Rwanda has begun engaging stakeholders on the implementation of a government roadmap responding to United Nations recommendations on economic, social and cultural rights, with disability organisations calling for stronger coordination to turn the commitments into action.
The roadmap was at the centre of a dissemination workshop held in Kigali on Thursday, August 6, bringing together government institutions, organisations of persons with disabilities, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.
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The workshop, organised by the Rwanda Union of Little People (RULP), focused on six recommendations concerning persons with disabilities contained in a broader set of 56 recommendations issued to Rwanda by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR).
Rwanda was reviewed by the committee in February 2025, after which the government, in consultation with different stakeholders, developed a roadmap outlining actions and targets for implementing the recommendations.
William Ndengeyinka, a state attorney in the Ministry of Justice’s Department of International Justice and Initial Cooperation, said the roadmap is intended to harmonise and coordinate implementation across institutions.
"It contains the recommendations, the actions to implement these recommendations, and the targets that we’ve set to make sure that as we’re conducting monitoring, we know exactly what we are looking at,” he said.
"We now have about four and a half years before we go to the next review,” Ndengeyinka said, urging institutions and other stakeholders to keep the roadmap under close follow-up.
What the roadmap entails
The six recommendations discussed at Thursday’s workshop relate specifically to the rights of persons with disabilities.
They cover areas including decent work, social protection, education, culture and sports, and access to scientific progress and information and communication technologies.
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The recommendations call for stronger measures to improve employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, including through targeted measures and better data on their employment situation.
They also call for strengthened social protection, including measures that consider additional costs associated with disability.
In education, the recommendations seek measures to improve access for children with disabilities and reduce dropout rates, while other commitments seek to improve access to cultural and sporting activities.
The roadmap also addresses access to scientific progress and its applications, including ICT with emphasis on affordable internet access and digital literacy for persons with disabilities.
Ndengeyinka said the roadmap is not intended to be implemented by one institution alone.
"We would particularly ask that as institutions are planning in their annual plans, they will be looking at these recommendations and see what activities could be implemented,” he said.
He said institutions can prioritise different actions over the implementation period rather than attempting to implement all recommendations at once.
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The government has about four and a half years before the next review, with March 2030 set as the next reporting deadline.
Why the workshop was organised
The Rwanda Union of Little People said the workshop was organised after it found that information about the roadmap and recommendations had reached only a limited number of stakeholders.
Honorine Tuyishimire, its executive director, said the organisation wanted to ensure that institutions and organisations representing persons with disabilities understood both the commitments and their role in implementing the recommendations.
"We wanted to give them a summary of the key issues so that everyone is aware that these recommendations exist and understands what their role is in implementing them,” she said.
She noted that collaboration between institutions would be critical to ensuring that the commitments do not remain on paper.
"Our goal is to move from commitment to action and ensure that the gaps identified are actually being addressed,” Tuyishimire said.
RULP has also launched a project aimed at helping translate the commitments into action. According to Tuyishimire, the organisation will continue visiting institutions and discussing the recommendations with them to establish what changes they intend to make and how they will implement them.
"This project is not based on this workshop alone. The workshop is just one component of the broader project,” she said.
The activities are expected to continue through December.
LODA highlights economic inclusion
The workshop also provided an opportunity for government institutions to highlight measures already being taken in areas covered by the recommendations.
The Local Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA) said it had introduced an initiative to provide grants to persons with disabilities.
The initiative was piloted in five districts, including Bugesera, Rwamagana and three districts of Kigali City, reaching more than 1,300 people.
LODA now plans to roll it out nationwide, targeting about 23,000 persons with disabilities. The agency has allocated Rwf2.7 billion for the initiative this year.
The programme is expected to contribute to economic inclusion, one of the key areas addressed in the UN recommendations.