Globally, women and girls shoulder a disproportionate share of care work that is unpaid, unrecognized, and undervalued. According to a recent baseline study by UN Women Rwanda on unpaid care work in eight districts, on average women work for around 4.1 hours per day compared to men who on average do approximately 1.7 hours on unpaid care and domestic work, particularly those in areas with limited access to regular basic services such as energy, water, and sanitation.

 

A beneficiary from the Musanze district receiving the cooking kit from UN Women Program Manager, Tess Kazuba together with RDO Programs Officer, Mrs. Diana Mugwaneza. Photo: Courtesy of RDO.

According to the study, major burden for rural women represents finding firewood and cooking. One solution is a stove known as Save80, that saves up to 80% more energy than the normal charcoal stoves using small wood sticks as fuel for cooking. Care work relies on the responsibilities of women in the households and hinders them from working to their full potential. To reduce the care demands on women, UN Women Rwanda distributed energy efficient kits to over 300 households from Nyange, Rwaza, Kimonyi, Muko and Kinigi sectors in Musanze District and 472 households in Rubavu. This was made possible through the UN Women’s 3R (Recognize, Reduce, and Redistribute) project on unpaid care work in partnership with Rwanda Development Organisation (RDO), and Institut Africain pour le Development Economique et Social (INADES).

The kits worth 40,000,000 Rwandan francs ($40,000) included improved cooking stoves, heat retention cookers, a food flask known as the ‘wonderbox’ that keeps the food warm all day, sprayers, water tanks, harvesting crates, and motorcycles and were distributed among 472 cooperative members in Rubavu District and 300 members in Musanze. The trimotor cycles will help to transport vegetable productions from farm to market and ultimately reduce domestic care work, conserve natural resources, and save cooking time for women who were already spending a lot of time doing household chores.

UN Women Rwanda Country Representative, Ms. Jennet Kem appreciated UN Women partners in Rwanda and the Government of Rwanda for their unwavering support. “We hope the kits will be used to improve your wellbeing. We encourage you to work together, save, invest, and do awareness raising to encourage other community members to join the cooperatives for collective gains,” said Ms. Kem.