The perpetrator fled to the neighbouring country Uganda when he learned that Elisabeth was going to report the case. Elisabeth’s family abandoned her, and she was faced with shame, humiliation, and discrimination which made her life as a child tough. One of the key consequences of gender-based violence (GBV) in Rwanda is the drastic increase in teen pregnancies.  In 2017, over 17,000 cases were identified countrywide. In only two years, in 2019, the number of teen pregnancies increased to 23,000, constituting an increase of 35.3%. With the persistent culture of silence at community levels combined with patriarchal social norms, cultural beliefs, and unequal power relations between men and women, as well as high economic dependence of women to men, many cases remain unreported. The number of unreported cases is estimated to have increased during the pandemic as a result of the preventive measures including lockdowns which forced survivors of GBV to remain at home with the perpetrators and with limited access to support services, or support/rescue from either the neighbors or authorized officials. In May 2021, UN Women and its partners Imbuto Foundation and National Child Development agency (NCDA) organized Gender-Based-Violence (GBV) mobile clinic outreach to teen mothers in Burera district. The outreach activity was organized in the framework of UN Women partnership with Imbuto Foundation on socioeconomic reintegration of survivors of GBV, especially teen mothers using a reintegration full package combined strategy. The package includes psycho-social support group counseling, Parent-Adolescent Communication (PAC) forums sessions; community-based outreach campaigns to increase awareness, male involvement and fighting social discrimination, stigma, and violence as well as promotion of income-generating activities for teen mothers. The outreach brought together different key stakeholders, including local authorities, law enforcement actors, civil society organizations, development partners involved in GBV and child abuse prevention and response. The teen mothers’ meetings were organized in groups of twenty teen mothers and their children and were provided with different services at the site, namely psychosocial counseling, HIV testing, legal advice, legal orientation, information on sexual and reproductive health, child legal registration and nutrition, among others.  The GBV Mobile Clinics outreach is part of the Fostering women and girls’ dignified lives through GBV Prevention, response, and women’s economic autonomy in Rwanda project, funded by the Swedish Development Cooperation. “Promoting women is at the heart of what we do, so seeing services close to the beneficiaries like the mobile clinic gives me hope that GBV is addressed, though, on a small scale, but I am assured that it will one day reach more teens and Rwandans,” says Nadege Kanyange, Communications and Cultural Officer at the Swedish Development Cooperation. The close-out meetings with teen mothers and parents provided an opportunity to discuss the main challenges they encounter and the role of parents on how they can integrate these children back into their homes, as well as the role of community and local leaders in preventing and responding to GBV and child abuse. Teen mothers who were willing to file their GBV cases at the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) were also given the opportunity to report at the Rwanda Investigation Bureau Mobile Van which was on site. Elisabeth appreciates the mobile clinic services because they helped her to learn more about sexual and reproductive health, how to take care of her child with a healthy diet and was encouraged to do civil registration of her child which would enable her to get a birth certificate, health insurance and personal legal identification for her child. She added that the different psychosocial sessions helped to restore her dreams, dignity, and self-confidence. She now belongs to a savings group with fellow teen moms which supports her income-generating activities, and her hope is to become a renowned tailor. The purpose of the GBV Mobile clinic is to raise awareness around GBV and COVID-19, inform the communities of the existing GBV services, provide GBV case management, legal advice, and referrals.  * Name has been changed to protect the identity of the survivor.  

In the lead up to the Generation Equality Forum in Paris, UN Women Rwanda emphasizes the importance of women’s full and effective participation in the ICT and STEM during its fifth Gender Café on the 17th of June, a head of the Generation Equality Forum slated for end of June hosted by President Emmanuel Macron together with several Heads of States and institutions from the public and private sector where they are expected to make high level commitments in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Under the theme of Realizing Women’s Rights for an Equal Future Using Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality, UN Women Rwanda hosted a panel discussion to discuss the importance of technology and innovation to foster gender equality which is one of the six Action Coalition of the GE campaignand co-led by the Government of Rwanda. The café was regional with participation from the Eastern and Southern region. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on large gatherings, a satellite station at FAWE career center gave an opportunity to a young girl with limited access to internet to follow the event live. The Gender Café was well attended by partners from governments, civil society organizations, the private sector, development partners, youth, media, and academia. The Gender Cafés are quarterly platforms organized by UN Women and provides a space for dialogue, self-reflection and conversations on how to advance GEWE.   In her opening remarks, the UN Women Representative Fatou Lo acknowledged the efforts of the government and private sector in creating a conducive environment to harness technology towards achieving gender equality: This is the most visionary platform for gender equality, highlighting the importance of engaging men and boys in shifting stereotypes. The coalition on technology and gender equality is in line with Rwanda’s vision to bridge the gender digital divide and we need all hands-on deck, women and men, boys and girls. We cannot continue to deepen the gender divide. The world cannot afford this. If we are to build back strong, inclusive, sustainable, and equitable societies and if we are to deliver on the promise of Beijing, of the SDGs and of Africa Agenda 2063.   As part of the Generation Equality campaign, UN Women launched a set of six Action Coalitions to accelerate action on critical thematic areas of concern. These are: Gender-Based Violence; Economic justice and rights; Bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR); Feminist action for climate justice; Technology and innovation for gender equality; and Feminist movements and leadership. Launched in May 2019, Generation Equality is a multigenerational effort celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action considered to this day to be the most visionary agenda for the empowerment of women and girls everywhere. Ms. Fatou reiterated in her remarks that, in an increasingly digitalized world where COVID-19 has challenged our development model to its core, greater efforts are needed to ensure that the digital gender divide is not further exacerbated and that women and girls are not left further behind in the fourth industrial revolution. The Minister of State in charge of ICT & TVET, Hon. Claudette Irere in her remarks said that the government continues to ensure that more women are in leadership roles: In our efforts to make sure that girls are accessing equal opportunities, we have over 23 all-girls schools that promote STEM subjects. 18% of female graduates are into science and the TVET sector, and we see a good number of girls taking up ICT- and STEM-related courses. We still have a long way to go to make sure women are skilled and have the right tools. We will ensure policies and strategies are put in place and are tackling the need present and ensuring that in the future such does not happen.   “…We need to take note of the societal barriers that different individuals face. Using technology and innovations of gender equality promote inclusivity and creates a platform to drive change”. The Gender Café had two main parts; a panel dialogue and a pitching session by eight young innovators presenting digital solutions that foster Gender Equality. The panel brought together experts in ICT and young leaders to discuss the issues of digitization, the challenges, and opportunities to tackle this gender gap and to raise awareness and support for innovative technical solutions that contribute to gender equality and to realizing women’s rights, which is what Generation Equality is all about. “Some products are designed for women, but you find that women are not included in developing those products, so they end up not being relevant. It is only going to be a perfect product or solution when women are included,” Josephine Nyiranzeyimana, Government Chief Information Officer of Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA). Sangwa Rwabuhihi shares his experience in the innovation ecosystem and need for financing innovations and emphasized the role of men in closing inequalities in STEM fields: “We can’t reach a gender-equal world if men who are in the field can’t use their privileges and voices to speak up about inequalities”. In addition to the live panel, there was contributions from two young people including the Captain of the Rwanda Patriots Basketball Team, Aristide Mugabe who encouraged men to support and empower women to realize their dreams and Cleo Ingabire, a physicist who describes herself as “a young woman destined for greatness” who said that the 21st century is a world that is constantly changing, so being lifelong learners is going to be important. She encouraged youth to be adaptable and to use information available to positively change the world. video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X0HZQucyJ0&t=1s The second segment highlighted the best practice innovative solutions that contribute to foster gender equality, followed by a pitching session by the eight below innovators: Dr. Edward LWIDIKO (ProjeKt Inspire) Tanzania, working on a solution to address the direct disconnect between current education and future employability especially conceptualizing a movement of young STEM professionals offering career guidance and inspiration to secondary school students. Abi Gaelle GISUBIZO (Keza 3D game) represented the Team Keza Game, an app that encourages positive attitudes and behavior towards ASRH, using a character named 'Keza'. This app is both entertaining and educational and aiming to reduce teenage pregnancies by providing accurate and timely information on ASRH. Orlyse INEZA (Humudity ZEN) worked on a system that stabilizes the humidity in a room to the optimization range of 60%-80%. This has a high potential to support small-holder women farmers by improving post-harvest management and reduce production losses, thus supporting increased income generation. Jacques MUCYURANYANA, has an SMS based tracking and reporting system of needs of persons with disabilities (PwDs). This is an impact-based social system sensitive for all types of disabilities that is currently being used by the National Council of Person with Disabilities in 3 districts: Kamonyi, Gatsibo and Kicukiro, with hope to scale country wide. Yvonne NYINAWUMUNTU (GoCook), an app that cconnects people to chefs who cook for them in the comfort of their homes. It is especially for those engaged in other demanding responsibilities with little or no time to cook. The business is also fostering Gender Equality by providing equal pay for equal work. Pascaline NIYONSABA (FloodWiz), a data visualization map that shows historical data on the damages caused by floods in Rwanda. This application is promising in relation to its contribution to women in climate smart agriculture and will assist government to make data-led decisions. Eric NIYONGIRA (Kundwa) is a computer typing application designed by three medical students to avail educative, evidence-based adolescent sexual & reproductive health (ASRH) and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) information to all adolescents and youths in a friendly manner, with priority to youths living with disabilities. Ernest NSHIMIYIMANA (Affordable Smart Wheelchair for physical impairment) is an automated wheelchair that is geared towards improving movement for people with disabilities and elderly people who can’t move easily especially breastfeeding mothers living with disabilities. Closing the Gender Café, Anne Shongwe Githuku, the UN Women South African Representative, said that it is exciting how technology makes us look for long term solutions for our problems. We should think of how we can properly use technology to change the game for everyone: girls, women, and men. “2030 is what we call the expiration date to archive gender equality. How do we use the tech innovations to change the game in gender? As you ask yourself what to do next, also ask yourself about your commitment (Anne Shongwe Githuku).” video of innovators https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etm1Qkrxr0s&t=3s   For more information, the Gender Café was live on YouTube.

As Rwanda joined the rest of the world this week in Rome to discuss the future of food systems, it seems there are such success stories that the country can share with the rest of the globe. The UN Food Systems pre-summit was hosted by Italy in Rome from 26-28 July 2021, preceding the full summit confirmed to be in conjunction with the UN General Assembly, to be convened by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in New York in September 2021. The UN Food Systems Summit will be held as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Summit will launch bold new actions to deliver progress on all 17 SDGs, each of which relies to some degree on healthier, more sustainable and equitable food systems. The Summit catalyses momentum to transform the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food. On Tuesday (July 13, 2021), Rwanda held a virtual High Level National Dialogue on Food Systems, with nearly 120 participants joining in the conversation where Cabinet ministers dealing with Food Systems, UN Agencies, key national leaders and panellists highlighted the need to transform Rwanda’s Food Systems to contribute towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agenda. The dialogue, which took place under the theme of “Shaping Country Food Systems Pathways for the pre-UN Food Systems Summit 2021”, was jointly convened by the Government of Rwanda under the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, and the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s office in Rwanda. Rwanda widely initiated National Food Systems Dialogues in March 2021, following approval by the Cabinet in February 2021 for Rwanda to embark on the dialogues ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 to be convened by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres. UN Resident Coordinator, Fodé Ndiaye, said that the UN in Rwanda reaffirms its commitment for the journey of building stronger coalition for long lasting food systems structural transformation and to contribute to African Common Position Paper for the Food Summit. “Rwanda is globally seen as a good example of the FSS process. Of course, it has been grounded on excellent leadership, ongoing policies and strategies, institutions building, home-grown solutions and efficient partnership,” said UN Resident Coordinator, Fodé Ndiaye.  Ndiaye has said that transforming Food Systems will require accurate disaggregated data, change in measurement including more natural and social capital, for scientific and evidence-based policies and strategies, technologies, innovations, new integrated research-extensions-markets value chains supported by well-functioning, inclusive and diversified financial sectors. “There is no doubt that we have enough means to end hunger and poverty, to make diet accessible, available, affordable and sustainable for all,” he said, indicating that food security is a human right. In the lead up to the UN Food Systems pre-summit hosted by Italy in Rome, the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. Gerardine Mukeshimana, said in an interview with The New Times that “Rwanda is committed to achieving a modern agriculture that is resilient to climate change, provides enough income for farmers' prosperity, and ensures food security for all”. At the UN Food Systems pre-summit on Tuesday, Minister Mukeshimana said that the dialogues on food systems helped shape up Rwanda’s renewed commitments to deliver on national, continental and the 2030 SDGs Agenda while building back better from COVID-19 pandemic. “They served as wakeup call for even more need of stronger partnerships and synergies between all the stakeholders in food systems,” she said. Rwanda’s food systems transformation going forward, the minister said, will focus on actions that will mainly include the promotion of sustainable production and productivity of crops and livestock to ensure availability, accessibility, and affordability of safe and nutritious food by leveraging science and modern technologies that enhance food nutrient content and reduce greenhouse gas emission and land degradation. Increase of awareness about healthy and nutritious food as well as education programmes and upgrade of laboratory capacities for food safety and surveillance will also be the focus of efforts to transform food systems, along with the promotion and de-risking of agri-food investments in post-harvest management and agro-processing facilities to reduce food losses and create jobs. The minister also said that the Government of Rwanda, working with stakeholders, will promote social and environmental resilience through increasing the coverage of agricultural insurance and social protection programmes to enhance graduation from poverty and extreme poverty. Enhancement of contributions from women and youth towards the transformation of food systems will also be part of Rwanda’s focus, she added, while current and past success stories that supported the country’s progress such as Crop and livestock intensification, One cow per poor family, small livestock promotion, Kitchen gardens, Early Childhood Development Centres at village level, and National Strategic Food Reserves will also be scaled up. Indeed, Rwanda’s success stories on which it wants to build on for future interventions to transform food systems are some of the good practices that the country has afforded its citizens as its commitment to food security. Here are details about some of them as the country pledges to scale them up to further transform its food systems towards zero hunger: Strategic Grain Reserve As disasters and epidemics occur unexpectedly, Rwanda set up the Rwandan strategic grain reserve to respond to food shortages during emergencies. Such a reserve has proved crucial for the food needs of residents affected by drought, and most recently, providing much needed food assistance to residents who lost livelihoods during the lockdowns meant to curb the spread of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The National Strategic Reserve had 10,000 metric tonnes of maize and 5,000 tonnes of beans in 2017. That is projected to increase to 49,500 metric tonnes of maize and 18,600 tonnes of beans by 2024, according to the country’s fourth Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation (PSTA4). Subsidies and tax exemptions for farm inputs The government has made concerted efforts to ensure timely access and appropriate use of quality inputs such as increasing farmers’ use of quality seeds and fertilisers through the provision of subsidies. Tax exemptions are also given to several agricultural inputs in order to ensure their availability and accessibility for farmers. This is aimed at making agricultural inputs affordable to farmers, increasing farm productivity, and reducing the cost of food production. Domestic seed production As of 2018, Rwanda was spending about Rwf5 billion on seed imports for subsidy to farmers, consisting of about 3,000 tonnes of maize and a combined 1000 tonnes of wheat and soybean annually, according to data from Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB). However, information from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources indicate that the government is on track to phase out imports of such seeds because it will not import maize, soybean, and wheat seeds for distribution to farmers on a subsidised price starting in the current fiscal year 2021-2022 that kicked off in July 2021. The government’s seed self-sufficiency plan had already been achieved at 80-90 per cent by April 2020 as on-going efforts to produce the seeds locally paid off. Production of seeds domestically allows a convenient trial of seeds on local farms and developing varieties that better respond to farmers’ needs, addresses logistic challenges as well as contributes to the country’s trade balance. Crop and livestock insurance On April 23rd 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources launched the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS), which is intended to cushion farmers against losses they incur due to unpredictable natural disasters, pests and diseases that affect their livestock and crops. Under the scheme, farmers pay 60 per cent of the insurance premium, while the Government of Rwanda covers the remaining 40 percent in subsidy. It also enables the farmers to easily access financial services and ensure the flow of credit to the agriculture sector as it serves as a de-risking factor for the sector. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources show that as of June 2021 since the scheme started, up to 185,509 farmers growing crops including rice, maize, pepper, French beans, and Irish Potatoes on 33,790 hectares of crops have benefited from subsidised insurance. The scheme had also covered 41,517 cows, 109,630 poultry, and 2,378 pigs. The Government has so far provided Rwf 457,303,746 towards subsidising insurance for both crop and livestock farmers since the scheme started and insurance companies have compensated crop farmers who incurred losses with Rwf 520,023,702 and livestock keepers with Rwf 461,917,666. Resilient agriculture In line with resilient agriculture, PSTA4 indicates that significant investment will go into irrigation.  The plans are to increase the irrigated farm area to 102,284 ha. Currently, over 60,000 ha are irrigated. A continued focus will also be on fighting soil erosion with radical terracing increasing from 110,906 ha as of 2018 to 142,500 ha and progressive terraces from 923,604 ha as of 2018  to 1,007,624 ha by 2024. To promote the development of affordable and sustainable irrigation technologies, the Government of Rwanda introduced the Small‐Scale Irrigation Technology (SSIT) project for improved productivity and commercial farming. The Government has been subsidising irrigation equipment by up to 50 per cent of the cost under SSIT. And, small-scale irrigation systems present a great potential and demand for investment to complement the large‐scale irrigation investments that have been undertaken. Most importantly, solar-powered irrigation system has been introduced, which saves both monetary costs and the environment. Towards Zero hunger Rwanda has seen a significant improvement in its food security status, with statistics from the 2018 Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) showing that 81.3 per cent of its population is food secure. The findings showed that 18.7 per cent of the country’s households, approximately 467,000 households, were found to be food insecure. But as Rwanda remains committed and indeed works towards ending hunger , one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, all the efforts being invested in agriculture seem to converge towards this zero hunger goal.

The strategy launched provides a roadmap for WHO support to the Government of Rwanda for the next four years (2021-2024). The event took place at the Kigali, Marriott hotel and gathered leaders of government institutions, different partners and stakeholders as well as representatives of sister UN Agencies.  The United Nations Resident Coordinator, Dr. Fode Ndiaye and WHO Africa Regional Director, Dr. Moeti Matshidiso delivered their messages remotely. Both leaders applauded Rwanda for the strong leadership and significant advances in improving health and the wellbeing of its people. Dr. Matshidiso highlighted the risk of COVID-19 disrupting health systems and threatening to revers hard fought gains in health and development. “Rwanda has an enormous task to meet its ambitious goals towards improving the health and well-being of the population. This Country Cooperation Strategy is therefore timely as we all have the responsibility to work together. I encourage the country to use past, present and future lessons from today’s COVID-19 pandemic to continuously improve the resilience of people centered health systems.”  Over the last 16 years WHO and Rwanda have implemented three Cooperation Strategies. The role of WHO as highlighted in this CCS is to support the Government of Rwanda in building upon and sustaining the impressive improvements in the health of its population in the past 20 years. In his remarks, the Minister of Health, Honorable Dr. Daniel Ngamije who was the guest of honor, highlighted the relevance of having a cooperation strategy. “We started this journey more than two years ago and today the Strategy is here. This is a tool that regulates our interactions with WHO to make sure we implement what we agreed. It is an important tool we sign to make sure that in the coming years we know what we are doing and which areas we want WHO to make a difference in the support they are providing.” The development of this CCS was guided by four of the country’s major policy and strategy documents: The National Strategy for Transformation (NST 1) (2017-2024), the National Health Sector Policy (2015), the Fourth Rwanda Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP IV) (2018–2024), and the United Nations Development Assistance Plan for Rwanda (UNDAP II) (2018-2023). WHO Rwanda Representative Dr. Kasonde Mwinga acknowledged the efforts and contributions that led to the development of the strategy. “This launch has been long in the making. I would like to thank all the contributors who gave insights that led to the development of this fourth Country Cooperation Strategy. The work that we do with the Ministry of Health, we believe is useful for the health of those already here and those of us who are yet to be born. We look forward to work with different partners through different sectors.” In the next four years, the Government will be addressing a number of challenges to meet the population’s growing demand for quality health care and the changing health needs of the population including: a growing burden of non-communicable diseases, high rates of stunting in children under five, the still high rate of maternal and neonatal mortality, emerging and re-emerging diseases and inadequate access to improved water and sanitation. The strategic priorities of this CCS and the activities under each priority are designed to support the Government of Rwanda in addressing the aforementioned challenges in order to reach its health goals and targets. A mid-term review of the CCS will be conducted in 2022 and a final evaluation before the end of 2024. The CCS reflects WHO’s major reform agenda outlined in its 13th General Programme of Work (GPW13) (2019-2023) and the WHO African Regional Transformation Agenda, which aim to improve access to universal health coverage, better protect people from health emergencies, and improve people’s health and well-being. It forms the basis for aligning WHO’s collaboration with other United Nations bodies and development partners in Rwanda.