At last, the planning phase is done, EDPRS II is endorsed...

FINALLY a sigh of relief and wide smiles as what one would see at the jubilant faces of the staff in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning especially those that were primarily tasked to foresee the preparation of the document following cabinet’s approval of the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy, EDPRS 2, on Wednesday May 8, 2013. It was a rigorous exercise, challenging, yet worth it. It all begun in 2011 with districts and sectors carrying out a self-assessment to ascertain the lessons learnt from implementation of EDPRS 1 in order to inform the design of the second generation of EDPRS. The process involved sleepless nights and seemingly long days. EDPRS 2 was elaborated alongside sixteen sector Strategic Plans as well as thirty District Development Plans and City of Kigali Development Plan, thus it wasn’t such a simple task. At one point I remember one of our supervisors telling us that the exercise would either build one’s character or break it and the choice was ours. Thank God we all emerged victors. The findings from the initial assessments were rich and informative. They were further beefed up by the results from the EICV3 (Enquête Intégrale sur les Conditions de Vie des ménages - Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey) report and DHS4 (Demographic and Health Survey). All the evaluations pointed to the tremendous progress over the EDPRS 1 period that include what has been termed in EDPRS 2 as a perfect developmental “hat-trick” of sustained economic growth (8 per cent average), poverty reduction (12 per cent points) and a reduction in income inequality. Despite the above highlighted achievements, results were evident that there is still a long way to go, for instance the poverty rate at 45 per cent is not a desirable figure to keep up with. Further human capital challenges like inadequate planning skills, insufficient coordination and communication across sectors as well as between central and local government entities among others were identified in addition to the other binding challenges that need to be unlocked. It is at the backdrop of this knowledge that EDPRS 2 was prepared. Five Guiding principles were key in this elaboration process; Innovation, Focus on Emerging Priorities, Inclusiveness and Engagement, District-led Development and Sustainability. The elaboration process further involved the raising of the bar where cabinet revised the vision 2020 targets such as the Average GDP growth rate from 8 per cent to 11.5 per cent and GDP per capita in US dollars from 900 to 1240, with the purpose of adequately enabling the country to achieve her vision of attaining a middle income status by 2020. To this end, four thematic areas that entail interventions that are envisaged to spur rapid growth and fast poverty reduction have been selected. They are Economic Transformation, Rural Development, Productivity and youth Employment as well as Accountable Governance. These are to blossom given the firm ground to be offered by foundational issues that are, and shall be, of continued importance to the nation, which include macroeconomic stability, demographic issues, food security and malnutrition, literacy, early childhood development and basic education, quality demand and accessibility of primary health care, rule of law, unity and reconciliation, security and stability (including regional peace and stability), strengthening effectiveness of public finance management as well as consolidating decentralisation. The above areas of focus are to be spiced up through mainstreaming six cross cutting issues in every intervention where possible. That is capacity building, environment and climate change, gender and family, regional integration, HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases, disaster management, disability & social inclusion. Such is the beautiful design of EDPRS 2 whose overarching goal is accelerating progress to middle income status and better quality of life for all Rwandans through sustained growth of 11.5 per cent and accelerated reduction of poverty to less than 30 per cent of the population. It is however pertinent to note that planning is one thing and realising the plan is quite another. Just to highlight the task ahead of us, given the current average growth rate of about 8 per cent, yet EDPRS 2 which is to be implemented from July 1, 2013 targets for an average growth rate of 11.5 per cent. Achieving this is not as simple as one might imagine but it is possible since the 11 per cent has ever been attained. So what does the challenge really mean to the people of Rwanda and their friends from policy-makers, to Technicians, through NGOs operating within the country, to private sector, faith-based organisations, citizens, to all of us each in his own right? Stated simply, how do we take on this challenge with the courage, attitude and resilience that has characterised our nation for years? I personally find the secret lying in Article 6 of the Constitution, which portrays the motto of the nation: Unity, Work, Patriotism. Simple words but rich in power. The writer is a Planning Expert with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.