GABIRO – President Paul Kagame will today close a civic education programme (Itorero) for more than 2000 cell executive secretaries drawn from across the country.

The event is taking place at the Rwanda Defence Forces Combat Training Centre Gabiro in Gatsibo District, Eastern Province.

A total of 2127 cell executive secretaries attended the nine-day civil education training, which was conducted from two venues – at the RDF Combat Training Centre Gabiro, and Nkumba Peace and Leadership Training Centre in Burera District.

Up to 920 cell leaders from Eastern Province, Northern Province as well as the City of Kigali, who will be concluding their training at Gabiro today, have been joined by their counterparts from Southern and Western provinces, who concluded a similar training at Nkumba in recent weeks, for the closing ceremony.

The training, that ran under the theme "The Local Government We Want, covered several topics that revolve around national core values and development issues, including patriotism, service delivery, dispute resolution mechanisms, social protection mechanisms, Vision 2020, Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRSII), among others.

Also in attendance are 30 employees of the Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs.

The cell is the second lowest administrative unit in the country. The country has a total of 2148 cells, 416 sectors and 30 districts, spread across four provinces and the City of Kigali.

"The whole idea is to inculcate and enhance citizen centred leadership,” Ladislas Ngendahimana, the head of communication at the Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs, told The New Times.

The local leaders trained in how to own development programmes, to promote them at the grassroots and setting their own performance indicators.

Officials say the training will help improve implementation of the country’s key policy of decentralisation and accountable governance.

"Since 2000, decentralisation has played a central role in ensuring good governance, service delivery, and national development,” the Office of the President said in a statement released earlier today.

Rwanda is currently in the third phase of decentralisation which focuses on service delivery and local economic development.

The first phase of the national decentralisation programme, launched in the year 2000, focused on elections and the development of community structures while the second phase of decentralisation introduced the concept of leaders’ performance contracts, locally known as Imihigo.

"We will teach people how to ensure a healthy living through such things as doing physical exercises, how to seek peaceful settlement of disputes, among others,” said Caritas Mukakarangwa, the executive secretary of Douane Cell in Southern Province’s Gisagara District, told our reporter.

François-Xavier Karake, who leads Nkingo Cell in Southern Province’s Kamonyi District, said the training on civic education enabled him to understand how to approach and address various challenges.