Accountability and high performance in Rwanda
HIGH-PERFORMING GOVERNMENT is critical to Rwanda’s high growth – another page that President Kagame took from Singapore’s playbook. An active government accountability framework supports ‘leadership as service’ to 11.9 million Rwandans and deliver on solutions to address rampant poverty.
As part of efforts to reconstruct Rwanda and nurture a shared national identity after the slaughter of one million Rwandans and a protracted civil war, the government drew on positive aspects of Rwandan traditional practices to make its development programmes more effectively meet the country’s needs. ‘Imihigo’ is one such practice.
Imihigo means ‘to vow to deliver’ and describes the pre-colonial cultural practice in Rwanda, where an individual sets goals to be achieved within a specific period of time. The person must complete these objectives by following guiding principles and be determined to overcome any possible challenges that arise.
In 2006, President Kagame assigned a small team to adapt the Imihigo concept to modern governance, using social and traditional pressure to push elected representatives and political appointees to greater levels of achievement.
HOW DOES IMIHIGO WORK?
Each year, Imihigo (performance contracts) are publicly signed between the president of Rwanda and local government institutions and line ministries. These bind respective institutions to targets they set for themselves.
As the ceremonies are aired on TV and radio, and the Imihigo documents are made public online and in the local press, citizens know exactly what their leaders have committed to. These commitments cover governance, economic and social indicators all the way down to the local level – an accountability framework at a level directly relevant to citizens.
Senior policymakers, community associations and citizens closely follow the performance of government institutions, which are hotly debated at biannual evaluation meetings, chaired by the president.
NO SACRED COWS
It’s not a perfect system in Rwanda and political loyalties have an impact. However, it’s important to note that many political leaders, ministers and mayors (who are appointed), were fired for belowaverage performance based on agreed targets.
In some cases, political leaders were jailed, due to corruption and irregularities in procedures as part of the new standards of accountability and increased scrutiny.
Rwanda recognises that a high-performing country needs high-performing companies and a high-performing government. What say you, Jamaica?
Imani Duncan-Price is chief of staff for the leader of the Opposition, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Eisenhower Fellow, and former senator. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and fullticipation@gmail.com.