Gender Mainstreaming Strategy

The development of this gender mainstreaming strategy and its monitoring and evaluation framework within the Rwanda Media Sector came as a response to one of the recommendations from the gender audit report on the same sector that highlighted the gender strategy as strongly needed tool to ensure identified gaps are bridged. The aim of the strategy was to ensure coordinated and gender sensitive capacity building within the media sector and to inform stakeholders in the media sector of their role in respecting gender principles within their respective areas of intervention. An appropriate methodological approach was needed to achieve the above objective. A part from the findings from gender audit reports that played a vital role in inspiring the development of this strategy, other data were needed to supplement the gender audit so as to come up with a comprehensively informed corpus of elements to serve as a strong foundation for the development of this strategy. Thus literature review of relevant existing documents was conducted. The review exercise included both international and national gender and media frameworks. At International level, existing gender instruments were consulted to ensure the developed gender mainstreaming strategy and M&E Framework in the Rwanda Media sector are in line with the international gender commitments to which Rwanda has subscribed as a country member. They include but not limited to: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, UN 1325 Resolution on women, peace and security, Gender Inequality Index, Gender Status Index (GSI), to name few of them.