“My mother was my inspiration and always treated us, her daughters, in exactly the same way as our brothers,” says Anastasie Nyirigira Mukangarambe, as she reminisces about her childhood in Rwanda.

The genocide in Rwanda made a deep impression on Anastasie. “It raised so many questions in my mind, the answers to which I’m still trying to find. I was left with a profound need to be a changemaker,” she reveals.

“I believed that the violence in Rwanda, which has scarred all of us for many lifetimes, was preventable,” she continues. “This was instrumental in my decision to join United Nations Peacekeeping. I wanted to do everything I could to make sure other countries did not suffer through the same fate as Rwanda.”

It was a long journey for Anastasie that has spanned Liberia, Mali, undivided Sudan and now, South Sudan, the world’s newest country. “I joined at a very junior level and I was often frustrated because I didn’t feel I was substantively contributing to preventing conflict. But I persevered and here I am, leading the UNMISS Field Office in Kuajok. I feel that now I can finally make the impact I always wanted to,” she says smiling.

Her days are irregular to say the least. “When you’re heading a field office, your life is dictated by unfolding events on the ground. I’m up at dawn, catch up with news and family before heading to the office.”

Much of her work is outside the office dealing with numerous external stakeholders including the communities in Kuajok. “I work in a part of South Sudan where intercommunal conflict and where loss of lives is a daily occurrence. Early and forced marriages are common and cases of rape rarely see perpetrators brought to justice. It can be heartbreaking and, at times disrupts the balance between your personal and professional life,” she admits.

What fuels her then? “I believe that the only way to break the male-dominated silos in top leadership is to do the job yourself as a woman,” she says smiling. “Whether in the UN or outside, women are often judged and hired against a default male standard. It’s my goal to break this myth – there are many kinds of management and just because I might do something differently from my male counterparts doesn’t mean that I can’t achieve the same, if not better results, as they can,” states Anastasie.

Anastasie is committed to empowering women in South Sudan. “Women here are often the majority when it comes to displacement; they are used as sex slaves, rape is used against them as a weapon of war, they have to walk long distances to fetch water and firewood and work longer hours to find food in an extreme climate,” she reveals. “It is a moral imperative, not just a political or peacebuilding one, for us to collectively speak up for the rights and dignity of women and young girls in the world’s newest nation.”

Speaking about the political necessity to include women in governance, her view is simple yet eloquent: “The representation and inclusion of women in the political process is important because women are repositories of first-hand information on the root causes of conflict, how it affects them and what they see as possible solutions.”

“Women bring the perspective of saving entire communities from devastation. Women understand better the value of human life,” she continues passionately.

“For South Sudan, for the UN and, indeed, for all societies across the world, gender equality is a matter of justice and ensuring an equitable balance of power. It is not a favour to women.”