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Phone Number

+250 788 521 600

Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Project (GEWEP II)

Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWEP II) profile

Name of the Project:Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Project

Focus area : Women and Girls’ Economic Empowerment and Life Free from Violence

Duration of the project:March 2016-February 2020

Implementation area : 8 districts of the Southern province

Implementing partners:Rwanda Men’s Resource Centre (RWAMREC), Association Rwandaise des Travailleuse Chrétiens Féminins (ARTCF), and Pro-Femmes/Twese Hamwe (PFTH)

Project Donor : Norwegian Agency for Cooperation (NORAD) through CARE Norway and CARE Rwanda.

Project Main Goal

The overall goal of the project is : “Women aged 18 and above in the Southern Province (138,000 are direct participants) are economically and socially empowered and exercise their rights”.{{}}

Project Outcomes

Outcome 1 : Women equipped with financial literacy and enterprise development competencies become competitive actors in the market implemented by ARTCF
Outcome 2 : Illiterate VSLA members demonstrate literacy and numeracy capacities implemented by ARTCF
Outcome 3 : Community Activism improves Gender Based Violence prevention and response Implemented by RWAMREC
Outcome 4 : CSOs are effective advocates for women’s rights-based policy change in Rwanda implemented by PRO-FEMMES/TWESE HAMWE

Intervention models

This project uses integrated approaches to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and its major interventions are financial literacy for VSLA members and their linkage to financial service providers, strengthening women’s entrepreneurship, adult functional literacy, promoting community activism towards GBV prevention and response, engaging men for Gender Equality, Women empowerment and for GBV prevention & response, civil society strengthening, and advocacy.

Implementing partners’ profile

Rwanda Men Resource Center (RWAMREC)

Rwanda Men’s Resource center (RWAMREC) is a Rwanda national leading organization in addressing gender related issues through Men Engage approach. The organization aims to empower men and reach out to other men so that they promote gender equality practices through positive masculine behaviors, to promote effective cross-gender dialogue in ending sexual and gender-based violence, to enhance men’s understanding and support women’s empowerment initiatives.

RWAMREC is a member of Pro-Femmes/Twese Hamwe and an implementing partner of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Project (GEWEP II), a project funded by NORAD that delivers on gender transformative change at community level through community activism and Men Engage models.


Engaging men and boys, a key strategy to end violence against women and girls

ASSOCIATION RWANDAISE DES TRAVAILLEURS CHRETIENS FEMININS (ARTCF)

The main mission of the association is to improve life conditions of people living in poverty especially poor women. The organization provide professional trainings, kits, and financial support to up lift the economic status of poor women for them to get out from poverty and cultural isolation.

The association created by an initiative of a group of Rwandan women, who were concerned by issues of women in different life settings (household chores, jobs, GBV, etc…) in order to improve the status of women living in povertyconditions(morally, economically and spiritually).

Under GEWEP project, ARTCF delivers on women socio-economic development through
Financial Inclusion, VSLG linkage with MFI, Entrepreneurs mentorship, Adult functionalliteracyand numeracy and agricultural value chain development.


Adult literacy and numeracy contributed to women economic empowerment.

Women equipped with financial literacy and enterprise development competencies become competitive actors in the market.


Assoumpta, a young entrepreneur supported by ARTCF in Ruhango District

PRO-FEMMES/TWESE HAMWE (PF/TH)


Pro-Femmes/ Twese Hamwe (PF/TH) is a national civil society umbrella of Rwandan Civil Society Organizations aiming at advancement of women status, peace and development.
Currently Pro-Femmes/ Twese Hamwe has grown to 53 member organizations across the country and has remained an outstanding umbrella that fights for socio-economic rights of women, fighting against gender based violence and promoting gender equality in all aspects. Since its inception, the umbrella has achieved great milestones including influencing national legal and policy frameworks that are gender responsive, strengthening the capacity of women in economic development and leadership from grassroots to national level and ensuring a gender sensitive Rwandan community.

In the implementation (GEWEP II) project, PF/TH focus mainly on capacity building of civil society organizations member of PF/TH to address the issue of gender equality and women’s empowerment through advocacy and networking.


PF/TH engages with policy makers to address issues affecting women and girls and build networks for effective advocacy.

Theory of change :

Key achievementsto date

Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Program (2016-2020) works to socially and economically empower women and girls to exercise their rights. To date, we have 5,261 VSLA with 144,427 members (79% women) of whom 86,940 women and girls have been supported with financial literacy training, enterprise development training and 20,023 graduated in adult literacy and numeracy training, while around 120,000 were reached with Gender Based Violence (GBV) awareness campaign. Successes include : Community activism against GBV, primarily through the engagement of men that facilitated rapid behavior changes at individual, family, and community levels—clearly seen in project monitoring reports and participants’ stories ; Business mentorship by partnering with experienced female entrepreneurs for an intensive 6-month period yielding good leading to increased skills and practices in enterprise management ; and Utilizing Village Agent Networks to deliver trainings that dramatically increased reach in a cost-effective strategy.

 Savings amounted to 4,763,763 USD in 2018
 474 Village Agents trained as trainers on financial literacy & linkage
 85,829 VSLA members trained on financial literacy & linkage
 755 VSLAs linked to formal micro financial institutions
 95,496 VSLA members trained on basic enterprise development
 152 Literacy Agents trained on adult literacy modules
 304 classrooms that are fully equipped
 152 literacy and numeracy teachers equipped and running classes.
 13,143 literacy and numeracy learners (47% graduated and others will graduate in May 2018
 320 Community Activists trained on activism skills
 320 Community Activists selected from active Men Engage clubs
 14,311 activism actions implemented by community activists
 320 opinion leaders trained and supporting Community activists in their work
 17 advocacy tactics implemented by PFTH
 8advocacy papers (position papers, CSOs statement, shadow reports) presented by PFTH to decision makers for action.