Military students from various African countries attending Rwanda Defense Force Command and Staff College (RDFCSC) have started a 5-day study tour to learn about Rwanda’s settlement system.
As part of a one-year long course, 42 senior officers at the rank of Major and Lieutenant Colonel as well as senior Police officers are touring Kigali for research purposes about "An appraisal of National settlement Policy towards Achieving Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in Rwanda”.
The military officers are from Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The course includes a Master’s Programme in Security Strategic Studies.
On Monday, their tour kicked off by visiting the office of Ministry of Infrastructure in Kigali to have an academic review of Rwanda’s settlement system.
Brigadier General Didas Ndahiro, Commandant of RDFCSC, said that the mission of the course and the tour was developing intellectual and professional standards "to effectively respond to the challenges of the contemporary complex operating environment.
"We are aware that human settlement is a serious challenge globally. The objective of this tour is to assess effectiveness of Rwanda’s settlement policy and proffer some recommendations,” Ndahiro said.
Complex challenges
The Minister of Infrastructure, Clever Gatete, briefed the 8th cohort of RDFCSC students on the first day of the tour. He presented and explained Rwanda’s settlement policy including the 213 Integrated Development Program (IDP) Model Villages that have been built so far, resettling of residents in high risk zones and informal settlements.
However, Minister Gatete pointed out that the 24-year-old settlement policy faces pressing challenges. Some of them are financial means, mountainous nature of Rwanda and citizens’ mindset.
"Informal settlements or what can be referred to as slums developed very quickly and increasingly so. Most of the informal settlers live in high risk zones and are financially incapable of evacuating from there. It would require the government Rwf 500 billion to evacuate them, which is a bit too much,” he presented.
In addition to facing hardships in setting some infrastructures in mountainous locations, Gatete added that some of the high risk zone settlers are not willing to evacuate.
Strategies to address the challenges such as IDP Model Villages and partnership with the private sector to build modern apartments in Kigali are already in place. But further studies and solutions are strongly called for.
"We are optimistic that results of this tour and recommendations from your observations will introduce new ways to operate,” Minister Gatete told the officers.
According to the course’s framework, students are supposed to submit research papers obtained from the tour one week after.
Rwanda Military Academy in Nyakinama issued the first cohort of 33 graduates in 2010. Its establishment is part of the professionalization and career advancement of officers in the RDF and across Africa.