The Minister of Local Government, James Musoni, this week addressed the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, taking place in Cardiff, UK, where he spoke about pro-poor development strategies, and delivering the MDGs in Rwanda.

This is the first time Rwanda participates in the bi-annual conference after joining the Commonwealth in 2009, as the 54th member.

This year’s forum was held under the theme "Energizing local economies with focus on building partnerships for local economic development.”

In his speech at the four-day conference, Musoni emphasized the role of local governments in Rwanda’s local economic development.

The Minister highlighted the successful transformation of Rwanda through innovative pro-poor strategies and emphasized some of the programmes that have been major drivers of socio-economic transformation, including, vision 2020 Umurenge, crop intensification programme, one cow per poor family (Girinka), access to education and community health insurance.

The Minister pointed out the importance of partnerships between government, communities, private sector and civil society in delivering on local development.

The conference’s participants welcomed Rwanda’s membership and appreciated her remarkable progress in such a short time,
The conference attracted over 600 delegates from 54 Commonwealth countries.

The Rwandan delegation led by Musoni, included Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK Ernest Rwamucyo, Director General for Planning in the Ministry of Local government, Egide Rugamba and the Mayor of Rulindo District, Justus Kangwagye.

The CLGF was setup in 1995 to promote and support local development in the Commonwealth.

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