H.E. Mrs. Jeannette Kagame, First Lady of the Republic of Rwanda, has called for concerted efforts to tackle challenges affecting families worldwide, including poverty and unequal access to economic resources, which impact the well-being of people and nations. She made this call during the “Breaking the Cycle: Overcoming the Cycle of Poverty” high-level panel session at the 2024 International Year of the Family Conference in Doha, Qatar, organized by the Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), a member of the Qatar Foundation.

Highlighting the effects of resource exploitation and foreign economic policies on national development, H.E. Mrs. Jeannette Kagame stated, “The words ‘poor’ or ‘poverty’ are often used to define identity, yet these communities are more accurately described by their strength and drive to overcome the exploitative politics of the Old World.”

She emphasized the need to question traditional measures of development, asking, “If ‘poor’ or ‘rich’ are to be pertinent qualifiers of human development for entire nations, shouldn’t there be a more accurate and culturally sensitive barometer of the quality of one’s well-being than the one that we currently uphold?”

Sharing Rwanda’s experience, she noted achievements such as increased electricity access from 6% to 75% and the use of drones for medical supply delivery. “A healthy and prosperous society produces healthy and prosperous families, and in turn, healthy and prosperous families sustain a thriving society,” she asserted.

In closing, Mrs. Kagame urged the global community to consider their interconnected fates and posed the critical question, “Will this generation, at last, be the one to end extreme poverty?” Her address reaffirmed Rwanda’s commitment to partnerships aimed at empowering families and ensuring no one is left behind.