The Minister of Local Government, Prof. Anastase Shyaka, while officially opening the policy dialogue on the review of the social protection policy, reiterated Government’s commitment to an inclusive review of the Ubudehe categories, He said; “The policy dialogue convened today is a true sign of responsive governance. Citizens voiced their concerns regarding Ubudehe. Civil society advocated and we heard you! Government of Rwanda is committed to make the review process of Ubudehe Categorization as participatory as possible to ensure all Rwandan voices and inputs are captured as we’re committed to leave none behind in our efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve self-reliance of Rwanda.”
The Minister made the vow last week in a meeting in which Never Again Rwanda among other civil society organizations like Transparency international Rwanda, Profemme Twese Hamwe, IRDP, Ibuka and various central and local government officials, participated to share perspectives on how best ubudehe categorization criteria and practices can be improved to better support fairness, transparency and accountability in the delivery of Government of Rwanda’s social protection programs and services.
The review of the policy was triggered by various factors, which are not limited to; incidences of corruption, low citizen participation, dissatisfaction with categorization and validation practice. More reasons that led to the review include; risks of increased dependency on social protection and challenges to accommodate the pressure from social and complementary programs which use Ubudehe data for planning and delivery of their interventions, like education, health insurance and electricity. It was also noted that the categorization has not been dynamic to adapt Ubudehe to the rapid change of the social and economic development that the country has experienced over the years. But the key factor of the review was to align the policy to the needs of the people.
Through the different reflections from participants, various issues emerged like the ubudehe categories and criteria, accountability of local authorities, the link of Ubudehe and social services as well as criteria of graduation. Stakeholders highlighted citizen dissatisfaction on Ubudehe due to biased classification and they suggested to separate ubudehe from social benefits, they underscored the need for government and civil society partnership in the processes, citizen involvement in the planning and implementation of Ubudehe categorization, establishing Ubudehe one-stop center and zero tolerance to nepotism and corruption in selecting beneficiaries.
It was therefore recommended that the criteria categorization becomes more transparent, clear, consistent and plausible to the local context and to increase participation of all stakeholders in the categorization process as well as calling citizens and local leaders to refrain from corruption.
Never Again Rwanda has been implementing the Societal Healing and Participatory Governance Program for Peace since 2015. Throughout this program, NAR established citizens’ forums in 15 districts of Rwanda to promote participatory governance by empowering citizens to analyze community issues and voice their needs and priorities to the decision-makers. Members of citizen forums in all the 15 districts separately discussed Ubudehe categorization and called for a policy review to ensure that Ubudehe efficiently contributes to poverty eradication and support for social integration.
Never Again Rwanda as peacebuilding and social justice organization commends the Government of Rwanda’s move to review Ubudehe categorization. In the same spirit, we appreciate the Ministry of Local Government and LODA for welcoming and valuing Never Again Rwanda’s support in organizing the Policy Dialogue and also reiterate our commitment to support the entire review process of Ubudehe Categorization.