Civil servants have been encouraged to play a key role in improving the living standards of the population.

The call was made yesterday by Alvera Mukabaramba, the Minister of State in charge of Social Affairs in the Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC).

She was opening a-one-day high level seminar on social protection which took place in Kimihurura Sector, Gasabo District.

The seminar which was organized by the Ministry of Local government (MINALOC) in partnership with UNICEF was attended by all governors, provincial Executive Secretaries and Director Generals from various government institutions.

The workshop was facilitated by trainers from the Institute of Development Studies of Sussex University and Economic Policy Research Institute of South Africa.

"One of the objectives of this seminar is to bridge the gap between policy makers and implementers but most importantly, to ensure that there is a coordinated and shared vision on tackling the challenges that we encounter in the social protection sector,” Mukabaramba said.

She also said that the seminar is a clear demonstration of the desire and commitment by the government to advance its coordination mechanisms in terms of harmonized capacity building, planning and budgeting.

The minister told participants that it was imperative to always reflect on how they can continue to strengthen the systems which have been established and also learn from others where they need to improve.

"The Government of Rwanda firmly believes that in order to ensure that there is widespread impact of social protection policies and strategies towards poverty reduction, there is a need for the social ministries and other relevant institutions to forge a closer collaboration and leverage the efforts of each other in understanding and having a shared vision of how we can move this agenda forward towards poverty reduction in our communities,” Mukabaramba said.

Francesa Morandini, Chief Child and Social Protection at UNICEF-Rwanda said: "UNICEF decided to facilitate this training on social protection because the government of Rwanda has high interest in the social protection sector”.

She hailed the government for putting in place various laws and policies aimed at protecting children and women who are the most vulnerable.

"I think Rwanda has done tremendous work towards protecting the rights of the most vulnerable citizens in this nation and this shows that the country is in a good direction in all aspects of life”

She noted that the UN family is always willing to support the government in accomplishing its vision in different fields. 

Theophile Ruberangyeyo, the Executive Secretary of FARG, the Fund to support Genocide survivors, said: " I hope this workshop on Social Protection is socially crucial because it will enable us to come up with some concrete ideas on Social Protection instruments and other instruments. If well articulated, they can contribute to economic growth and sustainable development”.

He said that the training will enable him to get more skills on how best to improve the living standards of genocide survivors in general especially those who still lack shelter and medical support.

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