The Effect of Women Empowerment on Community Development Projects Management in Rwanda: A Case of World Vision Rwanda, Byiringiro Area Program

Women empowerment is instrumentally important for achieving positive development outcomes and well-being which lies in the doing and being what one values and have reason to value. Government initiatives alone are not sufficient to achieve the goal. Different agencies have their respective roles to play in this sphere. Besides, childbearing, childrearing and managing household chores on 24x7 basis, most women of middle and lower strata of the society now have to work outside to supplement the family income. Therefore, the need of women empowerment in community development projects can hardly be overemphasized. This study intended to analyze the effect of women political, economic and social empowerment on community development projects management and hence makes recommendations for areas of joint work that the working groups, government and Non governments Institutions could carry out in future, to improve the situation and promote sustainable welfare. The purpose of the research was to determine the effect of women empowerment on community development projects management in Rwanda. Specific objectives for this study were: to determine the effect of women economic empowerment on CDPM in Rwanda; to determine the effect of women political empowerment on CDPM in Rwanda and to determine the effect of women social empowerment on CDPM in Rwanda. The research used descriptive research design. The population of the study was 1, 572 and a sample of 319 have been taken from the beneficiaries of World Vision Rwanda Projects using simple random sampling method. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire and interviews for key informants. Data was collected, analyzed and tested using descriptive statistics method and Pearson Coefficient Correlation method. The data revealed that there is a significance relationship between women's economic empowerment on community development projects with a significant of 0.732. The study also revealed that women's political empowerment on community development projects with a significant of 0.612. Women's social empowerment on community development projects had also a positive correlation with significant of 0.841. Hence the researcher recommended that, National and International Organizations promote initiatives that create a climate in which women have full opportunities of Self decision making and participating in the Social, Political and Economic life of the Country so as to improve community development projects, to avoid a reversal of the past decades' gains and build the human capital of the next generation.