• Female adult literacy is only 50%
• The 1994 genocide poses staggering obstacles to Rwanda’s embrace of information technology (IT).
• 42% of women in Rwanda are widowed, and at least 35% of households are headed by women. Funds and time for educational training are scarce.
• Figures estimate 49% of the total population is currently under 14 years old, 60% is under 20 years old, and of these, an estimated 400,000 are orphans, 20% of whom head their household.
• 30% of National University of Rwanda Students are Women
• There is also a large shortage of teachers
• Female Secondary Gross Enrollment: 9%
• Women reportedly make up 28% of students at the Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management and 30% at the National University of Rwanda.
• Women make up approximately 48.8% of the formal labor force.
• Internet access in Rwanda is limited and primarily reserved for the wealthy and elite.

Gender Policy Framework

• 17 out of 70 appointed Parliamentarians are women
• 4 of 54 burgomeisters (county level political leaders) are women
• 2 Cabinet Ministers (Minister of Gender and Minister of Public Services & Labor) are women
• The Secretary General of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission is a woman, Aloysia Inyumba, the former Minister of Gender, Family and Social Affairs.
• Gender Awareness within GOR: With support from UNIFEM, the Ministry of Gender and Women in Development has conducted workshops to raise awareness of gender issues.
• The Rwandan Chapter of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Forum of Women Parliamentarians of Rwanda (FFRP) have also taken the initiative to address gender in the country’s legal framework.

Non-government Gender & IT Activities

• The Rwandan Chapter of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) supports the FAWE Rwanda Secondary School for Girls, a boarding school that offers secondary education to girls who would otherwise not be able to access it.
• FAWE has also provided science equipment, supplies, and textbooks and opened a computer center “to encourage access to new information technologies.”
• ProFemmes/Twese Hamwe is active in supporting women’s access to basic services and education and advocating for women’s legal rights.