National Dialogue: What they said

Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi “Accountability is key to development, that’s why performance contracts have to be signed by everyone serving the public, including ambassadors. I take this opportunity to announce that cabinet ministers will soon sign performance contracts with the President of the Republic,” said the Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, as he responded to a facebooker who asked about the poor performance of some embassies, wondering why ambassadors don’t sign performance contracts. Finance Minister, John Rwangombwa “Our plan is to eliminate extreme poverty cases in the next five years. We will achieve this through the implementation of Phase II of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS). This phase will be ready for presentation in parliament by January 2013,” said the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, John Rwangombwa while presenting the EDPRS progress and implementation report to the Dialogue. The just-concluded 9th National Dialogue brought together central and local government officials, civil society, members of the diplomatic corps, the private sector, Diaspora representatives, religious leaders as well as ordinary Rwandans, to collectively take stock of the government’s performance since the previous meeting, and set new goals for next year. Several interventions were made on various issues, below are some of the views and concerns of those who attended the dialogue. Yves Ntabana, a local leader “We need to develop a clear systematic and total integration of homegrown solutions that can be used to solve larger problems in all sectors,” said a local leader, Yves Ntabana, in his intervention on how best to sustain the country’s development. Emmanuel Nibishaka, a participant “There is a problem related to the history of our country. We currently have contradicting versions and that is why I request that a clear version of our history be taught in schools so that our children and the future generations can have a uniform version of our country’s history,” said Emmanuel Nibishaka a representative of Rwandan Diaspora in South Africa. Dr Tim Gallimore, American researcher “This national dialogue is an exercise and an extreme expression of an all-inclusive government which all countries should emulate. More importantly, this dialogue has given the public a transparent forum to hold their elected leaders accountable for their performance and delivery of services to improve their lives. External detractors who make false accusations about the political and social conditions in Rwanda – many of these outside commentators are uninformed, while others are only interested in deliberately distorting the truth on the ground. As an outside observer, it appears to me that Rwanda is well on its way to developing a mature form for public expression…” said Prof. Tim Gallimore an American independent researcher and a specialist in communication currently doing research on freedom of expression and genocide ideology in Rwanda. Bishop John Rucyahama, Chairman, National Unity and Reconciliation Commission “Rwanda has excelled in fighting corruption, but this does not mean that we have eliminated corruption. We can’t afford to sit back and assume everything is fine. We need to come up with a sustainable way of systematically eliminating corruption,” said Bishop John Rucyahana. edwin.musoni@newtimes.co.rw