The second phase of the 2015 ‘Good Governance Month’ will be launched today in Kayonza District. The campaign is to run under the theme, “Addressing People’s Concerns, a Pillar to Good Governance.” It will focus on holding open days at the sector level, where citizens will be sensitised about services offered at that level, taking stock of people’s concerns and holding discussions about the benefits of decentralisation. Addressing a news conference ahead of the event in Kigali yesterday, Prof Anastase Shyaka, the chief executive officer of the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), said they want this phase to address more concerns to ensure people enjoy good governance. “In the first phase of the 2015 Good Governance Month, about 3,000 issues were raised. Of them, over 70 per cent have been successfully tackled. We now want this month to address people’s concerns at a higher rate,” he said. The mostly raised concerns during the previous good governance campaigns include land-related issues, gender-based violence, non-executed court rulings and cases that had been delayed, among others. Issues that were not successfully sorted during the first phase include those that had to be transferred to competent institutions for further investigations. For example, gender-based violence cases were referred to the Police. Charles Muhinda, a decentralisation expert at the Ministry of Local Government, said measures have been devised to address the issue of delays in executing court judgments. “It has been realised that local leaders, especially cell executives, face challenges handling cases, especially financial constraints when a case requires field evidence gathering. To sort it out, it was decided that executive secretaries of cells must get transport facilitation,” he explained. The Good Governance Month was initiated in 2011. Since 2014, the governance month is conducted twice a year as a platform where central and local leaders go out of their way to address people’s concerns to promote good and accountable governance. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
