Rwanda for over a decade has made impressive progress on various aspects of good governance.

The Minister of Local Government Protais Musoni revealed this yesterday while making a presentation on the Joint Governance Assessment (JGA) and follow Up Actions at Serena Hotel.

"Good governance is a key objective of the government of Rwanda and this involves putting in place and building basic institutions for it,” Musoni said.

The President Paul Kagame in 2006 asked for the assessment on the grounds that more is needed to establish a basis for engaging international opinion on governance in the country.

It was also observed that uncoordinated and fragmented governance assessments by different stakeholders led to high transaction costs.

Minister Musoni said that the objectives set for the Joint Governance Assessment are, among others, to develop a common understanding of the state of governance in Rwanda based on objective analysis.

"A basis for a developed framework should be provided for assessing government progress based on agreed indicators. This will help build capacity in Rwanda over time in order to analyse and assess government issues,” he explained.

The minister also revealed that in spite of the registered progress since the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis, institutions need to further strengthen and rigorously enforce rules based on good governance.

It was also noted that there has also been considerable improvement in security conditions in the country. The assessment report again revealed that there has been transitional justice through the completion of the Gacaca process.

It, however, pointed out that there is still an enormous challenge in restoring trust within society which needs to be addressed. 

Among the key findings on government effectiveness, the minister said that corruption in Rwanda is lower compared to other countries in Africa.

"Today all available evidence indicates that the level of corruption is far lower than in neighbouring countries and Rwanda is among the least corrupt in Africa,” Musoni affirmed.

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