Mukabalisa was speaking at the Conference on Achieving Gender Equality which was held under the theme ‘Changing Dynamics, Accelerating Progress’ in Kigali yesterday.
The conference was organised on the sideline of the Transform Africa Summit that has been taking place in Kigali.
The two-day conference was organised by National Gender Machinery, Smart Africa Secretariat and United Nations Rwanda.
Mukabalisa said that people cannot expect to develop countries and achieve the Africa’s agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030 if there is a big number of the population left behind.
“We recognise that African countries are pushing to ensure respect and promotion of gender equality which is essential for sustainable development, good governance, respect of human rights and democracy. Investment in empowerment of women and girls is a well-recognised development priority in Africa,” she said.
The aspiration six of African Union’s Agenda 2063 underlines the potential of Africa’s people, especially women and youth. Under this vision, it is envisaged that there will be gender equality in all spheres of life and an engaged and empowered youth including young girls.
The Ten-Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063 is also committed to full gender equality and significant empowerment of African women by 2023 at the national, regional and continental levels.
Gender equality is also incorporated in the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“Africa of 2063 would see fully empowered women with equal access and opportunity in all spheres of life. This means that the African woman would have equal economic rights, including the rights to own and inherit property, sign a contract, register and manage a business. Over 90% of rural women would have access to productive assets, including land, credit, inputs and financial services,” said Mukabalisa.
Africa of 2063 would also see attainment of full gender parity. It would see women occupy 50% of elected offices at state, regional and local bodies, and 50% of managerial positions in government and private sector.
“It’s true that many African countries have made progress in setting up legal and institutional frameworks for gender equality, measures have been taken to close the gender gap in education and improve women’s economic and political participation,” she said.
“However, despite the favourable political context, more efforts are still needed for Government institutions, non-government actors including civil society and the private sector to ensure women’s empowerment or change the daily, lived reality of women, legal frameworks and policies may be in place and ensure its practical, tangible and effective implementation.”
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Mukabalisa said that there is a need for mobilization among people to change mindset on gender issues to accelerate the promotion of equality.
“A strong mobilization of people to change the mindset on all persisting gender equality issues and ensure acceleration for promotion of gender equality by strengthening the accountability mechanisms and measures for gender equality is also needed to close gaps in terms of limited digital literacy, high poverty amongst women, low representation in decision making organs, all forms of violence and discrimination,” she explained.
She said that all these gender gaps have to be eliminated so that women fully enjoy all their human rights.
She added that all harmful social practices and all barriers to access quality health and education for women and girls would be terminated.
Mukabalisa also requested the participants in the conference to give special attention to building women capabilities especially in ICT sector saying that technological innovations represent a way for developing nations to foster economic development, improve levels of education and training.
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