Fatuma Ndangiza

Last updated

Fatuma Ndangiza
Born1968 (age 5556)
Uganda
Other namesFatuma Nyirakobwa Ndangiza, Fatuma Ndangiza Nyirakobwa
Occupation(s)Civil servant, women's rights advocate, policy expert, politician
Years active1990-present

Fatuma Ndangiza (born 1968) is a women's rights advocate, policy expert, and politician. As of January 2024, she is serving her second term as a Rwandan member of the East African Legislative Assembly. Born and raised in a refugee camp in Uganda, she returned to Rwanda during the civil war. Initially she settled in Byumba and led the SOS Ramira initiative to assist women and children in acquiring basic supplies and treatment to meet their needs. When the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of Kigali, she moved to the capital and began working in the Ministry for Women and Family Promotion to provide support and relief to survivors and victims of the Rwandan genocide. She helped to create the National Women's Council and its regional and local frameworks to empower women to help them achieve political and economic parity through legal change and advocacy. She worked with the women's ministry until 2002.

Contents

Ndangiza led the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission from 2002 to 2009. The goals of the commission were to analyse systems that had created divisions in the past, to confront systemic issues and to create state reforms for reshaping Rwanda's socio-political identity while protecting the human rights of all citizens. She served as Rwandan ambassador to Tanzania from 2009 and was simultaneously appointed as the first Rwandan ambassador to the Seychelles in 2010. Between 2012 and 2017, Ndangiza was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Governance Board. In 2012, she was appointed by chairman Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to serve on the African Peer Review Forum's Panel of Eminent Persons, which she chaired for a two-year term from 2014 to 2016. Both the Rwanda Governance Board and Panel of Eminent Persons are policy review mechanisms to ensure that development is sustainable and falls within a human rights framework. Ndangiza was elected as one of Rwanda's nine members of the East African Legislative Assembly, the regional legislative body, in 2017. She was elected to a second term in 2022. Her goals during her tenure were to integrate the policies and procedures of the independent nation members in order to facilitate consistency and coordination across the region.

Early life and education

Fatuma Ndangiza Nyirakobwa was born in 1968, in a refugee camp in Uganda. [1] [Note 1] Her family was Muslim, [3] and she grew up in Uganda. [4] Many Rwandan Tutsis raised in refugee camps in Uganda wanted to move to Rwanda, [5] but President Juvénal Habyarimana (term 1973–1994) prevented their return. [6] In 1986, some of the refugees formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front, and began demanding the right to resettle in Rwanda. They formed a militia and in October 1990, began marching towards Kigali, beginning the Rwandan Civil War. [7] By the end of the year, most of the territory around Byumba was controlled by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which had become the centre for refuge efforts as people were brought there from other parts of the country for medical treatment. Ndangiza joined the relief teams organised in Uganda and followed the troops to Byumba. [8]

Career

Women's rights and protections (1990s–2002)

In Byumba, Ndangiza started a programme called SOS Ramira (from kuramira, meaning to save). She worked with other women to help returnees, survivors, orphans and other displaced children to find clothes, basic medicines, food, and other essentials. When the government began setting up social agencies they turned their attention to teaching people skills such as carpentry, farming, and sewing, so that they could earn an income. [9] When the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of Kigali, Ndangiza made her way to the capital city. [8] She worked with Aloisea Inyumba, the Minister for Women and Family Promotion, on issues that women were facing as a result of the war. [10] There was no existing structure for the Ministry, which had previously served as a propaganda mechanism for the war. Those who had to rebuild it from the ground up, were unpaid for the first year, while trying to provide urgently needed support and relief to survivors and victims of the Rwandan genocide. [8] As had been the case in Byumba, initially the needs were for clothing, medical supplies, and basic necessities. This soon shifted to helping and training women to find employment. [11] In 1995, Ndangiza served as the coordinator between the Ministry for Women and Family Promotion and UNICEF. [12]

Ndangiza became chair of a task force to create a National Women's Council, with the goal of uniting women and helping them move past their differences and work together on development and empowerment. [13] Their strategic planning sessions discussed how to increase women's participation in decision making and economic initiatives, while cultivating allies in the transitional legislature. [14] The structure decided upon was a national council acting as an umbrella network for provincial, district, sectional, and local councils through which their concerns and needs could be filtered. [15] The goal was to organise and prepare women throughout the country to become advocates for themselves, so that they would be ready to press for their rights when the first post-genocide elections occurred. [16] The first elections to the councils were held locally in 1996. [17] One of the women's first tasks was to review existing legislation which disadvantaged women and discriminated against them. Calling together legal analysts and gender experts, the councils made proposals to change laws such as those preventing women from inheriting property. [18] As the genocide had created many women-led households, it was important to prevent any possibility of distant male relatives taking over their homes and the land they needed to feed their families. [19]

Other reforms Ndangiza worked on included a woman's right to control and administer her own assets, to open a bank account, to have joint control with her husband if they were married, to obtain a divorce, and for the children to derive nationality maternally. [20] There were also efforts to pass legislation against family violence and child rape. [21] Because of the large number of orphans and displaced children in the country, Ndangiza worked to establish a foster care and adoption system. [22] Initially the Ministry for Women and Family Promotion organised orphanages to receive displaced street children and refugees returning from places like the Congo. As most of the children were too young to remember their families, they did not know if they were Hutu or Tutsi, which made it easier for them to come together without the knowledge of the history of ethnic conflicts. [23] Recognising that orphanages deprived children of a family setting, they launched the Shelter for Women programme, which aimed to provide housing for women, including returnees and widows, so that they could bring children into their homes. [24] She worked with Inyumba until 1999 and then with her successor Angelina Muganza until 2002. [25]

Policy development and monitoring (2002–2009)

Inyumba had moved on to serve as executive secretary for the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission and Ndangiza succeeded her in 2002. The executive secretary was responsible for leading the commission. [3] The goal of the commission was to confront the issues of the country's past and chart a united path forward through education and with a rights-based agenda. [26] The commission evaluated systems which had led to past divisions and instituted reforms to state structures in order to reshape Rwanda's socio-political identity. [27] Beginning in 2001, state institutions were decentralised to give more autonomy to local and regional governments. [28] At the local level, committees were elected and represented on a council at the district level, governed by mayors and deputy mayors. A 2006 reform replaced the executive committees and councils with paid administrators to eliminate favouritism and increase transparency. The new executive secretaries were required to undergo an annual performance review to determine if they were meeting upward goals at the national level and downward goals in the local communities. [29] In addition, the commission created curricula for schools that would promote peace and reconciliation and introduced conflict resolution training under a civic education initiative for university students, released prisoners from the genocide, and the general public. Annually, a National Summit for Reconciliation was held to allow representatives of all levels of society, including educators, religious leaders, and NGO administrators to offer observations and suggestions for the future. [30] Ndangiza led the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission until 2009, when she was replaced by Jean Baptiste Habyarimana. [31]

Regional governance posts (2009–2023)

In October 2009, Ndangiza was appointed as the Rwandan ambassador to Tanzania [31] and moved to Dar es Salaam. Simultaneously, she became the first ambassador from Rwanda to the Seychelles in 2010. [32] Among the issues she focused upon were increasing trade and transportation systems, promoting tourism, and decreasing piracy. [32] [33] [34] She was recalled in October 2011, [35] and the following January was appointed as the deputy chief executive officer of the Rwanda Governance Board, an institution which monitors and regulates policy of public and private institutions and organizations. [36] [37] [38] That month, she became a member of the African Peer Review Forum's Panel of Eminent Persons, [39] a group which monitors and promotes policies and procedures leading to political stability, sustainable development and economic growth, while supporting cooperation throughout Africa with a focus on human rights. [40] [41] Under her leadership, the Rwanda Governance Board sought to implement programmes to shift economic development and financial security from the central government to local institutions by establishing regional training and coaching programmes to build the skills for local leaders to better plan, monitor, and develop their own goals for growth and self-reliance. [42] [43] Ndangiza led the board until 2017, when she was succeeded by Usta Kayitesi. [44] In 2014, she became the chair of the Panel of Eminent Persons, [1] [45] serving a two-year term. [46] She continued to be a member of the panel after completing her term as chair, [47] and led the team of experts who worked on assisting South Sudan's integration into the East African Community when it was admitted for membership in 2016. [48] [49]

Ndangiza continued to be involved in women's issues supporting initiatives like the Girls Leadership Forum, a university student initiative that develops women for leadership roles and promotes sex and reproductive health education to combat unwanted pregnancy. [50] As one of the speakers at the 2014 Women in the World Summit held at New York City's Lincoln Center, she spoke about how Rwanda had become a leader of women's representation in governance, with 63 percent of the members of parliament being women. To achieve those levels of representation, she stressed that countries had to build spaces that allowed women to feel safe and able to speak. [38] That year, she helped organise a pan-African conference, Silencing the Guns: Women in Democratisation and Peace Building in Africa sponsored by the African Union in Kigali. The purpose of the conference was to explore the causes of conflict and violence, and to recommend pathways to maintaining peace through the lens of gender. [51] She advocated for educational programmes which included men in advancing women's rights. When the HeForShe Campaign was launched in 2015, she stressed the importance of men becoming advocates for women's issues noting that success for developmental goals they wanted to achieve would be harder to reach if half of the population was not engaged or participating. [52] Ndangiza was chosen by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the first woman to chair the African Union Commission, to lead the first ever all-woman election observer mission for the African Union. The first election they oversaw was the September 2016 parliamentary election in the Seychelles. [53] [54]

In 2017, Ndangiza was elected as one of Rwanda's nine members on the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), a regional legislative body for the nations of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Sudan. [55] She was appointed to serve on the Legal Rules and Privileges Standing Committee in 2018, [56] and elected as its chair. [57] She also served on the Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution, [58] and was elected chair in 2021. [59] One of the bills she helped shepherd through approval was aimed at integrating the oaths taken for the institutions of the East African Community, such as for the East African Court of Justice, as the member nations have differing legal systems and requirements. [57] She was part of a team of members of the EALA Parliament who visited Burundi in 2018 in an attempt to begin repairing the Burundi–Rwanda relations, which had been deteriorating for several years. [60] That year she also participated in the deliberations of the EALA weighing whether the assembly should take a more active part in the stalled peace talks underway at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development with regard to South Sudan. [58] Other legislation Ndangiza supported were against gender-based violence, genocide, human trafficking, and terrorism. [61] She also put forward a measure with Mary Mugyenyi of Uganda for the upcoming elections to require member nations to nominate candidates with a balanced gender slate. [62]

One of the first initiatives of 2022 that Ndangiza supported was the creation of an East African Legislative Assembly's Women Caucus. Fatuma Ibrahim Ali (Kenya), Wanjiku Muhia (Kenya) and Pamela Simon Maassay (Tanzania) brought the motion and discussion to the floor, which was supported by the MPs. [63] Ndangiza was elected as the Secretary-General of EALA Women Caucus. [64] In December, she was elected to a second term in the EALA, on a slate of members from Rwanda which included six women for its nine posts. [65] She was also elected to serve on the EALA Commission through 2025. The commission, which has two members from each of seven nations, serves as the administrative organ of the assembly, setting its schedule, nominating committee members, and managing its business. She and Mo-Mamo Karerwa of Burundi where the only women elected to the commission. [66] Critical issues supported by Ndangiza in the term included the ratification of protocols and implementation of laws to further the integration of the East African Community, such as shared economic and budgetting processes, import/export regulations and tariffs, information and technology, legal jurisdictions for the East African Court of Justice, meteorological services, and foreign policy coordination. [67] [68] Ndangiza stressed that foreign policy cooperation was a critical component in instances where one member nation did not have diplomatic relations abroad, but another member state did and could act to represent the diplomatic interests of the other. [68] She stated that the protocols were inter-dependent, meaning that for example, a single currency for the East African Community could not be moved forward without integration of the underlying customs regulations and implementation of common market policies. [69] In 2023 and 2024, she worked on a health initiative aimed at improving health services through integration of privacy protections, broadening access to high-quality health services, and utilising shared technology to reach the goal of universal health coverage throughout the region by 2030. [70]

Notes

  1. Self-published site, however the author, Fred Muvunyi is a journalist working for Deutsche Welle and previously served as the chair of the Rwanda Media Commission, the national media regulatory agency. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kigali</span> Capital and the largest city of Rwanda

Kigali is the capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relatively new city. It has been Rwanda's economic, cultural, and transport hub since it was founded as an administrative outpost in 1907, and became the capital of the country at independence in 1962, shifting focus away from Huye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rwanda Defence Force</span> Combined military forces of Rwanda

The Rwanda Defence Force is the military of the Republic of Rwanda. The country's armed forces were originally known as the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), but following the Rwandan Civil War of 1990–1994 and the Rwandan genocide of 1994 against the Tutsi, the victorious Rwandan Patriotic Front (Inkotanyi) created a new organization and named it the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). Later, it was renamed to its current name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East African Legislative Assembly</span>

The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is a sub-organ of the larger East African Community, being the legislative arm of the Community. Members are sworn into five-year terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East African Federation</span> Proposed African country

The East African Federation is a proposed political union of the seven sovereign states of the East African Community in the African Great Lakes region – Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda – as a single federated sovereign state. The idea of this federation has existed since the early 1960s but has not yet come to fruition for several reasons. In September 2018, a committee was formed to begin the process of drafting a regional constitution, and a draft constitution for the confederation was set to be written by the end of 2021 with its implementation by 2023. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted plans to draft and implement a constitution. On 20 March 2023, the EAC announced that the drafting process would resume in May of that year in Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Mushikiwabo</span> Secretary General of Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

Louise Mushikiwabo is the fourth and current Secretary General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. She previously served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Rwanda from 2009 to 2018. She also served as Government Spokesperson. She had previously been Minister of Information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rwanda women's national football team</span>

The Rwanda women's national football team represents Rwanda in women's association football and is controlled by the Rwandese Association Football Federation. It had to date been scheduled to compete in one major tournament, the inaugural Women's Challenge Cup held in Zanzibar in October 2007, but the event was ultimately canceled. It has finally debuted in February 2014 against Kenya. The team is nicknamed The She-Amavubi.

Ambassador Nusura TIPERU is a Ugandan diplomat,politician with vast experience as a National and East African legislator. She served as the first National Female Youth Member of the Ugandan Parliament after the promulgation of the 1995 Constitution.

Margaret Nantongo Zziwa is a Ugandan politician and legislator. She served as the Speaker of the 3rd East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in Arusha, Tanzania. She was elected to serve in that capacity in June 2012. She was impeached and voted out of office on 17 December 2014, on the basis of misconduct and abuse of office, but was later awarded compensation for illegal removal.

Libérat Mfumukeko is a Burundian diplomat and civil servant. He is currently an IDA / World Bank Borrowers’ Representative where he co-chairs the Africa Group 1, and is also a Chargé de Missions at the Presidency of the Republic of Burundi. He was the Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC) from 2 March 2016 to 25 April 2021, replacing Richard Sezibera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">17th EAC Extra Ordinary summit</span>

The 17th EAC Extra Ordinary summit was held on 8 September 2016 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The summit was held with regards to the European Union and East African Community Economic Partnership agreement. Furthermore, the unrest in Burundi and South Sudan was discussed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar industry of Rwanda</span>

Rwanda produces the least quantity of granular brown sugar among four of the six countries of the East African Community, namely Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, accounting for about 12,000 metric tonnes annually as of August 2016. With national consumption measured at 90,000 metric tonnes annually in 2016, it is expected that by 2020, annual consumption will have reached 160,000 metric tonnes, costing over US$150 million to import.

The Rwanda Standard Gauge Railway is a standard gauge railway (SGR) system, under development, linking the country to the neighboring countries of Tanzania and Uganda. It is intended to ease the transfer of goods between the Indian Ocean ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, and the Rwandan capital Kigali. The system is expected to link, in the future, to Rwanda's two other neighbors, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as part of the East African Railway Master Plan. With no previously existing railway network, Rwanda is developing its railway system from scratch. The project is dependent on the construction of the Tanzanian and Ugandan SGR lines to the Rwandan border, which have not been completed as of October 2023.

Pélagie Uwera is a Rwandan politician, since 2019 she has been a member of the Senate of Rwanda, elected as a Senator for Southern Province.

Sheila Kawamara-Mishambi is a Ugandan journalist and executive director of the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) and former Legislator in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). She originally became known for covering the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 and is now known for her feminist activism and work on human rights and conflict resolution.

Monique Mukaruliza is a Rwandan politician who serves as strategic advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MINAFETT) of Rwanda.

Martin Karoli Ngoga is a Rwandan Lawyer and politician, ex-speaker for East African Legislative Assembly. He is also a former Prosecutor General of Rwanda and Special Representative to International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amelia Barbieri</span> Italian midwife, nurse, lay missionary

Amelia Barbieri was an Italian nurse, midwife, and lay missionary. After a career in Italy, in 1983 rather than retire she moved to Rwanda. She worked as a nurse in Rugabano and then founded a maternity center in Shyorongi. Later she moved to Byumba where she cared for abandoned children. In 1992, she founded an orphanage in the village of Muhura, in the Gatsibo District of the Eastern Province. The orphans were endangered during the Rwandan genocide but Barbieri refused to leave without them. With help from humanitarian Maria Pia Fanfani they were temporarily moved to Uganda and then relocated to Verona, Italy. Her dedication to the children's welfare was honored by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who conferred upon her the distinction Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica in 1995. When the genocide ended Barbieri returned to Rwanda and ran the orphanage until 2008. Because of failing health, she brought in assistants and worked with them until 2012 when her condition forced her to return to Italy.

Mo-Mamo Karerwa is a Burundian educator, school administrator, and politician. Trained as a teacher, when ethnic violence broke out in 1993, she founded the Magarama II Peace Primary School. The curricula of the school, which taught students from the age two through sixth grade, followed the government mandated courses for half of the day and taught conflict resolution and how to live in peace for the remainder of the school day. She developed a curriculum which taught children's rights and examined Burundian history and culture as a path to a peaceful future. The curriculum was adopted by sixteen schools in the Gitega Province and she was appointed as the primary school teacher representative to the Provincial Education Council in 2003.

Josephine Lemoyan is a Tanzanian sociologist, social services analyst, and politician. She is a member of the Maasai people. After completing degrees in social sciences at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and the University of Hull, in England, she specialised in WASH systems from the early 1990s. Working with governments and NGOs, she advised on wastewater treatment facilities and water and soil conservation. In 2017, she was elected as one of the Tanzanian Members of Parliament for the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). She served on the EALA's Commission, which oversees the body's administrative functions and served on the committee to evaluate projects and facilities that support the East African Community's common market and custom's union integration. As a member of the Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution, she worked on legislation to integrate regional laws on livestock movement, trade, and to protect the ecosystems and safe and secure movement of people and goods on Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oda Gasinzigwa</span> Rwandan civil servant and politician

Oda Gasinzigwa is a Rwandan civil servant and politician, who introduced a measure that synchronised parliamentary and presidential election cycles in Rwanda. Born in Tanzania as a refugee from Rwanda, she was educated at the Institute of Development Management in Mzumbe and then worked for eight years at the National Bank of Commerce in Dar es Salaam. When the Rwandan genocide ended in 1994, she moved to Kigali and worked with various ministries to improve women's economic and leadership through 2015. In 2012 she completed a master's degree in gender studies at the Kigali Institute of Education, now part of the University of Rwanda

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 Muvunyi 2014.
  2. Samba 2021.
  3. 1 2 Longman 2017, p. 158.
  4. Caspani 2014.
  5. Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 21.
  6. Spalding 2009, p. 15.
  7. Berry & Berry 1999, p. xvii.
  8. 1 2 3 Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 108.
  9. Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 86.
  10. Hunt & Carter 2017, pp. 71, 107.
  11. Hunt & Carter 2017, pp. 109–110.
  12. Singh 1995, p. Appendix 7.
  13. Hunt & Carter 2017, pp. 115–116.
  14. Hunt & Carter 2017, pp. 116–117.
  15. Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 114.
  16. Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 117.
  17. Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 116.
  18. Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 223.
  19. Hunt & Carter 2017, pp. 223–224.
  20. Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 225.
  21. Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 226.
  22. Hunt & Carter 2017, pp. 273–274.
  23. Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 275.
  24. Hunt & Carter 2017, pp. 274–275.
  25. Hunt & Carter 2017, p. 110.
  26. Longman 2017, p. 159.
  27. Longman 2017, p. 160.
  28. Longman 2017, p. 161.
  29. Longman 2017, p. 162.
  30. Patterson 2009.
  31. 1 2 The New Times 2009a.
  32. 1 2 Seychelles Nation 2010.
  33. The New Times 2009b.
  34. The Guardian 2010.
  35. Al Bawaba 2011.
  36. Usengumukiza, Munyandamutsa & Nshutiraguma 2017, p. 111.
  37. Al Bawaba 2012.
  38. 1 2 Sanchez 2014.
  39. AllAfrica 2014a.
  40. Sembene 2018, p. 333.
  41. Jinadu 2015, pp. 53–56.
  42. Al Bawaba 2013.
  43. Ntirenganya 2014.
  44. Rwanda Governance Board 2017.
  45. AllAfrica 2014b.
  46. AllAfrica 2015.
  47. Mekideche 2016.
  48. Karuhanga 2017b.
  49. Clottey 2016.
  50. Turikumwe 2013.
  51. Mbabazi 2014.
  52. Mbabazi 2015.
  53. Seychelles Nation 2016.
  54. Tankou 2016.
  55. Karuhanga 2017a.
  56. Odiko 2018.
  57. 1 2 Karuhanga 2018a.
  58. 1 2 Karuhanga 2018b.
  59. The Daily News 2021.
  60. Havyarimana 2018.
  61. The Daily News 2021; The New Times 2021; Karuhanga 2021a; Karuhanga 2021b.
  62. Ubwani 2022a.
  63. Karuhanga 2022b.
  64. Ntirenganya 2023a.
  65. Ubwani 2022b.
  66. The Daily News 2022.
  67. Karuhanga 2022a.
  68. 1 2 Ntirenganya 2022.
  69. Ubwani 2023.
  70. Ntirenganya 2023b.

Bibliography