Every year on March 8, Rwanda joins the world to celebrate International Women’s Day.

This is a very significant day, especially for Rwanda, a nation with a global reputation for gender equality and women empowerment.

Women's empowerment is powerful to present-day society. Women deserve equal access to opportunity and independent decision-making on matters that concern their lives.

In 2021, the Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum ranked Rwanda seventh out of 156 countries. According to the report, Rwanda closed 80.5% of the gender gap. The same report ranked Rwanda second in Sub-Saharan Africa after Namibia.

One of the highlights reported in the media is the women-majority parliament. With over 60 percent of the seats in the national parliament, Rwanda takes the top spot.

However, this achievement didn’t come overnight.

Over the years, gender equality was made a national priority for all levels of government.  President Paul Kagame says it best: “Women and men are equal in terms of ability and dignity, and they should also be equal in terms of opportunities. As Rwandans, as a global community, we need every member of our society to use his or her talents to the fullest if we are ever to reach our development goals.” 

Indeed. Women are a formidable force powering Rwanda’s development and transformation journey.

Their tireless contribution propelled our country’s remarkable rebirth after the devastating 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. And they continue to be key drivers behind the emerging prosperity Rwanda enjoys today.

On one hand, International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate our brave women and their amazing contribution to Rwanda’s journey so far. On the other hand, it is a time to reflect on the role and contribution of women in shaping the “Rwanda We Want”, as anchored in the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) 2017-24, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as Vision 2050.

As we collectively take a closer look at areas of further focus, it’s no doubt that Rwanda has made impressive developments in gender equality in terms of education, life expectancy, and political representation. However, equal economic participation and opportunity are still a work in progress that needs more attention.

One of the targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is, 2030, to achieve “full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men (Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8, target 8.5).

Therefore, there is a need for continued women’s empowerment in the labor market, which according to the National Institute of Statistics (2021) is still lagging when compared to other national achievements. 

This can be looked at from both the employability and entrepreneurship perspectives:

From the employability perspective; the 2021 Labor Force Survey revealed that the annual female unemployment rate stood at 20.3% while it was 15.9% among their male counterparts. The average monthly income from paid employment of female employees at the main job was Frw42,796 compared to Frw68,117 for male employees. Besides, at the national level, the labor force participation rate (LFPR) for females was 48.2% in 2020 while it was 65.6% for males.

From the entrepreneurship perspective; the latest Establishment Census (2017) highlights that women are underrepresented in business in Rwanda with only 33 percent of companies being women-owned. Among these, an estimated 98 percent of women-owned/led businesses are small or micro-enterprises.

In addition, female entrepreneurs have limited access to skilled labor compared to their male counterparts, which results in lower production at the SME level and under-utilized talent among individual employees.

As one of the overarching goals of Rwanda’s vision for 2050, the country aspires to become an upper-middle-income country (UMIC) by 2035 and a high-income country (HIC) by 2050. In a country with 50.8% of its citizens being women, their full integration and equal economic participation is key to achieving this desired success on the journey ahead.

Indeed, it has been noted that raising the female labor force participation rate to the same level as males would boost GDP by 11 percent in sub-Saharan African countries, a block that Rwanda belongs to.

As echoed in this year’s International Women’s Day theme: “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”, let us recognize our women as the cornerstone in shaping the “Rwanda We Want” for ourselves and the next generations; through working alongside them in their continued empowerment journey towards building an equal, just and sustainable world.