Two decades after the 1994 genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 people in 100 days, the great untold story of Rwanda’s rise is how women rebuilt the nation. On a recent visit to this tiny (26,338 square kilometres) land-locked country in the heart of Africa, I discovered a nation that has risen from the ashes of a civil war, to become one of the fastest growing economies in the African continent.
Indeed, Rwanda has a stable and remarkably corruption-free government, where women hold key leadership roles and whose policies are cited as a model for gender inclusiveness. Furthermore, over the last decade, the country has averaged a GDP growth of nearly 8% and is so incredibly clean, green and safe that it has even been dubbed the Singapore of Africa.
In November 2017, after landing at Kigali International Airport, a small but immaculate and efficient facility (incidentally voted one of the best airports in Africa in 2016), I got chatting with a business man in the immigration queue. As it turns out, he was a Singaporean economist collaborating with the government of Rwanda on a development project. I shared with him that I too was based in Singapore, currently traveling with non-profit, Women on a Mission, and that we were here to visit Women for Women International, a charity that champions women survivors of war around the world.
Since 2008, Singapore and Rwanda signed a memorandum of understanding to provide a framework for public sector collaboration. These past years, among other partnerships, Rwanda has also looked at Singapore’s housing model for inspiration and in 2016, the Rwanda Housing Authority signed an agreement with the Singapore Building and Construction Authority to promote the development of green buildings and cities in Rwanda.
On the drive in from the airport, Rwanda continued to impress me. Not a leaf or flower in the neatly manicured planters was out of place and not a single candy wrapper littered the pavements, the country was sparkling clean – very much like Singapore. Many believe that progress has come to Rwanda because of the nature of its leadership. Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, a former guerrilla who led an invading force to suppress the genocide, rules with an iron fist and allows little dissent. Seeing his country so devastated and broken because of the genocide, Kagame realised he needed the Rwandan women, who were the majority survivors of the genocide, to step up and fill the vacuum. A new constitution was passed in 2003 decreeing that 30% of parliamentary seats be reserved for women. The government also pledged that girls’ education would be encouraged and that women would be given leadership roles in the community and in key institutions. Women soon blew past the 30% quota and today, with 64% of its seats held by women, Rwanda’s parliament leads the world in female representation.
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