The Belgian government has earmarked 5 million Euros (approximately Frw4 billion) to help in the enhancement of capacity building in Rwanda.The Belgian Ambassador to Rwanda, François Roux, said the funds will be used to reinforce capacity in many public institutions through coordination by the Human Institutional Development Agency (HIDA).“The assistance is aimed at increasing the capacity of public institutions,” Roux told the press during the Rwanda – Belgium joint mid-review meeting on Wednesday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices. Roux said that the Rwandan government is sufficiently organised to handle the resource allocation from the project support programme to budgetary support.“This evolution is important and we think it is up to the Rwandan government to decide on where to allocate the funds,” he said.The State Minister for Regional Cooperation Rosemary Museminari reiterated government’s position that general budget support or sector support remains the best way towards efficiency. She said such support has in the past led to quick implementation and ownership of the programmes agreed upon. Museminari and Roux signed the agreement for the grant. Museminari expressed gratitude to the Belgian government for having authorised without hesitation the implementation of the sector budget support in the area of education for the 2007 financial year. She requested that the same approach be applied to the health and justice sectors saying that the two have already established cluster consultation frameworks that will accompany the budgetary support approaches. The Rwanda – Belgium joint mid-review meeting was attended by various officials from both sides.It’s a follow-up to the last session of the joint permanent commission that was held in October last year. The intended purpose of the enlarged partners’ committee meeting that is held once annually is to evaluate the monitoring of the implementation of cooperation programmes and also approve the identification of possible areas of cooperation. Ends
