On Thursday 31st January 2019 at Lemigo Hotel, the “Deepening Accountable Local Governance in Rwanda (DALGOR)” project was officially closed. The three year project has been implemented by Rwanda Association of Local Government Authorities (RALGA) since 2016 in the districts of Gasabo, Ngoma, Burera, Nyamasheke and Nyamagabe, thanks to financial support from the European Union. The closing ceremony was graced by the Minister of Local Government, Hon. Anastase SHYAKA as the Guest of Honor, and by Ambassador Nicola Bellomo, Head of the European Union Delegation to Rwanda. In addition to representatives of beneficiary districts and partner institutions, the ceremony was also attended by RALGA Senior management team headed by the association’s Chairperson, Cllr. Innocent UWIMANA, the Secretary General, Mr. Ladislas NGENDAHIMANA as well as the Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Francine TUMUSHIME.
In his opening remarks, RALGA’s Chairperson said that the closing ceremony was an opportunity to document DALGOR’s achievements and draw lessons from the project’s experience. He reminded the participants that the overall objective of the project was to “contribute to improved capacity of local governments to confidently and effectively respond to upward, horizontal and downward accountability demands”.
He also reminded that the beneficiary districts were chosen basing on their respective performance in the area of accountable local governance and service delivery by the time of project design in November 2015, as illustrated by the findings of the 2014 Rwanda Citizen Report Card published by Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) in early 2015.
The Participants to the ceremony watched a documentary film summarizing the activities conducted to achieve the project’s objective. They include two studies meant to find out facts about the status of accountable local governance in Rwanda, namely the “Dynamics of Direct Citizen Participation in Rwandan Local Governance” and the “State of Elected Local Councillors & Constituency Interactions in Rwanda : Implications for Accountable Local Governance”. Basing on the findings and recommendations of these studies, RALGA organised policy dialogues both at local and national levels to share the findings and discuss the way forward. A booklet on duties and responsibilities of Cell Councillors and members of Village Executive Committee was also produced. In addition, capacity building activities were organised on various topics such as accountability and citizen participation as well as on duties and responsibilities. Finally, RALGA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pax Press, a network bringing together journalists from various media outlets. The MoU aims at promoting accountable local governance through easy access to information and professional reporting.
DALGOR stakeholders commended achievements and called for sustainability mechanisms
Referring to the 2018 Citizen Score Card report by RGB, RALGA’s Chairperson showed that all DALGOR beneficiary districts recorded improvement in accountable governance compared to the results in 2014. The 2018 report shows that Nyamasheke District scored 82.83 % in 2018 from 50.7 % in 2014 ; Nyamagabe scored 78.94 % from 61.3 % ; Gasabo 89.31% from 63.2% ; Burera scored 88.44% from 79.9% and Ngoma scored 90.53% from 89.31%.
On his side, the Head of the European Union Delegation to Rwanda, Ambassador Nicola Bellomo, said that he believes that “DALGOR project made its contribution to building the capacities of local authorities in accountable governance”. He took the opportunity to acknowledge the strong political will in Rwanda and various mechanisms to push accountable governance further at all levels of government. He however highlighted the need to keep on empowering citizens to meaningfully participate and claim their rights. He finally recommended to RALGA and other Civil Society Organizations to use the findings of the important studies conducted to advocate for solutions to issues hampering accountable local governance and citizen participation in decentralization and local development processes in Rwanda.
In his closing remarks, the Minister of Local Government, Hon. Anastase SHYAKA, highlighted the fact that accountable governance and high quality service delivery have been and remain key pillars of Rwanda’s socio-economic and political transformation. He added that “the Government of Rwanda is committed to building strong institutions that are accountable to people while striving to meet the obligations of development partners”. He emphasized that the Government of Rwanda in general and the Ministry of Local Government in particular recognize RALGA as an important partner in building the capacity of local leaders in various areas including Accountable Local Governance and service delivery. He concluded by highlighting the need to ensure DALGOR gains sustainability and expansion, as well as the need to enhance accountability and effectiveness of the service delivered by local governments.
