The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Bhofal Chambers made these claims:
1. Rwanda has 50 percent of women in parliament which makes them the country with more females in their parliament.
2. Africa has 60 percent of the land to feed the world.
3. America has 31.1 trillion in debt that it cannot pay
We verified the claims separately.
Rwanda, a tiny landlocked nation in east-central Africa, is currently working to rebuild itself after decades of ethnic conflict that culminated in a state-sponsored genocide in the middle of the 1990s.
The war gave rise to Rwanda’s “Rosie the Riveter” moment: it allowed Rwandan women to work, just as World War II had allowed American women to do so. For its efforts to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment, particularly in terms of political engagement, Rwanda stands out on a worldwide scale.
The country has made impressive strides in creating legal and policy frameworks that uphold the principle of gender equality over the past 25 years. To eliminate clauses that discriminate based on gender, numerous laws have either been passed or altered in this regard.
According to the Parliament Rwanda is the first country in the world with a female majority in parliament with 61.3% in the Chamber of Deputies.
While Statista said in 2021, the proportion of seats held by women in Rwanda’s national parliament remained unchanged from the previous year. Women continue to hold 61.25 per cent of seats in the national parliament; this is corroborated by the Inter-parliamentary Union which is way above the current global average of 26.4%.
Therefore, Chambers’ claim is True that Rwanda has more females in the parliament and the country has over 61 percent and not 50 percent as stated.
On the second claim, that Africa has 60 percent of the land to feed the world is True; the World Economic Forum in 2016, says Africa remains a net importer of food, although it has 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land.
The forum furthers that the continent’s population has doubled overall and tripled in urban areas in the past 30 years, and agricultural production and food security have struggled to keep pace. Africa is the only continent where the absolute number of undernourished people has increased over the past 30 years.
The African Development Bank’s report says Africa holds the key to feeding the 9 billion people that will be on the Planet Earth by 2050. “Africa sits on 65% of the uncultivated arable land left in the world, so what Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world.”
Despite all the challenges that people still face in Africa today, the Sub-Saharan countries, in particular, have immense economic potential according to Cedric Notes.
“With 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land laying in Africa, it is estimated that if all the arable land in Africa were to be nurtured, with the right information and knowledge to farmers from credible research institutions and other technical expertise, Africa would be capable of feeding over 60 percent of the world population by 2050.”
At the same time, the third claim that America has 31.1 trillion in debt that it cannot pay; is True.
The Treasury department puts the national debt at 31.46 Trillion which is the total amount of outstanding borrowing by the U.S. Federal Government accumulated over the nation’s history.
An article published by the New York Times said America’s debt is now six times what it was at the start of the 21st century.
This story was produced with the Center for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) support.
