Civil society organisations and the private sector have been urged to cooperate in their activities to foster development and support communities.

This is one of the recommendations of the 2023 Rwanda Civil Society Barometer by Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), whose findings were announced on Wednesday, February 28.

The yearly barometer has four domains of the operations of civil society organisations (CSOs), namely citizen participation and inclusiveness, CSOs working environment, governance and values in CSOs, as well as the impact and effectiveness of CSOs.

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The fourth barometer, which used a sample of 283 non-governmental organisations and over 2,450 people, found that relations between civil society and the private sector stood at 37.8 per cent, the lowest score of five indicators of the civil society organisations’ working environment.

The legal environment for CSOs stood at 89 per cent, sociocultural context stood at 84 per cent, government-civil society relations stood at 80 per cent, while civil society relations with funders stood at 72 per cent.

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Partnership between civil society organisations and private sector players scored 43.8 per cent on the barometer, private sector corporate social responsibility through CSOs scored 39 per cent, and private sector support to CSOs scored 30 per cent.

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"In the different domains that we assessed, there are certain things that have been really achieved in terms of the civil society working environment, but there are certain issues that need attention,” said RGB chief executive Usta Kaitesi.

"Some of the issues that need particular attention are the relationship between civil society and the private sector and the need for them to converge and engage together. Allowing civil society to locally mobilise resources requires a more effective relationship between civil society and the private sector,” Kaitesi noted.

"Another element that was highlighted in this parameter is the need for the beneficiaries to be partners because some of them highlighted that they don’t feel involved in the process of the projects that the civil society brings,” she said.

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According to the barometer, the level of citizen participation in projects of civil society organisations stood at 63 per cent.

"We have seen from the findings that civil society organisations need to improve the participation of citizens in the interventions,” said Joseph Ryarasa, chairperson of Rwanda Civil Society Platform.

"Although civil society actors understand the issues in the communities, we need to involve the citizens because they also have an understanding of the issues because they are affected,” he said.

Fighting money laundering, terrorism financing

Among other recommendations from the barometer is putting in place measures that prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.

The barometer found that transparency and accountability in civil society organisations stood at 74 per cent, while anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing was at 67 per cent.

Currently, the availability of preventive measures against money laundering and terrorism financing stands at 60 per cent.

The results of the survey by RGB show us a clear picture of faith-based organisations, what issues we have today, and the possible ways to address them. They found that we need to improve on reporting and financial management, said Mufti of Rwanda Sheikh Salim Hitimana.

"We also took note of the recommendation of being more vigilant for donors who may want to use their donations for other reasons such as money laundering and terrorism financing,” Hitimana said.

"We are lucky because our country’s leadership always informs us about any possible issues. We are aware of all the possible dangers, and we put in place measures that enable us to ascertain that the funds we receive are not intended to sponsor those illegal acts.”