Kwibohora20: Celebrating twenty years of steady growth

GUILLAUME SEBAGANWA, 66, has no words to describe the country’s stunning transformation after it was literary reduced to ashes during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. When the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA/Inkotanyi) fighters liberated the country in July 1994, the country had been made to look like hell: bodies of slaughtered innocent people were scattered everywhere, infrastructure had been destroyed, millions of civilians had fled to neighbouring countries, the public and private sectors were non-existent and the economy was on its knees. Sebaganwa observed as the country literary descended into hell and watched as it recovered after it was liberated from the claws of the genocidal forces. “Life was really difficult for everyone,” he recalls. Sebaganwa, who says his wife was a civil servant in 1994, remembers how civil servants worked ‘tirelessly without real pay as the nation entered a new era of reconstruction and later development. At the time, government employees were being paid with food rations to keep them in service — mainly rice, beans, maize and cooking oil, among others. “The country had been totally devastated,” recalls Marc Rugenera, the first post-Genocide Minister for Finance and Economic Planning. “The country smelt death and was traversing extremely difficult times,” he says. In the beginning, Rugenera says, government had to work with humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross to give food in form of payment to its employees. However, not very many NGOs worked in Rwanda. Instead many turned to neighbouring countries where refugees, some of whom had participated in the Genocide, lived. “People sacrificed a lot to contribute to rebuilding the country,” he says. “It is amazing how someone would work for months without expecting any money yet they had their families to take care of but they did it happily.” Available figures indicate that in the immediate aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi (mid-1994 through 1995), emergency humanitarian assistance of more than $307.4 million was directed to relief efforts in Rwanda and in the camps in neighbouring countries where Rwandan refugees were living. But in the following year, the focus began to shift to reconstruction and development assistance. As reconstruction efforts gained momentum, Rwanda’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which had considerably decreased during the four-year liberation war, started to increase signalling the resurgence of economic activity in the country. Already by 1995, the government had started paying salaries to some of its employees — something Rugenera says was then a tremendous achievement and a promising sign for the nation’s economic revival. Impressive rebirth Since then, Rwanda literary re-invented itself and has embarked on a steady economic transformational journey and today, the country is hailed as a ‘rising star’; a model for other nations not only post-conflict nations but also those that have not seen war in decades. Rwanda is today a country on the move. “It is hard to fathom the devastation left behind by the Genocide,” says Jean Sayinzoga, the current chairman of Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission. Sayinzoga, who returned to Rwanda shortly after it was liberated, says the country had ‘died’. “Take the example of transport, you could walk from Nyamirambo to Remera without coming across anyone driving,” he recalls. But, he says, over the past 20 years, Rwanda has proved that it can attain what some people had seen as impossible: emerging from the ruins of the Genocide and get to build a stronger nation. For Sayinzoga, what the country has achieved in the past two decades is “simply impressive”. Rugenera, who after serving as Minister for Finance was also given the portfolio of Trade and Industry (a position he held till around 2000), attributes the nation’s rebirth to determination and a sense of self-esteem that characterise the post-Genocide Rwanda. “People were really determined to change the course of our history. They also understood that they were the sole holders of the key to unlock Rwanda’s best future and that they could, by working hard and remaining committed to the good cause they had fought for, transform the demolished country into a successful nation,” says the former minister, who currently owns an insurance company. Staggering figures Figures indicate that Rwanda has constantly registered impressive economic growth, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Rwanda’s progressive GDP growth, which has for the past couple of years averaged 8 per cent, has won the country accolades from the most respected economists from across the world. For instance, during the first quarter of the year 2014 the country’s GDP reached Rwf 1,302billion up from Rwf 1,156 billion in the same quarter in 2013, according to figures released recently by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR). Poverty has also fallen with poor people accounting for 37 per cent of the population, according to the 2012 Population and Housing Census. Over one million Rwandans were lifted out of poverty between 2006 and 2011, according to the 2012 Rwandan Household Living Conditions Survey. Rwanda is also praised for its success in the health sector having been able to curb child mortality and increase access to health services to almost the entire population, thanks mainly to the community insurance scheme, Mutuelle de Sante. Life expectancy of Rwandans has improved in the past two decades to reach 64.5 years in 2012 for both sexes, up from 48.4 years (men) and 53.8 (women) in 2002. The past two decades have also seen the country on a path to reduce dependency on foreign aid. From a budget almost totally funded with money from foreign donors, the Government now generates most of the resources internally. During the 2014/2015 fiscal year the government plans to spend Rwf1.75 trillion, with 62 per cent resources domestically mobilised. Rapid growth, sharp poverty reduction and opportunities for all are all commendable achievements that Rwanda has made over the past two decades. The prevailing peace and security in the country is seen as one of the key drivers behind Rwanda’s successful socio-economic transformation. “The past two decades have been an important turning point in the history of Rwanda and Rwandans should draw lessons from this journey,” Rugenera argues. “We know how far we’ve come and where we are headed for. Let’s remain committed to the country’s vision of a better future.”