Name: Ms Rolande Pryce
Role: Country Manager World Bank Rwanda
QN: What does wellness mean to you as a woman? Do you prioritize it? If yes, how?
I associate the term “wellness” with health, happiness and balance. Wellness depends on how one is doing physically, mentally and spiritually. I prioritize wellness as it is the foundation on which all my other achievements are built. I try to sleep well, exercise, eat nutritious and tasty food and pay close attention to all aspects of my health. I try to eliminate stress, stay connected and positively contribute to friends and people in my community and treat myself from time to time. I could do better on structured prayer and meditation, but I don’t beat myself up, I am a work in progress.
QN: How can we ensure African women and girls are empowered in all aspects of their wellbeing?
Access to information, services, and a nurturing environment can empower African women and girls in all aspects of their wellbeing. The term “wellbeing” has both physical and emotional components as regards the individual but in its broadest sense can encompass a societal aspect also. To empower African women and girls to have physical and mental wellbeing entails investing in and sharing knowledge about what is needed to live healthy lives – nutrition, cleanliness, exercise, sexual and reproductive health, sleep – to manage stress, instill self- awareness and confidence – but also identifying where and how to access the products and services to support and enable such wellbeing. The society’s leaders and key actors, have an important role in nurturing and facilitating wellbeing by being advocates, whistleblowers and mentors as well as providing effective and robust support systems to enable wellbeing.
Furthermore, oftentimes empowerment is linked to having access to financial resources because access to information and services beyond the basics often attracts a fee. Therefore, economic empowerment is an essential ingredient.
QN: Help us unpack how Women’s Health and Wellbeing Can Drive Sustainable Economic Growth?
Human capital is an essential contributor to sustainable economic growth. Women and girls are half of the population and can thus make an important contribution to economic growth. To maximize their input, they must be healthy. Women’s health and wellbeing produces a positive ripple effect, and it generally contributes to healthy children and families and ultimately communities. In simple terms, healthy mothers give birth to healthy babies and healthy children go on to become successful learners this translates to a productive workforce. Productive girls and women contribute to increased household income, consumption, savings and investment which has a wealth compounding effect from one generation to the other and lifts families, and communities out of poverty.
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Biography:
Rolande Pryce is the World Bank Group Country Manager for Rwanda.
A Jamaican national, Ms. Pryce joined the World Bank Group in 2006 as Counsel in the Legal Vice Presidency, representing the Bank in operations in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific Islands, and providing legal advisory support in finance, infrastructure and private sectors.
She has since worked in three regions, East Asia and Pacific, South Asia and Africa and has overseen World Bank programs in the Caribbean; Sri Lanka and Maldives; Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania. Prior to her current assignment, she oversaw the World Bank’s Indonesia and Timor-Leste programs and was based in the Jakarta office.
She holds a master’s degree in Public International Law from the University College of London; a Juris Doctor from the University of Miami and a Bachelor of Science in International Business and Mathematics from the City University of New York.