Plan International Rwanda to launch "Girls Get Equal Campaign"

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00:00 Plan International is a global organization that has been in existence for over 8 years.

00:07 Plan started in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. So it has now grown to be a global organization

00:16 operating in 77 countries across the world. So here in Rwanda, Plan started operating

00:22 in 2007, so it has been operating now for 12 years. Plan is a development and humanitarian

00:29 organization that is focused on working with children, young men and women, families and

00:35 communities to advance children's rights and equality for girls. But our main focus in

00:42 terms of our interventions is gender transformative approach and influencing at all levels. The

00:47 campaign of Girls Get Equal comes from the realization that equality for women can never

00:54 be achieved if women do not get the power, the voices or the ability to express themselves.

01:01 Studies have been made and a realization has also been made through our various programs

01:09 and interactions with governments, partners and other like-minded organizations, civil

01:14 society even within the UN system. So when you talk of the sustainable development goals

01:21 and you also talk about the different development agendas across the world, it has been realized

01:27 that young women, girls still face a lot of inequality. So those barriers to equality

01:34 actually have a significant effect on the ability of countries to develop. So we have

01:41 said across all the spectrum of activities that can be addressed through the sustainable

01:46 development goals, we as Plan International have seen that that particular aspect around

01:51 equality for girls is a key component in making sure that our communities that we work with

01:56 actually continue to develop and this is a particular area of interest for us.

02:00 So in the Rwandan context, quite a lot of progress has been made, one has to acknowledge.

02:06 So we look at, for example, the representation of women in parliament standing now at 61

02:12 percent. That is quite a notable achievement and this is very significant because this

02:18 represents the highest figure across the world, even across the developed nations. So this

02:24 is really something that the nation should be proud of. However, it does not stop there.

02:30 When we now get deeper within the communities, away from the national picture, as we get

02:35 deeper into communities, we are concerned about, yes, women, we see progress, but the

02:42 condition of women and the status of women, the condition in terms of do they have equal

02:48 access to basic rights and opportunities in terms of their status, are women valued within,

02:55 starting from the family unit, at societal level, at national level, for their contributions

03:01 as part of society. We want women to be represented within the various platforms, forums, women

03:11 to be around the table when decisions are made. We want women to be driving the decisions

03:16 that affect them. We want women to be driving national decisions, either in business, in

03:22 the economy, whether in politics, whether in the scientific world, whether it's in religious,

03:28 whether it's in our societies. We want women to be part of the decision-making process,

03:33 for them to also contribute to the process of making those particular decisions. We want

03:38 freedom for women to be able to make decisions, to live their lives, to say out their opinions,

03:45 to say out how they feel about things, without the fear of discrimination or harassment or

03:53 intimidation. And we want the stories of women to be positive, because a lot of times we

03:59 see a lot of stereotypes that are perpetuated by mainstream media, by business, by electronic

04:06 media, on social platforms, all these negative stereotypes. So we want positive stories about

04:13 women to start to come to the fore, so that all reporting and the images and status of

04:18 women are not necessarily negative or not driven by stereotypes, but are driven on the

04:24 value that women can contribute and can create for the society and world. This campaign is

04:29 three years, it's going to be a three-year campaign, dealing with different parts, but

04:35 at the end of the three years it doesn't mean the agenda for women has stopped, and girls

04:41 and young women and women have stopped, no. But we're saying this particular campaign

04:45 brings to light specific issues around girls and young women. So in the first year we're

04:51 going to focus around popularising, getting a group of influencers to start to have the

04:57 right conversations about the status of women in our societies. We want to popularise that

05:04 debate, all those actions and the key issues. So we want influencers, young influencers,

05:10 mainstream media, people in power and influence, to actually grab their attention and say,

05:17 let's discuss these issues, let's have conversations around these issues. So we are saying to the

05:22 girls and the young women for this particular campaign, it can be done, it has been done,

05:29 and it will be done. We want a social movement to call to light the issues that affect girls

05:36 today and say, girls will get equal, girls have the capability of doing it, and we are

05:42 bringing a positive story of change so that girls themselves are able to lead this movement

05:49 and will become valued contributors to the society in Rwanda.

05:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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