10 Attributes of good governance

Governance can be defined from a wide range of perspectives. According to the Mo-Ibrahim Foundation “governance is the provision of political, social and economic public goods and services that every citizen has the right to expect from their government, and that a government has the responsibility to deliver to its citizens.”1

For the sake of this discussion, we view governance as a set of systems and processes where society is organized and led towards attaining its ambitions. It includes mechanisms through which policy and institutional frameworks interact to ensure the government delivers its mandate and is accountable to its people. For post-Genocide Rwanda, one cannot differentiate the link between governance and the imperative need to reconstruct a state where citizens regain hope, are reconciled, embrace justice, and lead a decent living.

For any country to be governed, citizens entrust their power to their leaders so they can serve them and ensure their needs and freedoms are satisfied. In our context, for governance to be effective, it must ensure clear pathways are elaborated towards sustainable peace and development through ways and

approaches that transform citizens’ life focusing on the poor and vulnerable. That is what can be viewed as good governance.

But how should this work and who defines what is needed for “us”? Having closely followed Rwanda’s post-genocide governance, I have learned a few lessons which are yardsticks of gaps and opportunities in ensuring efficient governance. However, we maintain that each society choses its own preferences given their history and context.

Below are the selected 10 unranked attributes of an effective governance inspired by my own experience in the civil society:

1. Visioning and setting standards

Visioning is a key characteristic of good leadership. It enables leaders to dream the ideal situation where they would like to take the people they lead. In Rwanda, the generation that is below 40 years old (as of 2023) had only heard of vision 2020 as a dream. For some of us who grew up in less-developed villages thought about it as an extraordinary life “where all taps in the village would pour soda instead of regular water”. Some critiques said Rwanda was being too ambitious and was dreaming of a world without the poor. What was not understood was that the concept made a reference to the understanding of Rwanda’s population whose 44.9%2 still lived below the poverty line. Among the key challenges Rwanda faced was “the macroeconomic disequilibria” whereby the internal budget deficit was exorbitantly huge. Despite the efforts of the government after stopping the Genocide against the Tutsi, the people of Rwanda were still divided, and the country needed efforts to multiply healing and strengthen resilience of its people.

Daring to make steps towards these ambitions needed a governance that was committed to serving with a purpose. A purpose to deal with challenges that were complex and a situation that had almost every scenario as a priority. Quoting the president of the republic Paul Kagame in the preamble of vision 2020 document “the Vision 2020 is a reflection of our aspiration and determination as Rwandans, to construct a united, democratic and inclusive Rwandan identity, after so many years of authoritarian and exclusivist dispensation.”

While there is still a long way to go, this vision and its related strategies have made Rwanda’s governance a model that is worth studying. The emergence of homegrown solutions has, among other things, enabled people to thrive and open doors for them to achieve the unachievable. However, while this transitioned to vision 2050, lessons from this process open for an increased focus on the citizens especially the vulnerable to ensure that no one is left behind.

2. Valuing the needs of citizens and respecting their choices

Responsiveness to the needs of citizens is a paramount necessity in participatory governance. Any decision taken by the leaders must respond to the needs and priorities of the citizens. In the year 2000, Rwanda adopted its decentralization policy which was revised in 2021.3 One of the key priorities of Rwanda’s decentralization policy is to ensure citizens are at the forefront of any public policies and programs by ensuring they have adequate spaces for consultation and by giving them feedback on what is done on their behalf. Another key aspect of the policy is to facilitate local leaders to establish plans that guide the implementation of local priorities which should respond to the needs of the citizens.

However recent studies have indicated there is a long way to go to reach the desired level. One of the key challenges highlighted in the study on alignment of Imihigo “performance contracts” in sub-district entities to the district ones4, is the fact that “most Imihigo targets are formulated at the Central Government level and replicated at the district level, making it practically difficult to align Sub- District Imihigo with those at the district”. According to the study, sometimes the central priorities are applied to each district without taking consideration of their specific needs thus hindering the fulfillment of citizens priorities.

Despite the challenge, one cannot ignore that national priorities are also essential for the development and livelihoods of the citizens. What is essential to note here is that the Governance of Rwanda reflected in those policies, in principle values the needs of the citizens.

3. Establishing safe avenues for citizen participation

Rwanda’s post-genocide governance has stressed the importance for citizen participation. One reason is the fact the government understands that to drive change, you must have committed citizens who not only understand what is done for them and their own behalf but also own it. While citizen participation may take different forms, Rwanda has insisted on direct citizen participation through both state-led channels as well as those initiated by non-state actors including Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

According to the study entitled “Governing with and for the citizens”5 conducted by NAR in 2016, “State-sanctioned channels include citizens’ assemblies (Inteko z’ Abaturage), local councils (Inama Njyanama), Members of Parliament, National Women Council, National Youth Council, the National Dialogue, the Presidential outreach visits, as well as programs like Imihigo, Ubudehe, and Umuganda.” While each channel has its challenges and opportunities the study underlines that these channels have significantly improved citizen participation and social accountability. On the other hand, these platforms are not always well exploited as some leaders use them to provide announcements instead of taking adequate time to engage citizens on policy issues and gathering their needs and concerns.

Another interesting aspect highlighted in this study is the exemplified leadership provided by HE President Kagame while conducting the presidential outreach visits, that respondents were unanimously excited about- “the visit itself and the safe space it provides to citizens to voice their concerns, as well as the President’s willingness to address their complaints and priorities emerge as the core reason for that excitement.” However the fact that these visits find long queues of citizens waiting to express their long-term complaints and unresolved problems indicates need for stronger efforts in enforcing citizen participation and accountability.

4. Availability of competent and innovative local government

In Rwanda, local government is a result of the decentralization policy established in 2001. To ensure good governance, one must ensure that leaders at different levels are capacitated to implement government policies and programs and attend to the needs of the citizens. At the same time, leaders must possess innovations that translate the policies into real actions that transform citizen lives. Recent studies have shown that when local leaders do not have the capacity to engage citizens, plan and prioritize, it limits their ability to deliver towards the needs of the citizens.

The ministry of local government has so far established a local government capacity development strategy that seeks to identify capacity needs and capacitate leaders especially at the local level to serve better. It is commonly believed that local leaders have been given all the capacities needed (material and skills) to carry out their duties. These include transport and means of facilitation. Despite this, a study by RALGA in 2013, suggest that the main challenges to local government capacity building interventions include: uncoordinated interventions, supply driven interventions, multi-faceted and often conflicting approaches, a plethora of funding mechanisms, and local government challenges to attract, recruit, and retain a critical mass of technical and professional personnel. These findings corroborate with Never Again Rwanda’s local leaders’ capacity needs assessment published in the year 20206, which suggest that 84.4% of local leaders have either medium or low levels of capacity particularly in participatory approaches which are highly needed for citizen consultations.

This shows a prevailing need to increased investment in strengthening the capacity and allow a high sense of innovation among local leaders.

5. Ensuring quality services to the citizens

Service delivery is an essential function of the state at all levels. Service delivery in public entities is probably the most debated topic in Rwanda. The discussion has even been extended to the private sector. Many are of the view that it is the worst performing among all the attributes discussed in this article. While I agree with them to a big extent, we must recognize that Rwanda has insisted a lot to ensure that services are closer to the citizens. Investment was made in decentralizing services to the closest administrative levels such as cells, and sector whereby citizens can get services related to land, civil registration and national IDs, social protection services to mention but examples. In addition, there is several services that have migrated online and have minimized interaction between service providers and right holders hence significantly minimizing incidences of corruption. “Irembo” platform has provided opportunities for citizens to ask and receive services without having to line up at the administrative offices hence saving time and money. However, service delivery is still not up to the levels targeted in the National Strategy for Transformation (NST I) and other government priorities. For example, studies have reported low use of service charters that provide key guidelines on how and when services should be delivered which leave many citizens’ service requests unattended to for several days. The Rwanda Governance Scorecard 2022, published by RGB annually, last indicated that service delivery still ranks among the worst performing indicators of the study which dropped by over 10pts from the previous edition.7 This shows that more efforts to improve the area are needed. The biggest concern is that most of the challenges causing poor service delivery are still non-material, citing negative attitudes towards transformation by some leaders, negligence and failing to place citizens at the top of their service. Nonetheless issues concerning understaffing by sub-district entities as well as limited infrastructure have been evoked as contributing factors by leaders as well as some citizens.

6. Encouraging private investments

Private sector is a key attribute of governance. It does not only help the economy to grow but also strengthens the business-government relations, which is essential for the people to develop. One may wonder how in less than 20 years, large brand hotels such as Marriot, Radisson Blue, Sheraton, Singita or Mantis have already established themselves across the thousand hills. This is a result of Rwanda’s governance that demonstrated the potential in investing in the country, urged the private sector to invest, and eased the environment for doing business. In the year 2020, Rwanda came in the 38th position in the World Bank’s Doing Business report scoring 76.5%.8 This is a result of different reforms and measures taken by the government to facilitate private investment and encourage new start-ups.

Since 2005, Rwanda focused on transferring ownership of the publicly owned enterprises to privately owned entities whereby over 90% of its investments were handed out. This seemed to many a difficult move that would cause losses, yet it has now yielded the results we see today. The remaining challenge is how to ensure that start-ups benefit in an environment that allows them to survive their initial days. Experience still shows that many start-ups disappear at their infant stage due to hard conditions including high taxes.

The president of the republic in his recent remarks during the swearing-in of the new senate president, expressed the need to ensure that taxes do not become a burden to the private sector and the citizens in general and called for tax reforms.

7. Investing in the youth

Youth are an important part of the Rwanda’s population. To ensure sustainability of Rwanda’s progress one must ensure that youth are part of the policy and decision-making process. Rwanda’s constitution of 2003 revised in 2015 has emphasized representation of youth in different administrative entities, including the establishment of the National Youth Council. In addition, Rwanda’s parliament has 2 youth representatives voted by the youth in addition to other MPs falling in the youth age category. Frequent high level cabinet appointments have also included youth holding high level leadership positions in the government. The move was echoed by the call from the president of the republic for increased youth participation on several occasions. Despite the favorable governance environment, youth have not fully embraced participation in governance especially by influencing policy and decision-making. A study conducted by Never Again Rwanda on Youth Participation in 202210 suggests that youth leaders still lack adequate connection with local leaders and their constituencies hence minimizing their ability to resolve serious challenges facing the youth. In addition, youth blame the unfriendliness of some citizen participation mechanisms due to their nature that lack creativity and attraction to youth participants. There is need to ensure youth’s capacity continues to be strengthened so they can utilize the available opportunities to participate in the country governance.

8. Ensuring security

Security is the reason why we can discuss governance. Without security, it would have been impossible for Rwanda to design its vision and all policies. Stable security has been the basis of hope in our context. No doubt, the top leadership of Rwanda invested in building professional and highly competent security organs that have gained trust among the people. Walking around during late hours without fear of being targeted by pick pockets is common in the streets. The Rwanda governance scorecard 2021 suggest that the security and safety pillar remain among the highest performing with 95.5% (RGS 2022, p37). It is also common for security organs to participate in village meetings and listen to citizens’ issues and contribute to finding solutions. It includes activities like army/police week whereby houses are built for the vulnerable, affordable electricity provided and patients treated by medics in the army/police. Lessons we learnt as a society is that it is not enough to have security but rather build the trust of the citizens in those institutions taking a lead in protecting it-and that you cannot speak of good governance under pressure of security threats.

9. Enabling space for non-state actors in governance

The Government of Rwanda has consistently recognized and engaged with non- state actors as key ingredients for the country’s development. This was made possible by allowing civil society organizations and International NGOs to operate in Rwanda. Recent studies have shown that CSOs in Rwanda have played a key role in rebuilding Rwanda after the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. Their role was predominantly in service provision while complementing the efforts of the Government in providing humanitarian services. Besides, these actors have been adapting by increasingly contributing to promoting good governance by facilitating citizen participation and engaging in the public policy processes.

A study conducted by NAR in 201911, shows that the functions of CSOs are viewed by Rwandans as “(1) shaping citizens’ lives through service delivery, (2) citizenship education, (3) providing a voice for the voiceless and demanding accountability from decision-makers, and (4) shaping public policies.” Across the hills of Rwanda, spaces that bring together ordinary citizens to discuss needs and priorities and share their views with local leaders have been created often led by community facilitators from CSOs. This is indeed one of the essential milestones for ensuring non-state actors contribute. However, challenges due to capacity and sometimes restrictive measures by some organs have been reported among major hindrances to CSOs operations. These include delays in registration of new entities and lack of frequent and adequate support from the government. According to the Rwanda CSO development barometer 201512, only 17% of CSOs have received frequent financial support from the government. The 2012 NGO law says,

“The Government shall include in its national budget funds meant for supporting national non-governmental organizations”. All in all non-state actors have significantly supported the process to strengthen good governance at all levels.

10. Facilitating media operation

Rwandan media has come from far. It emerged from changing the negative image painted by divisive media during the Genocide by spreading hatred against Tutsi, to participating in reconciliation through facilitating spaces for community members from diverse backgrounds to share their stories and challenges a divisive narrative. The role of media in Rwanda’s governance has mainly been observed by their quest to minimize the gap between citizens and decision-makers by facilitating spaces for dialogue on governance issues.

Morning call-in shows on radios are now popular in Rwanda where ordinary citizens call on governance programs or service delivery and air their views live. The advance of internet has also given way to online media where social media outlets are commonly used for citizens to express their opinions and engage leaders on their concerns. However, experts have criticized that some media lacks competence which denies them confidence to air out views. Most of the media are also not financially independent and some journalists are highly underpaid. Media houses do not have adequate resources to support their development hence giving room to run into cheap stories and avoiding investigative reporting. On the other hand these challenges have are not enough to suppress the ongoing great contribution of media to improve Rwanda’s governance practices every day.