WHILE addressing a meeting of district executives in 2006, President Paul Kagame persuaded local leaders to sign performance contracts and since then, the approach has become the benchmark used by local government authorities to set up development priorities, annual targets and to define activities. This auditable based performance management tool dubbed Imihigo, an ages old Rwandan tradition, has helped to improve service delivery and fast-track the country’s development agenda. This public engagement is recorded publicly in a written contract that presents a set of development targets backed by specific performance indicators over a period of one year.The annual evaluation of the Imihigo process shows that districts have attained significant progress – even with minimal central government intervention.  Through the process the central government creates a channel through which it receives complaints from the population concerning the quality, quantity, and fairness of services provided.Imihigo has a strong focus on results which makes it an invaluable tool in the planning, accountability and monitoring and, evaluation processes and as such, they have been used to design a series of performance management contracts signed between the President and the country’s 30 district mayors.Last week, all the country’s district mayors gathered at Serena Hotel to among others receive the results of their performance as per Imihigo they signed, and Kicukiro District emerged the best performer with 95.5 per cent. Subsequently, the district’s mayor Jules Ndamage received a trophy from the President in recognition of a good job. Ndamage says he attaches much respect and value to Imihigo because the President appends his signature on the document."When the President enters this contract, in essence he has entered a contract with the citizenry. This is very important,” he said yesterday during an interview with The New Times."You need to work hard and not disappoint the citizenry whom the President represents in this contract,” he adds.The other crucial aspect, according to the mayor, is realigning set of activities outlined to be achieved through Imihigo and cash flow because every activity has a financial upshot. He says since targets relate to activities like construction of health centres, drainage channels and ring roads in most of the city districts, availability of funds plays a big role in realising Imihigo. He cautions against over relying on external funds as this is an unreliable formula. "It largely depends on locally generated revenues,” he notes but hastens to add that districts are yet to be furnished with details on how they fared on each indicator.He attributes the good performance of his district to other inputs, including teamwork and other key aspects of good management, like timely decision making.