Making development a team game in Rwanda
New aid policy comes with opportunities and challenges alike
7 March 2007
 Ensuring
that aid is effective is hugely important for Rwanda. After all, about one-half of the
Government's budget is financed by Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the
international community.
For Rwanda’s Ministry of Finance (MoF), improving the effectiveness of aid
means getting a number of different people and organisations to play ball. Line ministries, local governments,
international donors, global funds and civil society all need to work together.
This isn't always straightforward. The Ministry sometimes has to be the coach,
at other times the
referee, but, at all times, the dedicated player. And, though development should
always be a team game, the reality can be very
different – no single goal post, often inconsistent rules, and incentives stacked
for individual effort rather than good teamwork.
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Strengthening up
Rwanda is now strengthening four key processes to make its aid more
effective:
- Setting the rules of the game through a newly formulated aid policy,
with clear responsibilities for different parts of government;
- Prioritising its development objectives through its second Poverty
Reduction Strategy (PRS) likely to be ready by mid-2007;
- Preparing annual ‘league tables’ through review of progress against
Paris Principles (
 baseline survey );
- Building further support for this agenda through regular
interactions – among others an annual Coordination Group (CG), regular meetings on central
and sector policies, and a bi-annual budget review process.
Many donors believe that Rwanda is doing well on harmonisation and alignment,
and the new aid policy now provides a framework for bolstering the aid
architecture in the country, and enhancing country ownership of development
assistance. The policy states that unearmarked budget support is Rwanda’s most
preferred instrument (currently at 40% of all ODA), that it will not accept aid
where the ‘costs of accepting it are too high’, and that all aid
should be
‘on-plan’ and ‘on-budget’.
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Changes ahead
According to Gianluca Rampolla, Head of the MoF's Aid Coordination Unit, "a key
challenge during implementation will be for both government and development
partners to comply with the provisions". But, he explains, "some of the
building blocks are in place, and there is commitment in the Government of
Rwanda to follow through."
A more
hard-nosed assessment can be that the aid policy is still very permissive, but
there is no reason for it to be so – as half of the ODA is provided by Rwanda’s
four largest donors (the World Bank, the European Community, the UK and the US). But Rwanda would have succeeded
if progress were not determined by the pace of the slowest player.
DFID shows up quite well in the baseline survey on aid effectiveness. But we
do see a continuing role for ourselves. Apart from working to address some of the problematic procedures in capitals and boards, we
will be constantly reminding all stakeholders that, following the new policy, it
will not be business as usual. And where required, we will act like a
‘pioneer’ – taking the initial steps to get donors working
together, as a true team.
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Key facts
- According to the Government of Rwanda's (GoR) figures, the UK is the
largest bilateral donor to Rwanda, with its aid totalling £380 million
over the past 10 years.
- In 2006, the UK and Rwandan Governments signed a 10-year Memorandum
of Understanding. As part of this, the UK Government will provide at
least £46 million each year, of which two-thirds will be provided as
direct support to the GoR's budget.
- On several occasions, the GoR has praised DFID's support for
advocating aid harmonisation among different donors in Rwanda.
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Related links
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