Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) has partnered with the Belgian Embassy to launch the Civic Space Advancement Project (CSAP) Project that will support Rwanda’s efforts to strengthen civic space, human rights, and democracy.

Over the next two years, NPA will lead the consortium comprising Health Development Initiative (HDI-Rwanda), Great Lakes Initiative for Human Rights and Development (GLIHD) and the Legal Aid Forum (LAF), to strengthen the capacity and resilience of civil society actors to protect, promote and monitor human rights in Rwanda.

What they will work on

To break it down, LAF will focus on enhancing engagement of civil society actors in the protection, promotion, and monitoring of human rights. GLIHD will take on activities of empowering Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and citizens to monitor and claim access to socio-economic and environmental rights across community-driven initiatives.

On its part, HDI will focus on enhancing medical service liability through promoting patients’ rights awareness and ensuring accountability of health-care service providers.

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Belgian Ambassador to Rwanda Bert Versmessen said the Civic Space Advancement Project is the first of its kind to be undertaken by the Belgian government globally.

"This groundbreaking project highlights our government’s commitment to leveraging expertise and resources enabling individuals and civil society organizations to champion positive social change,” he said.

Call for results

The Director General in charge of Community Mobilisation and Youth Volunteers Coordination in Community Policing at the Ministry of Local Government, Richard Kubana, commended civil society actors for their contribution towards empowering and creating a critical mass of better-informed citizens.

He reminded them that the government and other partners were eager to see the results of the project. He pledged government support to ensure that the project adds meaningful value to ongoing national efforts around civic space, human rights and democracy strengthening.

"We urge you to utilize the existing civil spaces, such as citizens’ forums (Inteko Z’abaturage), to their fullest extent. Additionally, we encourage you to establish others based on the nature of your project. It is crucial to involve local leaders in facilitating dialogues that uphold the progress the country has achieved," he said.

In her remarks, NPA Country Director Senada Kahriman noted that while expanding civic space and advancing human rights access and democracy is challenging, it is achievable. However, she emphasized that achieving this goal necessitates collaborative efforts, as it cannot be solely left to and handled by the state alone.

She expressed optimism for the success of the project, crediting HDI, LAF, and GHLID, for the unique niche and expertise each of the organisations bring to the table.

"Combined with NPA's nearly century-old strengths in advancing civic space, the CSAP consortium's expertise and daily engagement with the communities we work with, are some of the crucial assets that we must leverage to effectively implement and propel the project towards its desired success,” she said.

The consortium pledged to collaborate with the government and build on the work that they are already doing around human rights to deliver on the Civic Space Advancement Project.

They appealed for increased support and cooperation from all stakeholders to ensure the success of the initiative.