Rwanda will start feasibility studies on the setting up of a centre of excellence that will host documents on the country’s home-grown solutions, Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) has said.

The revelation was made by the chief executive of RGB, Prof. Anastase Shyaka, while making a presentation in the Lower House about the board’s activities for the previous fiscal year 2016/17 and action plan for current financial year 2017/18 at Parliament yesterday.

He said Rwanda recognises that home-grown solutions have helped improve lives of citizens and a centre showcasing this success story is needed.

"There is a lot we have achieved through these initiatives and it’s now time to set up a policy that clearly shows how they work and how they are implemented,” Shyaka said.

Homegrown solutions

The special policies invented by Rwandans include community-based courts like Gacaca and Abunzi community-based conflict resolution, Girinka (One-Cow-Per-Poor-Family programme), and Ndi Umunyarwanda, a reconciliation campaign.

Leaders’ performance contracts, Imihigo, are also a home-grown solution devised to help achieve officials’ targets, while others like Itorero civic education programme and community health workers are some of the most progressive initiatives that Rwanda boasts of today.

Prof. Shyaka told journalists shortly after his presentation yesterday that construction of the proposed Centre of Excellence on home-grown solutions will be completed over the next seven years.

But he revealed that feasibility studies on the setting up of the centre will start in the current fiscal year under the auspices of RGB.

"The centre will showcase the unique solutions introduced by Rwandans and how they help them deal with their challenges,” he said.

RGB is an autonomous agency with a mandate to monitor service delivery by public and private sectors, registering international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and providing clearance for research about home-grown solutions in the governance area.

A law that governs the body allows it to monitor service delivery in both the private and public sectors and prescribes sanctions in case the service is poor.

MPs on service delivery

At yesterday’s joint session of senators and deputies, the board’s officials were tasked to follow up on poor delivery of services in different areas, including agriculture and livestock, media and culture, as well as governance.

"There is still a problem of lack of access to veterinary services for farmers who were given cows under the One-Cow-per-Poor-Family programme. What is lacking in order to bring veterinary services closer to poor farmers so their cows can be well treated and become more productive?” wondered MP Clothilde Mukakarangwa.

MP John Ruku-Rwabyoma urged the RGB to constantly monitor the media to ensure that they don’t produce harmful content.

"Can the media protect our children from watching foreign content that might be harmful to them? We are still a culturally conservative society and need our media to consider that while producing content,” he said.

MP Nura Nikuze encouraged RGB to regularly conduct studies on special governance issues that might be of interest depending on the period.

"I understand that we have a responsibility to promote good governance but do we really need to do a general governance assessment every year or we can pick specific issues and conduct thorough research about them?” she asked Prof. Shyaka.

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