MAYBE the question didn’t come as a surprise to Rwandan President Paul Kagame. But even if it did, he was perfectly placed to answer, given that just over 60 per cent of the members of the Lower House in that African country are women.

Asked at Friday’s ‘Government to Government and Civil Society Dialogue’ what advice he would give to countries like Jamaica that want to increase the number of women in politics, Kagame pointed to legislation, public education, and evaluation as among the key factors.

“Women in the past, in our country, were not considered. There was a lot of inequality so what we did was look at legislation. First, look at the need, the problem, and then you legislate to make sure that the laws that are put in place are sensitive to that. But laws alone will not deliver anything. You have to make sure that there is not only that intent but also the mechanism to make sure that what you put in place is going towards what you wanted in the first place,” the Rwandan president explained at the final event of his three-day State visit held at Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

“We walked through legislation first because we understood the need and what we were doing. Then we also created the mechanism. We have a gender monitoring office in the Government which works across the board to make sure that the policies and implementation part of things are actually in place and happening as we intended to achieve,” he added.

According to the Rwandan Government’s gender monitoring office website, it ensures that gender equality principles are respected at all levels of governmental, private, non-governmental and religious institutions.

Methods such as establishment of mechanisms for measurement, gender auditing, and assessment and generation of data for evidence-based advocacy, are used to guarantee that the office is effective.

Pointing out the importance of public education in encouraging women in leadership, Kagame said, “You don’t take things for granted. We say we want to empower women [but] just talking about it, researching and also monitoring is not enough. You still have to have efforts to reach… you go to the communities and you explain to women. And it takes some reminding that this is the place for women too because, in fact, in our case we are used to leaving women behind, and sometimes they would not complain and they would also think that’s normal. So we have made sure that men, women as well, understand that this is not normal, to leave a section of our society behind.”

Asked to address the issue of attracting young people, who are demotivated from lack of support, to political leadership, Kagame said in order for that to be done, young people should be ready to learn and take on responsibilities.

“This one is not going to be handed to you but rather you make an effort to make sure that you feel that sense of learning and responsibility, which therefore should propel you to that higher level where you take these responsibilities. The Government, therefore, and government policies should be also making it easy and sensitive to the fact that everyone needs to feel that they are participating or presented,” he said.

The Government, he argued, needs to have people of all ages, “starting with the young people so that they grow into that sort of situation where they learn, take responsibilities, and know that there are others coming behind, following in their footsteps”.

Echoing a similar view, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said youth should have the passion to excel.

“The asset of youth is energy, and you should use that energy to acquire wisdom, and you acquire that wisdom — over time — by experience. What we should try to do, the older ones should give the opportunity — but not necessarily the easiest part — to create steps that our youth can trod and elevate themselves. But they must have that energy, that drive to achieve, that experience, and gain wisdom — and that’s what we have tried to do,” said Holness.