{"id":4821,"date":"2026-10-22T11:22:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T11:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/?p=4821"},"modified":"2026-10-22T11:22:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T11:22:50","slug":"womens-council-seeks-to-break-barriers-to-local-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/22\/womens-council-seeks-to-break-barriers-to-local-leadership\/politics\/national\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Council Seeks to Break Barriers to Local Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The National Women\u2019s Council is stepping up efforts to encourage more women to contest local government elections, focusing on leadership skills and confidence-building to address their limited participation in some decision-making positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campaign comes ahead of village-level elections scheduled for October 24, 2026, and aims to help women take a more active role in local governance, from village to district level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nyirajyambere Belancille, president of the National Women\u2019s Council, said women were receiving training to strengthen their decision-making abilities, improve their public-speaking skills and prepare them to seek leadership positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe are encouraging the women we represent, from village to district level, to stand for election, participate in voting and take up positions in local government,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council is conducting the mobilisation campaign in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion. It is also targeting young people and persons with disabilities to encourage broader participation in local elections and public affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training sessions cover public speaking during election campaigns, identifying suitable leadership positions and making effective use of personal skills. Women are also encouraged to overcome self-doubt and recognise their capacity to lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nyirajyambere said women\u2019s participation remained uneven across local government structures, particularly in grassroots leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She cited figures showing women account for 23% of representation at district level. Women hold 18% of deputy district mayor positions responsible for economic affairs, compared with 74% of those responsible for social affairs, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At village level, women account for 18% of leadership, while their representation at sector level stands at 19%, according to Nyirajyambere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rwanda\u2019s Constitution provides for at least 30% representation of women in decision-making organs, although the specific arrangements vary across governance structures. The council says further efforts are needed to encourage women to seek leadership positions and address the barriers limiting their participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The electoral process is scheduled to continue with cell-level elections on October 31 and sector-level elections on November 7, according to the published electoral calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nyirajyambere said the council wanted more women to take up leadership roles and contribute to decisions affecting their communities and the country\u2019s long-term development goals under Vision 2050.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Women\u2019s Council is stepping up efforts to encourage more women to contest local government elections, focusing on leadership skills and confidence-building to address […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,53,34,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current_affairs","category-featured-stories","category-national","category-top_stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4826,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions\/4826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}