On Friday 11th December 2020, Rwanda Governance Board(RGB) launched the Rwanda Governance Scorecard (RGS) 7th Edition. The event that took place at Kigali Convention Centre attracted participants from government institutions, private sector, civil society, research and higher learning institutions and development partners’ agencies.
In the RGS 7th edition, all the pillars recorded an improvement Compared to the previous edition. Safety and Security continues to lead with a score of 95.44%. Participation and Inclusiveness attained the highest improvement rate of 8.96%. The pillar of Investing in Human and Social Capital ranked least with 73.32% up from 68.52% in the previous edition.
the RGS assess eight governance pillars that include the Rule of Law; Political Rights and Civil Liberties; Participation and Inclusiveness; Safety and Security; Investing in Human and Social Development; Fighting Corruption, Transparency and Accountability; Quality of Service Delivery; and Economic and Corporate Governance.
Presenting the report, Dr. Usta Kaitesi, the Chief Executive Officer of RGB highlighted that RGS underscores the strategic choices that the country has made.
“Rwanda has chosen a governance model that is understood as accountability, transparency and efficiency in deploying resources, centred on citizen participation, promotes rule of law to protect citizens as well enhancing social economic transformation towards rapid development.” Said Usta Kaitesi.
Dr Usta Kaitesi insisted that RGS is tool that helps institutions to do self-assessment on how they are delivering against national targets.
Fode Ndiaye, the UN Resident Representative in Rwanda thanked RGB for its commitment to keep the regularity of RGS in spite of challenges imposed by Covid-19 this year. He also reaffirmed the commitment of One UN to continue to support the government of Rwanda in its commitments to foster good governance especially to support RGB for the production of the Rwanda Governance Scorecard and other governance tools.
He urged institutions to read this report, not only as data, but also as the voice of the citizens, that shows areas that need special attention in order to improve the life standards of the citizens.
Officiating the launch, Minister in the Office of the President, Uwizeye Judith underlined that the RGS has become a crucial tool that tracks the Country’s performance in relation to her national, regional and global governance commitments.
“We, Rwandans are the primary beneficiaries of Rwanda Governance Scorecard, we have the interest of generating data that tells us the truth that anybody else cannot tell us.” Said Minister Uwizeye.
The Rwanda Governance Scorecard is a national index published every year by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) to consistently assess the state of governance in Rwanda. The objectives of RGS are to generate credible and reliable data on governance, and serve as evidence-based source to inform policy, decision making and implementation; as well as contribute to current scientific and contextualised knowledge about economic, social and political governance in Rwanda. (End)