Members of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region Regional (ICGLR) Women Forum are in Kigali to discuss about the setting up of the Regional Women Forum (RWF) Secretariat.
This came after an agreement by Rwanda’s minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Louise Mushikiwabo, that Rwanda will host the said secretariat.
During the 10th ordinary meeting of ICGLR Inter-ministerial committee held in Luanda, Angola on 11th March 2015, the government of Rwanda offered to host the Regional Women Forum Secretariat in response to the request of the Forum at this occasion.
It was followed by a simultaneous offer of the special envoy of the UN secretary general for the great lakes region to support the setting up of the regional women forum secretariat.
Following the commitment by the government of Rwanda to host the secretariat, there was a need to put in place the necessary mechanisms of establishing and operationalising the Secretariat as soon as possible.
Opening the operatory two- day meeting, on July 30, the Ag. director general in charge of multilateral affairs in the ministry of foreign affairs and cooperation, Olivier Nduhungirehe, said that the meeting is to discuss how to make this proposal a reality, mainly to discuss strategic plan and the agreement between government of Rwanda and the ICGLR.
Nduhungirehe added that this secretariat will be at the right place as Rwanda is at the forefront of the promotion of gender.
“We will stand ready and committed to support the establishment of this secretariat which is important for Rwanda, a country that has made important steps in promotion of women and gender, but also for the ICGLR and the entire continent” said Nduhungirehe.
Speaking about the meeting, the senior gender advisor to the Special envoy of the UN secretary general in the great lakes region, Miranda N. Tabifor, said that the discussions and brainstorming will guide them to concrete recommendations that will help setting up the secretariat.
She also hailed the Government of Rwanda’s support in establishing this secretariat and later emphasized that this secretariat is to bring good news for women in the region.
“We are discussing concrete modalities of what does it take for the government of Rwanda to establish the ICGLR regional women forum secretariat in Kigali. What will be the role, the purpose and what are going to be the key functions of the secretariat. So it is an important good news for the women of the region to know that there is a functional secretariat that is going to support their work in the entire region,” said Tabifor.
The RWF is led by a Steering Committee of 12 representatives of member states and a five- member bureau currently composed of Sudan chairperson, Kenya first vice chairperson, vacant 2nd vice chairperson, DRC first secretary and Uganda second secretary.
The RWF aims to strengthen women rights in the Great Lakes Region, to promote equal participation of women at all levels.
The forum also is to ensure that the principles of women’s empowerment and gender equality take root in the process of governance and development of ICGLR and mainstream gender in the policies of the countries of the Great Lakes Region.
The preparatory meeting’s recommendations will be taken to the Khartoum meeting that will take place from 17 – 20 August 2015. Khartoum meeting will bring together the twelve members of the ICGLR steering committee plus other participants to look again more deeply into the outcomes of this first meeting so to finalise the document that will be prepared to be submitted to the heads of state summit that is due in December 2015 in Nairobi