The Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR), which is carrying out a national evaluation of imihigo (performance contracts), has called for more efforts towards changing people’s lives for the better.

John Rwirahira, a senior researcher at IPAR, made the remarks last week during the evaluation of Huye District’s performance in the 2014/2015 financial year.

"We are moving away from output to outcome-based imihigo in a way that it brings change in the people’s lives,” he noted.

The team verified whether the contracted activities were done; talked to players in each sector; the District Advisory Council and the Joint Action Forum (JAF) to understand the context in which the imihigo were implemented.

They also talked to people about their participation in the implementation process, how imihigo-related projects were impacting their lives, as well as the challenges faced in implementation and how to overcome them in future.

Imihigo are set and implemented in a bid to effectively achieve goals embedded in the government’s four pillars; economic development, good governance, justice and social welfare.

Last year, a new indicator, which is the people satisfaction survey carried out by the Rwanda Governance Board, was introduced in evaluating imihigo to assess how people perceive their implementation and their participation in the setting of performance contracts. The same indicators will also be applied this year.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw