March 3, 2008


Rwanda retreat a first in Africa

By OSCAR KIMANUKA oscar_kim2000@yahoo.co.uk

Rwanda leaders took time off last week for their fifth annual retreat at the Akagera Park Hotel.

The retreat is unique in that while there, Rwandan leaders resolve national issues and chart a way forward for the country’s future.

But more than this, the retreat provides an opportunity to foster communication among leaders as well as developing team work and esprit de corps.

The Rwandan retreat is a form of testing of new ideas and approaches to tackling national challenges and has helped the country to quickly jump the hurdles associated with bureaucratic ways of handling issues of national importance.

The air of anxiety and urgency on the part of participants demonstrates the importance attached to the retreat which is conducted in a business like manner.

This is a departure from the bureaucratic style of management associated with the post-colonial state.

LEADERS PROVIDE NOT ONLY reasons why there may be difficulties in fulfilling their mandate, but most importantly, they suggest solutions to difficult questions.

According to the 2005/2006 strategic paper, the government of Rwanda was to focus on infrastructural development, intensification of the decentralization process and capacity building.

The other area of concern was the rising cost of energy for the country. There are prospects for improved energy supply this year.

President Paul Kagame’s insistence on sustainability is not without reasons. There are many examples of countries in Africa that have had fairly reasonable economic growth rates based on their natural resources and gone down the drain.

RWANDA, WHOSE NATURAL resource base is scanty wants to be the region’s hub by investing heavily in information and communication technology. The government continues to supply and invest in technology at both primary and secondary levels, as over 1,300 schools are equipped with computers and at least more than 10 per cent of the country’s schools have wireless Internet.

While Kigali may be far from being a Singapore, the kind of vigour and commitment demonstrated by the leadership of this country could as well drive this East African nation someday into another Singapore.

Oscar Kimanuka is a commentator on social and economic issues based in Kigali.