By Marie-Chantal Ingabire,
Women Deliver is a leading global advocate that champions gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women, in all their intersecting identities. One of the main activities of the Women Deliver is a global conference which takes place every 3 years across the word. This initiative started in 2007 and this year, it took place in Kigali, Rwanda.
The theme of the Women Deliver 2023 Conference (WD2023) was Spaces, Solidarity and Solutions. The Women Deliver 2023 Conference convened 6,400 people in Kigali and more than 200,000 people that participated virtually. WD2023 was inclusive and co-created spaces that foster solidarity for sustainable solutions on gender equality. The objectives of the conference were: Catalyse Collective Action to Advance Gender Equality, Hold Leaders Accountable, Empower the Feminist Movement, Reframe Who Leads and Create Space.
The Good Financial Governance (GFG) in Africa programme commissioned by The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), has supported gender activities in women empowerment such as the Women Leadership Academy, in implementing gender mainstreaming in the programme. GFG in Africa Programme team members who attended the conference include Ms Nirasha Dhuloo: Gender Focal person, Ms. Marie Chantal Ingabire and Mr. Juvenal Habiyambere: Technical Advisors/External Audit, together with representatives from the Programme partners such as the African Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI); the African Organisation of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E) and the sub-Saharan Africa’s organisation of French speaking Supreme Audit Institutions of (CREFIAF).
The opening ceremony took place on Monday 17th July 2023 in BK Arena, presided by HE Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda and was witnessed by three other Heads of State including HE Katalin Veresné Novák, President of the Republic of Hungary; HE Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal and HE Sahle-Work Zewde, President of Ethiopia. In his opening address President Paul Kagame stated that “more remains to be done to tackle biased attitudes about gender, which are deeply embedded in our political, social, and economic systems. All of us share the responsibility to play an active role in changing these negative mindsets”.
Download the Women Deliver 2023 Conference Newsletter.
“More remains to be done to tackle biased attitudes about gender, which are deeply embedded in our political, social, and economic systems. All of us share the responsibility to play an active role in changing these negative mindsets”.
From the 18th – 20th July 2023, there were plenary sessions at the Kigali Convention Centre, exhibitions and many side events happening simultaneously in different venues across Kigali. On 19th July 2023, the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) community namely African Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI), African Organisation of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E), Conseil Régional de Formation des Institutions Supérieures de Contrôle des Finances Publiques de l’Afrique Francophone sub-Saharienne (CREFIAF) and other International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) community members, Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS), Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation (CAAF), Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) held a side event titled “AccountAbility: Auditing Gender Equality”.
The panel included speakers were drawn from different SAIs including Ms Yuster D. Salala (SAI Tanzania), Ms. Grace Rwakarema (SAI Rwanda), Ms. Sharon Clark (CAAF), Ms. Daniela Santana (SAI Chile) and the representative of UN-Women in charge of Accountability Ms. María Noel Vaeza. The discussions during the side event were to respond and share experience around the following four questions:
What is the role of Audit offices in keeping governments accountable to gender equality?
- How do supreme auditing institutions collaborate to improve accountability to gender equality internationally?
- What does auditing gender equality mean? Gender audit examples.
- What are audit offices doing for gender equality in their own offices/countries?
The conference was well organized and successful. For the future conference we recommend GIZ as an organization to participate more, especially with the Gender mainstreaming Group.
