KEY NOTE ADDRESS BY HON

Transcription

1 KEY NOTE ADDRESS BY HON. JAMES MUSONI TO THE COMMOMWEALTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE ON- ENERGISING LOCAL ECONOMIES: PARTNERSHIPS FOR PROSPEROUS COMMUNITIES Keynote address - Priorities for Local Government in Energizing Local Economies, Propoor Development Strategies, and Delivering the Millennium Development Goals in Rwanda Excellencies; Distinguished Delegates; Ladies and Gentlemen; I take the honour, on behalf of the Government of Rwanda, to thank the Commonwealth Local Government Forum for having extended an invitation to us to attend this important Conference for the first time. On the same note, I also wish to express my pleasure for the opportunity offered to me, by the organizers of the Conference, to be among the key note speakers on Pro-poor local economic development strategies; a topic close to my heart. Distinguished delegates; Energising local economies: partnerships for prosperous communities as a theme of this conference, is in my view the best choice of themes for the audience before us given our core mandates and the present governance challenges. Moreover, with the advancement of information technology, the death of time and distance, the concept of a global village is coming into reality. Therefore; businesses, civil society, individuals, local councils, municipalities, and regions in a given country, have become more active both as economic, social, and political actors as well as active in demanding accountability and responsiveness amongst themselves as actors. Indeed, energizing local economies or promoting local economic development (LED) requires building partnerships and coalitions that bring together the public, private, and non-governmental sectors. 1

2 What is LED and how can Local Governments Support LED? LED refers to those development strategies and actions that are area/location based, locally planned, locally owned and managed aimed primarily at reducing poverty through increasing employment and economic growth. LED thrives in an environment where it is strategically planned, locally driven, and where there is meaningful partnerships. Such an environment provides high chances to enable employment growth, poverty reduction and improving quality of life for the citizens. And this can be possible mainly through improved local economic governance. LED is a process with inputs and outcomes. Local Economic Development should always be guided by a strategy. Ideally, an LED strategy will form a component of a broader strategic development plan. The LED strategy must focus on strengthening the local economy and building local capacity. At the initial stage of LED, local governments must organize and build coalitions for LED. Successful local economic development requires effective partnerships of public, private, non-governmental (such as NGOs, trade unions, academia, religious, civic) sectors. The strategic planning process must begin by identifying the people and institutions that impact the local economy. After creating the LED partnerships and coalitions, local governments must conduct a local economy assessment. The assessment must review existing economic activities, relationships, structures and practices. The assessment should also identify which information is pertinent, what is available, and what information is non-existent that is required to make an effective local economic assessment. Strategy making is a natural step that should follow the local economic assessment. An LED strategy must be clearly defined with clear sign posts from visions and plans to projects. LED implementation therefore, follows a systemic process of planning, local economic assessment, and strategy making. During the implementation process financial and human resources as well as institutional and procedural must be aligned to support LED. It is this understanding that has for the last couple of years shaped Rwanda s thinking in our quest to bring about economic growth and employment creation through enhancing local economies, developing pro-poor development strategies and delivering the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Excellencies; Distinguished Delegates; Ladies and Gentlemen; Let me briefly take you back to where Rwanda has come from. 2

3 Bad governance, divisionism, conflict, and extreme poverty that characterized the country for a long time, culminated into war and genocide of 1994 that shocked the world to its core. At the time, the type of Government was also characterized by a highly centralized system. Rebuilding Rwanda after the 1994 genocide started from scratch where every aspect of reconstruction was a priority in all sectors. After the horror of genocide, the Country had numerous challenges including but not limited to restoring the security, unity and reconciliation of Rwandans. A large number of Orphans and widows needed protection. The sick, wounded and traumatized needed special attention. We had to get the economy back on its feet. We had to rebuild schools, hospitals and other social and economic infrastructure. In addition, we had to restore the justice system and end the culture of impunity. In short, we had to start the country afresh. We had to turn swords into ploughshares. We went through an emergency period and, in 1998, the Government started to think about working towards development and putting an end to the emergency phase. The country went through a national consultative process, involving Rwandans from all walks of life, including leadership of all levels in the business community, government, academia and civil society, between 1998 and These consultations resulted into our Country s long term development vision: the Vision 2020 that reflects the aspirations of Rwandans of transforming the country into middle-income nation in which Rwandans are healthier, educated and generally more prosperous. The process that led to the formulation of the Vision 2020 brought to the surface a people s desire to shaping their destiny. It seemed to us that people s desire for voice and participation, demand for accountability and transparency are inherently natural and engrained in the human genetic construction. As such, the first pillar of Vision 2020 is good governance and an effective State, including rule of law, security, accountability and transparency and citizen participation. In view of the challenges facing the country and the aspirations of Rwandans, the Government had no choice but adopt a decentralization policy. In 2000 Rwanda adopted the decentralization policy as a building block to fight poverty with the following main strategic objectives: Empower the local communities and promote participation; Strengthen accountability and transparency; Enhance sensitivity and responsiveness to the local needs; Develop sustainable economic planning and management capacity at local levels; Enhance effectiveness and efficiency in the planning, monitoring and delivery of services; 3

4 In 2003, Rwanda adopted its new constitution. Again, through wide consultations, demands for a decentralized system were overwhelming. Consequently, the Constitution of Rwanda provides for decentralized entities and reiterates that they are the foundations of community development. The decentralization process has been implemented in phases: the first, from 2000 to 2005, mainly focused on political and administrative decentralization, defining roles and responsibilities of central government and local government (decentralized entities), and putting in place the relevant legal and institutional framework. During the second phase, Local Economic Development (LED) became the pillar on which all interventions revolved around. The notion of people shall govern become more entrenched and local governments became vital channels for service delivery. We are now in the third phase of our decentralization process that covers 2011 to This phase will seek to increase human, material, and financial resources for local governments to deliver services, enhance governance for production, as well as promoting LED. Excellencies; Distinguished delegates; Ladies and gentlemen; In the last ten (10) years Rwanda s GDP has been growing at an average rate of 7% annually. Annual per capita income has more than doubled at more than $540 by end-2010 from a level of $230 in We are now self-sufficient in food production and even have excess for the market. Famine, which had become chronic in some parts of the country, has been eradicated. And the country is on track to achieve most MDGs (in health maternal and child, education, gender, access to water and electricity, etc.). We owe all these developments to good governance that has taken root in our country through decentralization and specific pro-poor interventions. Services have been brought closer to the people, Rwandans have a bigger role in choosing their own leaders and a say in programmes intended for them. Leaders must consult the citizenry in the planning and budgeting process as well as making commitments through signing performance-based-contracts ( Imihigo ). These performance based contracts have become useful tools for the citizenry to evaluate their leaders. At this point, Let me highlight some contributions of local governments to our achievements, including pro-poor interventions based on home-grown initiatives. In the social sector: Health: Through mobilization of populations by their local leaders and sensitization by community health workers, 96% of Rwandans access health insurance cover (of which 91% is community health 4

5 insurance scheme mutuelle de sante) and the rest by other insurance schemes while in 2003 only 7% of Rwandans were covered by health insurance schemes. This, associated with the increased number of health centers and facilities has resulted into significant improvements in health as well as reducing morbidity and death rates from common diseases (e.g malaria related deaths reduced from 41% in 2000 to 16% in 2009). Education: Rwanda is on track to achieve and even overtake the MDG goal for education. Net enrolment at primary, completion and literacy rates have improved (enrolment at primary increased from 72% in 2003 to 95.4% in 2010). Every child can now complete a nine-year basic education that comprises primary and lower secondary school. This again has been made possible by participation of communities and their leaders in building classrooms and contributing to teachers allowances. Organized settlement, decent and affordable housing, which also allows easier access to social and economic amenities while freeing more land for production has seem tremendous gains. 54.8% of Rwandans in the rural areas now live in organized settlements, a percentage which will increase to 70% by The rest of the population will be living in organized and planned urban areas. In Governance and Justice: Rule of Law and Unity and reconciliation: We were able to address the major justice problems the country was facing through conventional forms of justice and recourse to traditional means of dispensing justice ( Gacaca ) that also helped to reconcile Rwandans. We have tried and decided 1,245,000 cases of genocide perpetrators under our traditional system Gacaca compared to 52 cases by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda based in Arusha, Tanzania among which 10 cases are under appeal and 21 cases pending trial. Drawing from our culture, we instituted conciliators ( Abunzi ) to solve disputes of a civil and social nature at the basic levels of administration. Legal aid projects have also been established at the same local government levels. Service delivery: local governments have played a paramount role in ensuring effective and efficient delivery of services over the past years. Service delivery charters have been elaborated that indicate the timeline for delivery of various services by local authorities (e.g. construction permits must be delivered in 15 days). We introduced a performance culture-based initiative Imihigo which is a translation of local priorities into performance contracts. The setting of those priorities is done through a participatory process. At District level, participation, inclusion and coordination in setting priorities and implementing them is ensured through the Joint Action Development Forum that brings together, local authorities and all stakeholders involved in the District development. The Rwanda Association of Local Government Authorities (RALGA) has also been established to ensure advocacy and capacity building. It allows sharing of experience between local authorities. Economic development and poverty reduction strategies: 5

6 After realizing that the high GDP growth rates of 2000 to 2005 didn t translate into significant poverty reduction, consultations were held, that allowed the design of local programs targeted at fast eradication of extreme poverty. These programmes could only be implemented by and through local governments. 1. Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP) which is an integrated Local Development Program to accelerate poverty eradication, rural growth and social protection, is one of the three flagship programmes in the five (5) years national development strategy Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy. The implementation of this program started with poorest geographical areas to ensure broad based and inclusive growth and development and its positive impact to targeted area beneficiaries in the last 3 years is appreciative through the three components: Direct Support Unconditional cash transfers Public Works Paid employment on productive community asset development projects. This has posed a double impact in infrastructure development and creation of employment opportunities to community members. Financial Services Increasing access to financial services, including savings mobilisation, credit and financial literacy. The first two components are core social protection (providing income support and helping reduce financial barriers to accessing core essential services). Financial services help households to be more productive, invest and graduate out of poverty. All components are underpinned by training and sensitisation. 2. The Crop Intensification Program (CIP) that includes land consolidation, use of fertilizers and improved seeds and extension services. This program is implemented at local level and local leaders play an important role of sensitization of communities. This program has significantly impacted local development and production has more than tripled. The impact at national level has been a registered 15% average growth in agriculture productivity. 3. Ubudehe: community planning and implementation, where local communities identify their number one need and priority and, work together to address it. 4. The Community works ( Umuganda ): whereby communities come together mainly for rural infrastructure development and environment protection. They contribute labour, which is their major resource towards local development. It is done on a monthly basis or when necessary. 5. The One-cow-per-family ( Girinka ) program: based on the principle that Rwandese should be on the forefront of solving their own problems, people donate cows to be distributed to poor families in their communities supplementing Government budget. The off-springs are then passed on to other families. 6

7 This social protection program of distribution of cows to poor families allows creation of wealth production asset, for poor families while reducing malnutrition of their children. From the introduction of this program, malnutrition in Rwanda (as measured by the prevalence of under five underweight children has reduced from 29% to 15.8% putting Rwanda on track for the related MDG). In the last four (4) years, the program has made beneficiaries ably cater for their health insurance, pay school fees for their children and economic empowerment as a result of regular source of income that enable them access other economic needs to improve their general welfare and standard of living. 6. Facilitation to Local Investments: whereby systematic registration and issuance of land titles, client charters, local investment groups pooling resources to invest in profitable projects, setting up business development services (BDS), small medium enterprises (SMEs) and access to ICT through Tele centers have all contributed and attracted local investment potentials. Investment climate: ease to start business from 2 weeks to 1 day, cost of starting business from $400 USD to $40 USD has helped development of the local economy. Local investors/companies register their business formally, abide with tendering and procurement procedures, accounting and audit functions etc. This led to Rwanda being recognized as the top world reformer by the World Bank doing business report for the last two years. These reforms addressed issues related to do with ease and cost of doing business and what we are doing now is to extend it to the micro level grass roots such that business climate enables and support local economic development. 7. Sector (Umurenge) Sacco: This is a savings and credit cooperative at sector level (below the district level) targeted at increasing access of populations to financial services. 8. Agaseke-Women: This is one of the micro projects that support women and widows through weaving. They are facilitated and supported through financial resources and skills training to produce products competing for international markets. Rwandan women under this project are now exporting their woven products to USA and Japan markets which has improved their way of life from sex workers, beggers, vulnerable women and widows to enterprising women with capacity to meet and cover their basic and economic needs and developing themselves economically. What has Rwanda done to enable local governments be engines for local economic development? For Local Governments to play their role of enabling and supporting local economic development, Rwanda implemented the following actions: Putting in place a favorable decentralization policy; 7

8 Making Local Governments budget agencies-doing their own planning, budgeting, and budget execution; Roles and responsibilities of central government and local governments clearly defined with no ambiguity; All finances for local governments directly transferred cutting off bureaucracies exhibited through inter-agency transfers; Removal of monetary limits in procurement operations. An aggressive capacity building drive including coaching and mentoring; Local leaders being elected by the citizens; and Enhancement of competitive spirit through performance contracts. Distinguished Delegates, We are making steady progress and solid gains; however, we do not think that we are there yet. Challenges continue to manifest themselves. These include the following: Local government capacities that are still relatively weak; Local community attributes and business culture that is undeveloped; Weak human resources and skills; Lack of local Research and Development (R&D); Weak and insufficient local training facilities; Poor financial services and products to support LED; Insufficient physical infrastructure; and Weak advisory and support services from local business development centers; Distinguished delegates, I have tried to briefly share with you the progress and challenges faced in our decentralization journey. From the beginning, it was clear to us that we had no choice but decentralize if we were to energize local economies, create jobs, enhance economic activity, and reduce poverty in our country. 8

9 I cannot conclude without saying how pleased we are to have the opportunity to share experience and best practices among the CLGF members in this journey towards ensuring prosperity of our communities. At this point, I would like to quote my President, HE Paul Kagame: There is no doubt that we will reach where we want to get. We have passed through more difficult challenges and, in the process, acquired the confidence and strength to face even those that lie ahead. Where there is a will, there will be a way. Thank you. 9