The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, James Musoni, Thursday appealed to all countrymen to participate in Government development programmes especially the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), a five year programme set up to uplift Rwandans from poverty by the year 2012.

"The success of the EDPRS is important and we need the cooperation from all Rwandans. They can contribute in several ways especially in regard to reducing the number of children each family can have. This will help in reducing high population growth rates," said Musoni.

He was on addressing development partners at Lake Kivu Serena Hotel who, along with several senior Government officials, are attending a two-day retreat to evaluate the progress of EDPRS.

The retreat is the first one since the programme, which also aims to foster economic growth and good governance. It was launched in December last year.

The retreat brought together representatives from several donor agencies including the World Food Programme, Unicef, UNDP, the European Union, African Development Bank, DFID, Canada, Belgium, Sweden and Japan.

"We are here to discuss with our partners what we are doing; we have a five-year programme with the donors to end poverty," the Minister said.

Louis Munyakazi, the Director General of the National Institute of Statistics, said the agency is currently compiling data to get the right information on the progress of such government programmes as EDPRS.

The retreat discussed indicators upon which the progress of EDPRS will be measured including school enrolment, health care programmes and their accessibility to Rwandans, good governance, and the country’s image abroad.

The Belgian Ambassador to Rwanda, Francois Roux, said: "there are valid concerns when bad reports about Rwanda come out in reports; we need a scientific method to ensure that when these reports are published we can have statistics to counter them."

Ends