{{Over one hundred people gathered at La Palisse in Kigali to deliver results for Rwanda’s adolescent girls.}}
Through three-days of immersive, interactive sessions, participants established the foundation of a girl-centered community armed with the tools and resources to do more and better for Rwandan girls.
The Gender Monitoring Office (GMO) and Girl Hub Rwanda co-hosted the event with the shared vision of bringing girls to the forefront of programming and policy. Girl Effect University, an initiative of the Nike Foundation, curated the Summit to bring learning to life.
The focus of the Summit was on enabling adolescent girls aged 10-19 to fulfill their potential and become agents of change for Rwanda.
“Investing in girls sparks a ripple effect of change,” said Rose Rwabuhihi, Chief Gender Monitor at the Gender Monitoring Office. “Enable girls to succeed through adolescence and you enable her to lead her community’s development.”
Research shows investments in girls return big dividends: When a girl receives seven years of education she marries four later and has 2.2 fewer children. An extra year of secondary school increases her eventual wages by 25 percent.
A report from the World Bank shows that if young women were employed at the same rate of boys, Rwanda would add US$30M annually to the economy.
The Summit featured speeches by the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion, who featured the incredible progress Rwanda has made for girls in the last 15 years.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Economic Planning highlighted how delivering results for girls will benefit the Rwandan economy.
And Lamin Manneh, UN Resident Coordinator showcased Rwanda’s focus on bringing girls’ voice into the Post-2015 debate and urged participants to advocate for girls in the next development agenda.
“There is an incredibly ambitious community focused on girls in Rwanda,” said Kate Wedgwood, Country Director for Girl Hub Rwanda. “Often, though, we don’t have the opportunity to collaborate or build connections.
The Girl Learning Summit has provided a brilliant way to bring together people from across sectors who together can enable girls to drive social and economic growth.”
During the Summit, participants shared their work and learned what others are doing for girls in Rwanda.
Interactive sessions included PLAN Rwanda’s strategies for keeping girls in school; CARE’s learnings on how to enable girls to access and control economic assets; and the Rwanda Women’s Network and RMRC tools for creating a healing space in a family for a girl victim of violence.
Throughout the event, girls were in the room to showcase their experience, their voices and their aspirations for the future.
Groups of girls involved including Ni Nyampinga journalists, Girl Hub Rwanda’s Girl Research Unit and Girl Trustees, beneficiaries from CARE’s economic empowerment programmes, and girls that have benefitted from Rwanda Women’s Network programmes.
Summit outcomes include a map of the girl-centered community in Rwanda: who is doing what for girls and what organizations need and can offer to the community to be successful.
Additionally, participants designed statements that outline the needs for girls in Rwanda Post 2015.
Participants also delivered recommendations from government, development partners, CSOs, NGOs and girls on else needs to be done to make girls successful throughout the country
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