Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) has said the new national service delivery campaign will aim at addressing poor service delivery in public health. Other areas will include social protection programmes, agriculture and livestock, provision of assistance to Genocide survivors, hotels and restaurants, public transport, online services and provision of services in secondary cities. The 12 weeks campaign dubbed “ Nk’uwikorera: loosely translated as (Service providers must offer services that they would themselves expect to be offered)” will be launched on Thursday in Karongi District. Speaking during a press conference, the RGB CEO, Prof Anastase Shyaka, said the campaign will target sectors that provide services to many people. It is one of the new measures taken after resolutions from the recent national retreat and Umushyikirano dialogues. “Our assessment and different reports revealed that those sectors still have gaps in delivering good services and therefore they are targeted in the campaign. RGB was recently assigned new responsibilities to even monitor and assess service delivery in private sector and therefore will be targeted in the campaign,” he said. “Our additional responsibilities also state that RGB can sanction punishment for those who will not implement the recommendations to eradicate poor services.” The recent Rwanda Governance Scorecard 2016, revealed that service delivery satisfaction remains the least ranking indicator standing at 72.93 per cent. The score is far behind the 2nd Economic Development and property Reduction Strtegy (EDPRS2) target of 85 per cent by 2018, he noted. “It was found that services contribute 48 per cent to national economy. That is why the campaign is expected to boost the level of service delivery to help the country meet the target .We are going to focus on fighting all root causes of poor service delivery and promote timely, efficient and effective services while citizens should speak out against poor services,” he added. The new measures, Shyaka said, are based on a cabinet decision that assigns RGB new responsibilities to monitor and assess service delivery in all government institutions and the private sector as well as developing good governance principles. He said that under the campaign, activities will move from words and pledges to put into practice the recommendations. “Social protections for instance, are good but the way related service is provided to beneficiaries is poor. You cannot welcome someone and pledge a solution that will not be put into practice such as providing Mutuelle de sante cards, water and others. Service providers must also approach citizens instead of waiting for them to come to the office. After the campaign monitoring will continue so that it becomes sustainable,” he pointed out. In the first week of the campaign, RGB says, they will have discussions with concerned sectors to discuss about gaps in service delivery. Shyaka said another initiative is being piloted in one province where leaders can assess one another and advise each other on what goes wrong in service delivery. Gerald Mbanda, the head of media affairs and communication department at RGB, urged leaders in the sectors to be focused to provide information related to service delivery so that it becomes accessible to people and journalists. “We have also started a campaign urging local leaders to provide information to journalists and citizens. If they fail to do so, we have the Ombudsman who is in charge of implementation of Access to Information Law which will hold them accountable,” he said. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
