Planning is a crucial aspect for a country to effectively tackle its development challenges.

The remarks were made during the launch of a three-day workshop organised by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Centre for Public Service Excellence for Singapore.

The workshop aimed at coming up with foresight approaches to counter potential future challenges that come with development aspects like urbanisation, rural development, and large scale public investment, according to Dr Felicien Usengumukiiza, the RGB deputy chief executive officer in charge of research and monitoring.

Usengumukiiza noted that as far as planning is concerned, government is putting emphasis on six towns (secondary cities) in the country, so as to save them from the challenges Kigali went through.

Devadas Krishnadas, the chief executive officer of Future Moves Group, an international consultancy on strategy and risk, said just like Singapore did, Rwanda can only effectively contain development challenges, if it adopted flexible but focused policies.

"The future may be uncertain, but what we have to ensure are well designed policies,” he noted.

Francis Kaboneka, the Minister for Local Government, said the symposium was crucial in helping the country achieve its long term development goals like Vision 2020.

"This is in line with the quest to transform the country into a middle-income nation, where citizens have better health and education,” he said.

The function was attended by several local government leaders. editorial@newtimes.co.rw