The National Institute of Statistic (NISR) and the Gender Monitoring Office (GMO) have launched a Gender Statistics Framework (GSF) which will be useful in gatherings information and indicators on gender in Rwanda.
The framework was launched April 3, 2012, in Kigali at Lemigo Hotel. Presiding at event was among other dignitaries; the Minister of Gender and Family promotion (Migeprof) Mrs. Aloisea Inyumba and the Director General of NISR, Mr. Yousuf Murangwa.
Minister Inyumba said that the framework will enable the ministry to have a clear image and information on gender issues, which will enable government and stakeholders to improvise ways of addressing genders issues and development.
The NISR Boss, Mr. Murangwa said that the framework will enable institute to gather information on gender statistics which constitute one of the most important data sets that are used to measure progress achieved in Rwanda’s Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), vision 2020 and the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3: which is to Promote Gender and Women Empowerment.
Murangwa said: “this is just a framework, and it will be feed with information from all levels, and administered by the NISR. It is however important to be systematic, capacity building of institutions, creating awareness and build knowledge base on the policy.
This may take long, but it is vital to have information and statistics which will be beneficial to the development and policy making in Rwanda especially on Gender”
The function was also attended by Senator Henriette Umulisa, State Minister of Education Dr. Mathias Harebamungu, UN Women Regional Representative Central Africa, Diana L. Ofwona; GMO Chief Gender Monitor, Oda Gasinzigwa and many stakeholders in the gender sector. The function was sponsored by key stakeholders such as GMO, UNW, and UNFPA.
Senator Umulisa noted that the framework is timely and important for the parliament to have clear policies to act as a basis for advocating for gender equality. She asked the NISR officials to implement and manage the framework with suitable technology that would enable all stakeholders to easily access information.
UN Women representative, Ofwona noted that Rwanda has achieved tremendous milestones in the area of gender equality and has become a yardstick for empowerment and innovation. She said that the UN will proudly continue to support the framework which will compliment programs such as; Gender Responsive Budgeting, Equality and Local Development among others.
“The Gender statistics framework is the dawn of a new era in gender monitoring and mapping. We are particularly enthusiastic about the fact that this initiative is a great leap towards providing the basis of the much-needed comparative data to inform policy and planning” she said.
The GSF framework will help the NISR have at its disposal a framework which helps monitoring gender indicators, support NISR and its stakeholders such as – Dissemination of existing Gender Statistics in the country, Increase the adoption of international standards and Gender indicators, Promotion of the use of gender statistics by Governments and international agencies, planning bodies, NGO’s and research institutions, etc
It is composed of the Main Gender Statistics Framework(Main GSF), Concise GSF, The Gender Status Index (GSI), The General issue Framework, The District Summary GSF, The District level GSF, The District forms (For each sector), The Metadata.
All data will be gathered at the district and national level, and feed into the NISR administration system, which will be updated only by the statistics officials, according to John Bosco Ruzibuka, a Gender Consultant
