{The community-based Kirehe Watershed Management Project (KWAMP) in Rwanda’s Eastern Province has received the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) gender award at an event in Rome.}
The award recognises the achievements in gender equality and women’s empowerment in each of the regions where IFAD works. Rwanda received the honour alongside projects that empower rural women and strengthen gender equality.
Other winners of the award include the Corridor Central Project from Ecuador, the Al-Dhala Community Resource Management Project from Yemen and the Rehabilitation and Community-based Poverty Reduction Project from Sierra Leone.
Rwanda’s project was recognised for playing a significant role in easing women’s domestic workloads. This includes through the introduction of biogas systems that provide households with energy for cooking and lighting. The system helps women to save the time and efforts they previously spent collecting firewood.
The Kirehe Watershed Management Project promotes the shift from subsistence to intensified market-based agriculture. It has empowered women by engaging them in infrastructure works such as soil and water conservation and in feeder road rehabilitation. It has also strengthened women’s land rights and boosted women’s representation in watershed planning and management and in community decision making.
In Rwanda, IFAD provides support to the Kirehe Watershed Management Project (KWAMP), the Rural Income Through Exports (PRICE) programme, and the Post-Harvest and Agri-Business Support Project (PASP).
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