The Government of Rwanda has learned from experience concerning the conventional ‘Technical Assistance - TA’ that has sometimes produced mixed results; become a channel for gap filling or quick fixes; was too generalized; and basically more of short-term in term of fly-in and fly-out consultancy arrangements and whose assignments were output based rather than also providing skills and knowledge transfer.

To solve the impediment caused by the fly-in and fly-out of the consultants, the coaching approach has been initiated to enable workforce grow, develop and learn new skills under the direction and advice of seasoned experts. The coaching and mentoring approach was adopted as a more effective mechanism of using technical assistance in priority areas.

In 2011 to June 2015 the Strategic Capacity Building Initiative-SCBI, one of the major programs managed by the National Capacity Building Secretariat (NCBS), has been initiated to increase the effectiveness of the coaching and mentoring program by pairing young Rwandans and international expert coaches. The pilot phase demonstrated early successes as far as capacity building is concerned.

Therefore, the evaluation at the end of the pilot phase concluded to extend the pilot phase towards the second phase.