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Rwanda: Local Government to Improve Capacities
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Focus Media (Kigali)
26 March 2008
Posted to the web 26 March 2008
Steve Rukundo
A national work shop on local government capacity building last week brought together representatives from all 30 districts, the ministry of local governance and the ministry of public service and labor to discuss the implementation of capacity building needs assessment and planning.
The focus of the work has been to work with district authorities to produce locally owned, bottom-up assessments of capacity building needs, and five-year plans to improve the situation.
"This consultancy is expected to support a locally-driven comprehensive capacity needs assessment according to the government's capacity building strategy," the Minister of local governance, Protais Musoni, said.
"The objective is to evaluate the capacity needs of districts, sectors and other public service bodies such as schools and health centers, taking into account three key elements which are human resource development, institutional and organizational development as well as capacity to develop of economic and social infrastructure".
By mid-March, 25 plans had been received and 23 budgets from these plans had been analyzed. The overall budget for these 23 district plans is Frw 366,973,089.
The plans concern areas such as institutional arrangements, system management, human resources, ways of working and communication, networking and partnerships, facilities and equipment.
Several difficulties were observed in local government services delivery and sector strategy Stakeholders in Ngororero, for example noted that "the district has not been informed and consequently is not prepared for the implementation of the program."
Nyabihu for its part stated that, "it is difficult for the district to monitor the sector programs because we do not even have terms of reference or a copy of the contract between the ministry and the executing body."
Concerning system management, the greatest capacity strengths found in the districts relate to planning and budgeting, although knowledge of systems and procedures is often not sufficient to address the many practical challenges encountered.
On management of human resources, most districts report that current organizational structure approved in January 2006 is not adapted to local government needs. For instance, each human resource unit has to manage over 1000 employees, including health and education personnel.
Commenting on ways of working and communication with the stakeholders, it was generally noted that staff work under pressure of too many responsibilities.
Moreover, they have to participate in too many meetings which are often inefficiently organized and take too long.
As for facilities and equipment, the district administrations usually have offices, although most report extreme over-crowding with four or more persons sharing a tiny office.
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Newly created districts, however, often do not have their own facilities, as is the case in Rusizi, where staff works in a building of the ministry of education and an office of one of the sectors.
The district that will receive this capacity building implementation are Gasobo, Nyarugenge, Kicukiro, Rwamagana, Kirehe, Ngoma, Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Rulindo, Burera, Musanze, Nyaruguru, Kamonyi, Muhanga, Huye, Ruhango, Nyanza, Rutsiro, Nyabihu, Rubavu, Rusizi, Nyamasheke, Karongi.
The other seven districts were not yet budgeted for but according to the communications officer at Minaloc, "measures are being taken to also work on them."
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