Source: AllAfrica
The world needs inclusive policies that seek the contribution of everybody, including women, in order to attain global gender parity. The statement was made yesterday by President Paul Kagame while speaking on the last day of this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

"For years, there was a huge gap; it is our responsibility to close the gap," said Kagame who was a member of a high level panel that discussed how the world can end poverty through promoting gender parity.

The President extensively shared practical success stories from Rwanda where he noted that inclusive politics and favorable policies have seen women join men to take centre stage in the country's renaissance from the disastrous effects of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

"During the process of liberation and after the Genocide, the first thing to come to our mind was how do we bring everybody in the country to participate and be part of the change we want in the country. That means we had to bring in women as well. It is an issue of rights, it is everything that is right to do," said the President.

"We thought our policies and politics needed to involve everybody but we were also aware women were a disadvantaged group in our society for many years for different reasons. One of our missions was to deal with that particular problem as well as benefit from it. Fifty two per cent of our population is women. To be thinking of a problem that affects everybody and keeping out fifty two per cent doesn't make sense".

On the panel with President Kagame to discuss gender parity were Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway, Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer, Unilever, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and Melinda Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"We mobilised the population to make sure women are significantly represented at every level.

We started with 30 per cent and we went beyond. It is not just quota, it is encouraging women to be there themselves and make sure they participate," Kagame explained.

Today, Kagame noted, Rwanda's inclusive policies had paid off with figures telling the rest of the story; women hold an unprecedented 64 percent of seats in parliament, for instance, one of the best ratios in the world.

The panel brainstormed on how investing in women and girls can accelerate progress on the new global development goals. Kagame opined that technology has brought many possibilities in education and health that are vital to women empowerment.

His observation was backed by Mlambo-Ngcuka who said that through technology the world can achieve universal access to secondary education for both girls and boys, within a generation.

"Patriarchy is bestowed on men at birth. Whether you want it or not, you have a privilege as a man, and you either fight against it or reject it by becoming a feminist man, or you enjoy the privileges that come with it," she said.

Melinda Gates said that parity between genders could see GDP of African economies grow by at least 12 percent in the next 15 years if more inclusive policies were put in place to tap into the full contribution of women.

"If you invest in a girl or a woman, you are investing in everybody else," she said.

Norwegian Prime Minister Solberg said investing in women was not just a responsibility but also a human right that should be upheld.

"We should invest in women because it's not only fair but a human right," she said.

The session's moderator Katie Couric applauded Rwanda whose leadership she said has turned what is presented as ideas elsewhere into reality in a country where women enjoy a dominant presence in positions of leadership. The panelists agreed that men in leadership shouldn't be scared of promoting gender parity, noting that there were no losers because when women advance, everyone benefits.

This year's WEF meeting started on January 21 and end yesterday.

President Kagame was among the 2,500 high profile global leaders who attended the event that was held under the theme, 'The New Global Context' where participants reflected on the future based on recent political, economic, social and technological changes in the world.

The meeting also provided a platform to discuss over 50 initiatives that are currently being led by the WEF with an aim of contributing positive change to the global agenda.

Gender Parity is one of the 50 initiatives where WEF works with governments worldwide to improve economic opportunity for the female half of the population.

WEF is an is an international institution committed to improving the state of the world through public-private cooperation engaging political, business, academic and other leaders of society in collaborative efforts to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

• Rwanda