Rwandan Self-Assessment process

Rwanda's preparations for its peer review process began in June 2003 with the creation of the country's NEPAD Steering Committee, attached to the office of the President and tasked with the responsibility to "facilitate, expedite, coordinate and energise [the] implementation of NEPAD programmes" in Rwanda. Included in the membership of the NEPAD steering committee was a personal representative of the President tasked with keeping the President up to date with all NEPAD related developments in a timely manner. In January 2004, the Rwandan National NEPAD Steering committee appointed Mr. Aimable Kabanda as the focal point for all future APRM interactions, and to follow up on APRM-related matters with the APRM Secretariat. In February 2004, an advance mission from the APRM Secretariat in Midrand, South Africa visited Rwanda to assess the country's preparedness to receive a country support mission, scheduled for later that year. The advance mission noted the appointment of a focal point, and also met with the NEPAD steering committee and two consultants engaged to prepare materials and drafts for the country's peer review process.

The country's first consultative workshop (Nyandungu 1) was held on 26 March 2004, attended by 200 stakeholders, although the majority of these comprised civil servants and government officials, with a smaller component drawn from civil society and the private sector. Two outputs emerged from Nyandungu 1, namely: the formation of a group of 20 volunteers tasked with the responsibility to assist the existing APRM structures in raising awareness and sensitizing Rwanda's citizens about the APRM; and the creation of four thematic groups to draft submissions around the four areas of governance addressed in APRM Self-Assessment Questionnaire. Although the decision to adopt a volunteer approach was beneficial in alleviating concerns of prejudice and political manipulation in the thematic groups, the demands (in terms of time and finances) of the thematic group work created a logistical challenge for the volunteers, and this lead to inconsistent application and variable attendance at meetings across the thematic groups. As a result, the bulk of the thematic group was undertaken by government officials with sporadic and inconsistent inputs from volunteers from civil society. In May 2004, Nyandungu II met to validate and comment on the work of the thematic groups and to integrate these comments into the submissions. At this second stakeholder meeting, the thematic groups were upgraded into Technical Review Teams.

Rwanda's first official Country Support Mission (CSM) visited the country between 21 - 24 June 2004, shortly after Nyandungu II, in order to support and strengthen the country's national process, and identify areas of concern and shortcomings in the country's self-assessment methodology. During the CSM visit, Rwanda took the opportunity of heightened domestic and international interest to launch its APRM National Commission, with Dr. Donald Kaberuka, Minister of Finance appointed as the Commission's chairperson.

Table 1 - Rwanda APR National Commission

Source: http://www.nepad.gov.rw/

The CSM visited numerous stakeholders during its visit and summarized its activities in a communiqué (APRM report on support mission to Ghana, Rwanda and Mauritius) at the completion of its inspection, detailing the major findings and concerns of the mission members. Key amongst these recommendations was a concern regarding the composition of its fifty-member APRM National Commission, of which the overwhelming majority of the members comprised government and public officials. Furthermore, the support mission voiced its concern about the size of the National Commission, preferring a smaller, more executive format with 10-15 members, and only 1-2 public officials, to be assisted by an executive bureau made up of the remaining members and administrative support staff. Despite these recommendations, the existing format was retained, in accordance with the provisions set out in the APRM documentation regarding Rwanda's right to determine its own structures and institutional arrangements for peer review.

The CSM also noted the scarcity of capable technical institutions in Rwanda which could assist with gathering and analyzing technical information for the self-assessment process, although the mission also acknowledged that this was not a problem with a quick and easy solution. Therefore the CSM advised that in light of these extraordinary circumstances, what was referred to as 'technical backstopping' should be implemented by external agencies, either through the official partner institutions, or other independent external technical institutions. Ultimately, the council took the decision to appoint two independent technical institutions from outside Rwanda to undertake this quality assurance work.

Table 2 - Technical institutions assisting the Rwanda Self-Assessment

Subsequent to the visit of the CSM, Rwanda engaged in a phase of gathering inputs from stakeholders in order to compile its Country Self-Assessment Report (CSAR). As has already been mentioned, this phase of the self-assessment took place in the context of both technical capacity constraints and an atmosphere of circumspection amongst the general populace to publicly state their views on governance issues. As a result, this phase of Rwanda's assessment was not characterized by the broad-based and open-ended consultations witnessed in other countries such as Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Rather, the data collection in Rwanda took place in a more structured format, with greater input from existing institutions, in particular the government, than might have been preferable. The findings of this phase of the self-assessment were presented and discussed at a national validation conference on 17 December 2004, held in Kigali at the Hotel de Mille Collines. After the conference, AIPA and OSSREA conducted a qualitative evaluation of the draft report.

The Country report and draft Program of Action were submitted to the APRM Secretariat in March 2005, which prompted the secretariat to make preparations for the country's official Review Mission (CRM).