Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente has said that efforts to recover from the Covid-19 crisis must be underpinned by multilateralism and collaboration between governments as well as international organisations.
Ngirente was speaking in Dubai, United Arab Emirates while delivering remarks at the eighth World Government Summit. The summit was postponed twice due to Covid-19 induced restrictions.
This year’s summit convened more than 4,000 individuals from 190 countries who will participate in various sessions to discuss and highlight global challenges and their potential solutions.
To get shared goals back on track, the Premier also called for collaboration among international financial institutions, civil society and the private sector and to draw on international research and innovation.
"The world is able to gather physically today, after over two years of the global Covid-19 pandemic. This is evidence of what can be achieved when countries cooperate towards a common goal,” Ngirente said.
He added that the lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic should be a foundation as the world considers strategies for scaling new heights for the future of humanity.
For instance, Ngirente said, the UN 2030 Agenda provides a pathway to better livelihood, citing that it provides universal goals and targets for all countries to deliver on three dimensions covering economy, social as well as environment.
Rwanda’s economic recovery efforts
Sharing Rwanda’s economic recovery efforts and progress, Ngirente said that the government’s economic response was driven by different interventions comprising sizable fiscal and monetary support including the Economic Recovery Fund (ERF).
The ERF is a policy response tool that was unleashed two years ago to support Covid-19 hit business. The government recently announced an additional phase to the fund.
Other interventions that are driving Rwanda's economic recovery include the Manufacture and Build to Recover Programme (MBRP), and a prompt vaccine rollout, which has seen over 60 per cent of Rwanda’s population above 18 fully vaccinated.
"Today, the Government of Rwanda is optimistic as recovery initiatives are delivering tangible results. Rwanda is showing promising signs of recovery whereby it grew by 10.9 per cent in 2021, and is projected to grow at a rate of 7.2 per cent in 2022,” he said.
Decade of action
The premier said that the session on SDGs in action is an opportune moment for fellow global leaders both in the public and business community to reflect and devise strategies that will reinforce commitment and maintain the momentum for the decade of action (2021–2030).
"The 2030 Agenda was ambitious and required substantial financial resources which weren’t available especially to most developing countries.”
However, he pointed out that the situation has worsened following possible reversals and strain that Covid-19 inflicted on most countries which often led to reallocation of financial resources towards confronting the pandemic.
"Sustained recovery requires solid foundations including global cooperation and the effective integration of the SDGs into national recovery plans of both developed and developing economies.”
Ngirente said that Rwanda was committed to walking this transformation journey towards achieving the 2030 Agenda, domesticated in the government’s National Strategy for Transformation as well as collaborating with other countries, especially on the African Continent.
Rwanda is also actively promoting South-South Cooperation and peer learning through the Rwanda Cooperation Initiative, he reiterated.
Held under the theme ‘Shaping Future Governments’, WGS2022 will host more than 110 sessions, in addition to 15 global forums that discuss the most prominent future trends.
A total of 20 knowledge reports will be published, commissioned in partnership with global research institutions, which will address vital topics on the agendas of world governments.