Youth volunteers are the most significant contributors in the improvement of citizen participation as the country continues to fight against the pandemic, according to Usta Kaitesi, Chief Executive of Rwanda Governance Board (RGB). She noted this during the launch of the 8th Rwanda Governance Scorecard (RGS) on Friday October 8, which among other issues, shed light on the impact of Covid-19 on the performance of different sectors. Based on the report, citizen participation is the most improved indicator of the Participation and Inclusiveness pillar with an increase of 6.5 per cent. Kaitesi said that there has been an increase in participation of ordinary citizens in dealing with issues brought up during the Covid-19, “their participation was a very key element, especially through volunteerism.” However, she noted that there is room for improvement for their participation in elaboration of district’s plans known as ‘Imihigo’ and budgeting which was hindered due to the pandemic as citizen assemblies were halted. RGS is a national index that tracks and assess the country’s performance in relation to her national, regional and global governance commitments. The report is based on key pillars of governance in the country namely; the rule of law, political rights and civil liberties, participation and inclusiveness, safety and security. Including also; investing in human and social development, quality of service delivery, economic and corporate governance, as well as anti-corruption, transparency and accountability. ‘How governance pillars scored’ Among the eight pillars of governance, six of them scored more than 81 per cent. Safety and Security pillar has continuously improved over the years, ranking the first with 95.47% which is shown by indicators like maintaining security, national security, personal and property, and reconciliation, social cohesion and unity. Rule of Law came second with 87.08 per cent but the report shows that performance of the judiciary needs improvement, particularly in handling backlog cases. Anti-corruption, Transparency and Accountability came third with 86.77 per cent while Participation and inclusiveness ranked fourth with 84.19 per cent. Political Rights and Civil Liberties ranked fifth with 83.80 per cent while Quality of Service Delivery increased to 81.86 per cent from 78.31 per cent in the previous edition. Investing in Human and Social Development and Economic and Corporate Governance scored 7th and 8th with 75.23 per cent and 74.65 per cent respectively. Fode Ndiaye, UN resident coordinator in Rwanda said the impact of RGS transcends the national level to play an important role in the context of renewed multilateralism and The UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Adding that the report represents the views of experts and citizens by including their perception in analyzing governance trends
