A Rwandan engineer has been appointed Vice President of the global engineering body, the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO). WFEO is an international body that brings together national engineering bodies from at least 100 countries and it represents over 30 million engineers worldwide. Founded in 1968 by a group of regional engineering organisations, under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organistions (UNESCO) in Paris. At the World Engineering Convention (WEC 2019) held at Melbourne Australia between Nov 18 and 24, 2019, jointly hosted by WFEO and Engineers Australia, a Rwandan Engineer, Eng. Papias Dedeki KAZAWADI was approved as new WFEO Vice President responsible for Policy Implementation on Anti-Corruption commonly referred to as “WFEO-CAC”. He will oversee the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals 16 and 17 and report to WFEO President. Previously, Eng. Kazawadi served as the President of Institution of Engineers Rwanda (IER) and the Chairman of the Governing Council of IER between 2017 and 2019. Reacting to the development, Eng. Gentil Kangaho, The President and the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Institution of Engineers Rwanda said that this was a vote of confidence in the country in general and the institution in particular. “Eng. Kazawadi has a wealth of experience that we believe he will take to the global body. We wish him the best in his new role,” said Eng. Gentil. On the margins of the convention, WFEO hosted the World Engineering Convention where Eng. Mustafa Shehu from Nigeria was elected to serve as WFEO Vice President on the Executive Board while Eng. Nathanael Matalanga from Kenya was elected as a National Member who will serve in the Executive Council of WFEO. Some of the resolutions at the global meeting was the commitment by WFEO and CAC to collaborate with other global stakeholders to combat corruption, which World Bank and European Commission estimates costs a whooping USD 1.5 trillion worldwide every year. It was agreed that corruption is one of the greatest obstacles to the development of safe and sustainable infrastructures where project funds are diverted to corrupt officials, funders, contractors, consultants, suppliers and agents. In the same meeting, Rwanda was represented by two engineers from IER and one representative from Rwanda Convention Bureau presented a bid to host a global engineering conference next year 2020. Consequently, Rwanda was approved by World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) to host a Global Engineering Conference together with WFEO Executive Council Meetings which will be held between 26th and 30th October 2020 at Kigali Convention Centre. The global engineering conference is expected to attract 2,000 delegates from across the world.
