On evening of Tuesday 20/05/2014, The Vice Mayor in charge of Social Development in the Kigali City Madam Hope TUMUKUNDE briefed the YPLA participants on the Gender and politics.
The Vice Mayor introduced it by showing that the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women, men, girls and boys is the Gender equality, which is achieved when the different behaviors, aspirations and needs of women and men are equally valued and taken care of in a manner that does not reinforce inequalities. She said that the Gender roles vary according to socio-economic, political and cultural contexts, and are affected by other different factors including age, class and so on.
Tumukunde reminded to these aspirant politicians that women make a significant contribution in the socio-economic development transformation processes, and the government of Rwanda has strived to promote gender equality so as to enable women to play their respective role. “As women are the major drivers of development, people must dedicate themselves to transforming relations between men and women at all levels of society” she added.
She ended by calling upon these new generation in politics to respect the Universal Declaration on Democracy, which stated that the achievement of democracy presupposes a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society in which they work in equality and complimentarity, drawing mutual enrichment from their differences and the concept of democracy will only assume true and dynamic significance when political policies and national legislation are decided upon jointly by men and women with equitable regard for the interests and aptitudes of both halves of the population.
The YPLA is one of the capacity building program developed since February 2010 by the NFPO. The program aimed to preparing youth in political parties for leadership roles, and in addition equip the youths with the necessary skills and knowledge to meaningfully participate in national governance and development.
Four activists under age 35 from each of Rwanda’s 11 registered political parties attended three evening classes each week for 6 weeks. Sessions led by local political experts and academics cover different topic. Among these topics, the young politicians gained the knowledge on gender and politics.
All trainees stressed their satisfaction to have an expert like Hope and they promised to bring back this knowledge in their respective political partis.