EDITORIAL: Homegrown solutions key to current development

One major lesson Rwandans have learnt over the last two decades is that the country cannot dwell on what others think of it. There have been many orchestrated obstacles thrown its way and campaigns to discredit its leadership have at times been taken to hysterical heights, but it has trudged on. Its achievements today are testimony that distractions, whether from hostile media or genocide apologists, had very little effects on its development agenda. Rwanda’s scorecard on the world stage, be it on the Millennium Development Goals, conducive business climate or a surge in direct foreign investment was not a result of mother luck, but well thought out policies that put its people’s welfare top of the agenda. An interesting chapter on its journey to recovery is that its policies hinged on homegrown solutions, a subject that should be on every development economist’s roster. The One-cow-per-family programme, Umuganda (communal work) and Ubudehe (mutual support) have helped lift over a million people out of poverty in five years. But many of the solutions, like the traditional Gacaca courts that were based on to deal with the huge case load of Genocide trials, did not find the sailing smooth at the beginning. Many legal “experts” were skeptical and argued it did not meet the minimum requirements for a fair trial, but failed to come up with an alternative to deal with over a million Genocide cases, mete out justice and reunite communities. Today, the results are there for all to see. Had the country succumbed to the pressure of the so-called experts in dealing with the Genocide, it would have become lost in the maze of legal intricacies, but it stood firm as it traced its own route because it knew what was best for its people, and not what others thought.

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EDITORIAL: Homegrown solutions key to current development