thrive

Diane Gashumba says the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing continues to illuminate the journey toward women's empowerment. Lucie Morangi / China Daily

Diane Gashumba, Rwanda's new gender minister, explains how a Beijing declaration on equality helped shape public policy.

Campaigners for gender equality have for decades pushed for more women in positions of power. Indeed, at the path-breaking fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, the clarion call was for women to make up at least 30 percent of the world's leaders.

The response so far has been sluggish. Twenty-one years on, females hold just 22 percent of leadership positions globally, compared with the 11.3 percent in 1995, which makes Rwanda a rare case for its breakthroughs in gender equality.

The nation espoused the spirit of the 1995 conference in its Constitution, adopted in 2003, while its Parliament has a number of seats reserved for female politicians.

The law states that women should hold at least 30 percent of the 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house. After the most recent elections, women actually held 64 percent. For the 26-seat Senate, the upper house, women make up 38 percent, again higher than the benchmark of 30 percent, while 43 percent of district councilors are also women.

For Diane Gashumba, Rwanda's new minister of gender and family promotion, the declaration made in Beijing two decades ago remains the most illuminating, forward-thinking, action-oriented set of goals on women's empowerment ever set by the global community.

Speaking at her office in the capital, Kigali, she says the forum linked the rights of women and children to fighting poverty, inequality and conflicts.

"We have a gender-responsive budget that addresses the gaps" that cause inequality," Gashumba says. "This is unique."

For example, schools have recorded an increase in the enrollment of girls. In 2012, the enrolment rate at elementary school was 98 percent, while in secondary education it was 52 percent.

"We're also perhaps the only country in sub-Saharan Africa that has met the United Nations' millennium development goals on health," the minister says, referring to the nation's success in cutting maternal and infant mortality rates by giving grassroots communities better access to quality healthcare.

Official records show the maternal mortality rate fell 50 percent between 2000 and 2010, while the infant mortality rate was down 70 percent in 2013.

Rwanda has also revised the laws that had been holding back women's financial independence.

Gashumba explains that the civil war that gripped the country between 1990 and 1994 left behind a huge population of women and orphans, which meant women were thrust into unfamiliar roles as head of the household.

"At the time, our laws denied women any inheritance, and they could not access credit because they had no collateral. This had to change," she says.

Since then, women have taken ownership of ancestral lands and now run family businesses. "Fifty percent of women in Rwanda own land," she says, adding that they make up a large portion of small-hold farmers.

Moreover, the Ministry of Commerce is encouraging women to form cooperatives, an effective platform used in most African countries to encourage access to funds and the transfer of skills.

"We've launched an agency for women, the Business Development Fund, which extends affordable credit and funds 75 percent of a viable business idea. We want women to think big," adds Gashumba, who took office four months ago.

Notably, female empowerment in Rwanda has encouraged full participation in critical and unique positions, she says. For example, women form more than 30 percent of gacaca, traditional grassroots courts, which were set up after the civil war to pursue justice, peace and reconciliation in the affected communities.

"These cases were resolved quickly and amicably, bringing cohesion in a society that was deeply polarized," says the minister, a medical doctor by profession.

She says the Beijing declaration, together with the African Union's Maputo Protocol and UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which relate to women, peace and security, have been key guides for her nation's achievements.

Gashumba also acknowledges the role played by President Paul Kagame, saying that he is "committed to eliminating constraints to further enhancing female advancement and empowerment" and has created an environment conducive for women to succeed.

However, there is still much more to be done, a fact made clear during a high-level panel meeting on gender and human rights ahead of the African Union summit in Kigali, which ran July 10 to 18.

The Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion gathers information on women and children nationally and advises the cabinet on gender issues and potentially effective solutions.

Gashumba says women are still underrepresented in critical disciplines such as science, technology and technical training. Also, despite having easier access to financing, few women are starting their own business.

"The uptake in finance is still low. We're trying to boost the numbers through capacity building sessions that impart financial literacy to women - how to budget and expand an enterprise - together with mentoring."

Such skills and a change of mindset are setting a good foundation for a private-sector revolution, the minister adds.

As low-end Chinese manufacturers continue to shift operations to Africa, to take advantage of the continent's, low labor costs and underdeveloped markets, "female-run enterprises in Rwanda are ready to forge partnerships with Chinese entrepreneurs", she says. "We look forward to exporting made-in-Africa products produced by female-owned companies. Empowering one woman in Rwanda will go a long way to transforming society."

To encourage more women to enter the world of commerce, Jeannette Kagame, the first lady, has launched a national awards program for exceptional women, an initiative welcomed by Gashumba.

Moreover, the minister plans to build a detailed online database of female college graduates that will be accessible to recruitment agencies. Cote d'Ivorie has launched a similar project in which it publishes such information annually, she says.

Gashumba, who visited Beijing in 2007 as a medical doctor on a study tour, believes the cordial relations between Rwanda and China will boost cultural exchanges between the two societies.