Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have been urged to sensitise and guide masses on public expenditure so that they are able to understand how they can benefit from it at the lowest level.

The call was made yesterday by the Director General of National Planning and Research in the Ministry of Finance, Leonard Rugwabiza Minega, during a meeting in Kigali.

The meeting that brought together regional and international CSOs was organised by the Norwegian People’s Aid and Rwanda Civil Society Platform.

"CSOs have a big role to play in educating the people about public budget and how it is executed,” said Rugwabiza.

"It is the CSOs that have to search for the necessary information that can help improve people’s lives so that they can benefit from the public budget since the funds go up to the district level.”

Speaking at the meeting, the spokesperson of the Rwanda Civil Society Platform, Eric Manzi, said that the interest and engagement of civil society and citizens in public policy affairs is imperative.

"Civil society interest and engagement is necessary to ensure that government policies are sound, well targeted and well implemented especially to address the needs of those most likely to be excluded in the rapid development of the nation,” said Manzi.

The platform last year conducted exchange visits to five regional countries to draw lessons on how CSOs in those countries engage the government and how they use the space provided to influence policy.

Ends