Rwanda : Private sector urged to invest more in TVET

A student from the African Beauty academy located in Kimironko

demonstrates his hair styling techniques

Rwandan private sector has been called upon to invest more in TVET so as to have a potential private sector-led and Knowledge-based economy.

The call was made by the minister of public service and labour Anastase Murekezi while officially opening the 2012 TVET symposium under the theme ‘Involvement of the private sector in the promotion and implementation of TVET’.

Making the presentation on TVET reform in Rwanda, the director of partnership in WDA Didier Munezero encouraged all stakeholders to help change people’s mind-set so as to develop Rwanda’s economy through TVET.

He cited out key development priority sectors incorporated in TVET which include ICT, Hospitality and Tourism, Film industry, Mining, renewable energy, construction to mention but a few.

Donatien Mungwarareba an official from private Sector Federation (PSF) shared with participants the programs put in place to support upcoming and young entrepreneurs to grow up into large companies.

The ongoing symposium aims to raise awareness among private sector companies to utilize better the potential of TVET graduates and provide employment chances for female students too.

This point was also stressed by the Minister of Labour Anastase Murekezi who called on the private sector to always give TVET final students opportunity for industrial attachment.

The 2012 symposium has also raised the challenge on reinforcing the marketing campaign to create awareness on TVET.

Both WDA and PSF have pledged to put more efforts in making more publicity for TVET through various channels of communication.

http://ubumenyingiro.com/index.php/2012/11/rwanda-private-sector-urged-invest-tvet/

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Rwanda | Bugesera: Community health workers fight malnutrition

One of the health workers screen testing the child

Health workers in Bugesera district have joined the struggle against malnutrition.

According to Valerie Nyirakamana, health worker in Kigabiro cell in Shyara sector, community health workers visit every family in the village sensitizing them on health programs.

“To find out the malnourished children, we use screening tools in yellow, green and red colours,” she adds.

These tests enable community health workers to follow up on the daily life of the children with malnutrition risks, she highlights.

“When the screen tool shows yellow, the child is fair but green colour indicates the child has less weight compared to his or her age, while red means the child’s health is worse,” Nyirakamana reveals.

Depending on the status of the child, the parents are told to immediately take the child to the hospital where the doctor decides on the treatment duration accordingly.

http://ubuzimabwacu.com/2012/11/rwanda-bugesera-community-health-workers-fight-malnutrition/

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External Political Manipulations Stifle Africa’s Economic Growth- Kagame

President Paul Kagame

President Paul Kagame has said that there is ample evidence that external political manipulations stifle economic growth in Africa.

He said this while officiating at the 7^thAfrican Economic Conference on Tuesday. The conference is taking place in Kigali.

According to President Kagame, African economies operate in both national and international political contexts which have a huge impact on choices countries make and the outcomes thereof.

He elaborated that it is also clear that in Rwanda and other developing countries, development is not driven by local politics alone.

“Although the agenda is Rwanda-driven and led, the outcomes are often the result of partnership with development partners. This means that development outcomes are partly dependent on external factors that are sometimes unpredictable and not rational or logical, and therefore we are not in full control.

In fact, there is ample evidence that external political manipulations can stifle, and do stifle economic growth. I don’t want to believe that this is what is intended.”

He pointed out that if development in African nations depended on the advice of economists alone, the countries would have made tremendous progress:

“In Rwanda, we understand that politics and economics go hand in hand and we have made a conscious and deliberate choice of inclusive development based on our political reality. By and large, they have produced positive results.

Growth has been consistent and poverty levels considerably reduced like in the last five years by 12 percent-from 56.9% to 44% in five years.”

In his speech, Dr. Donald Kaberuka, the African Development Bank President said that it is expected that the conference will come up with additional strategies for long term solutions for the world economic crisis, as the situation has led to each country looking at fixing their immediate problems.

He advised that African nations should start looking for internal solutions to finance their own development as well as learning from what has gone wrong globally in designing their own strategies.

Helen Clark, the UNDP administrator said that in spite of the uncertain time in which we live in today, with the recent past marked by crisis after crisis, the conference is gathering with the conviction that the people of Africa would rise to the challenge.

Clark warned that deliberate policy measures and targets and investment are need to not only make growth fast but also inclusive and sustainable because the ‘rising tide is capable of rocking every boat in the harbour.

The African Economic Conference (AEC), which is also being attended by former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo and former Prime Minister of Sao Tome and Principe, Joaquim Rafael Branco is the most comprehensive event held each year on Africa’s economy and development.

It discusses macroeconomic prospects, as well as trade and finance and development policy in a global context.

It provides a platform for experts on Africa, both within and outside the continent, to reflect and dialogue on new directions for growth policy on the continent in order to determine the best approaches to attain the Millennium Development Goals, achieve the objectives of NEPAD and accelerate Africa’s sustainable development.

http://newsofrwanda.com/irembo/14646/external-political-manipulations-stifle-africas-economic-growth-kagame/

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Don’t Tie Aid For Rwanda To RDC Situation – Says Brookings Institution

Suspending Aid To A Reforming Country Like Rwanda Isn’t The Solution

International Community that frequently puts allegations that Rwanda has been part of DRC problems has this time lost its stance as the country has support of other African leaders and Various Intellectuals in the continent who see the unfairness in the whole issue saying Rwanda seems to be the victim other than the player.

While economic issues such as Foreign Direct Investment and other complex monetary policies dominated discussions at the 7^th annual African Economic Conference 2012, which comes to a close today (Friday) here in Kigali, a prominent Kenyan scholar has chosen to shine the spotlight elsewhere.

Writing for the renowned Brookings Institution think-tank, Dr Mwangi S. Kimenyi touched on a topic that few are willing to discuss openly but nonetheless remains pertinent; ‘transparency and interference in donor aid’.

Writing in a first-person account of how President Paul Kagame expressed his frustration with the international donor community in his keynote address to officially launch AEC 2012, Dr. Mwangi – who attended the conference – shared his views on how to handle the volatile situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

According to Dr. Mwangi, suspending aid to Rwanda is hardly the solution to the DRC crisis.

“My view is that the DRC’s problems require serious focus by the African Union and the international community. Suspending aid to a reforming country like Rwanda is ill-advised,” says Dr. Mwangi.

Rwanda remains embroiled in a saga with Western donors and rights organizations over her alleged involvement in a rebel uprising in the mineral-rich Eastern region of the DRC.

An initial United Nations (UN) report prepared by a highly questionable UN Group of Experts accusing Rwanda of fomenting political instability in the DRC had caused a number of donor countries to suspend aid, such as the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Most of the donor aid that was suspended has since been re-instated however, as the government fought back by displaying irrefutable proof of its non-involvement in the creation and arming of the M23 rebel group as was alleged.

A second UN GoE report, which was leaked several weeks ago, however, alleged that the mutinous M23 rebels were under the command of the Rwanda government.

There was no significant backlash from that report as the credibility of the Group of Experts remains in doubt, and Rwanda’s winning a seat on the UN’s Security Council overshadowed it.

Mwangi’s position on the matter is not a first, as British Prime Minister David Cameron recently took Rwanda’s side in the ongoing finger- pointing saga, saying investing in Rwanda – despite the allegations – remains “the right thing to do” given Rwanda’s rise from the ashes of despair caused by the 1994 genocide against Tutsis, to become a rare African success story.

Dr. Mwangi also expounded on the issue of just how effective donor aid was to the recipient government, saying that in most instances only a small fraction of the donor aid actually reaches the people it is meant to help, since the donor country deducts expenses such as exorbitant salaries and benefits of expatriate workers – which means that only about 10% of the aid actually makes it to the recipient government.

http://newsofrwanda.com/breaking/14719/dont-tie-aid-rwanda-rdc-situation-brookings-institution/

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Rwanda : MONUSCO Officers “Tortured To Death” Peacekeeper Over Diamond

Senegalese troops serving on the UN mission in DRC (Photo : MONUSCO)

The family of a Senegalese peacekeeper who mysteriously died in DR Congo earlier this month is demanding an inquiry amid allegations the blue helmet may have been killed by his greedy superiors. The family wants their government to put the UN to task.

Senegalese gerndarme Sadia Faty was reported dead on October 08 from what was described at the time by MONUSCO as drowning. But detail provided by his family to Senegalese media point to a murder orchestrated from the highest levels with MONUSCO. The murder was then followed up by a cover-up, say family members, because even the actual date of death was October 06.

In the days before his death, the officer made several distress phones calls to his father Assane Faty and best friend Ousmane Massaly in which he reported that his superiors could be plotting against him. Some Senegalese troops are based in Kananga, central DRC, and that is where this officer died.

The father told media on Saturday that his son had on several occasion blocked colleagues in his unit from grabbing diamond from villagers. Senior commanders in his unit allegedly planted diamonds in his cloths to implicate him out of fear he could go public.

When he reported the matter to MONUSCO superiors, the deceased officer was instead put into custody, according to his family. He made some of the calls from the detention centre and is said to have been traumatised. In the phone calls he made to his family, Sadia Faty named three MONUSCO officers but only gave their initials as “A T, I F and B D”.

The parents reported that an autopsy made in Rwanda on the corpse did not reveal any complication with the lungs to suggest he drowned. Instead, the autopsy showed he had suffered multi injuries to his body which could point to the possibility the officer was tortured to death.

The father said: “Looking at the body, one realizes that the young man was beaten on the right temple, back, shoulder and lower limbs. How can we then speak of drowning? Why was his body not found in the hours that followed, and the document also reveals that the body was thrown into water when the deceased had stopped breathing.”

The family says after Sadia Faty had been murdered, the culprits may have faked his death by dumping the body in water to eventually claim he had drowned.

The family has petitioned the Senegalese President Macky Sall to intervene in the case.

Allegations of MONUSCO troops illegally taking advantage of Congo’s mineral wealth are said to be common – but rarely come out into the public domain. Several MONUSCO vehicles have been impounded transporting minerals. The UN body’s planes are also alleged to be a major transport mechanism for illegal minerals out of DRC.

http://newsofrwanda.com/irembo/14633/rwanda-monusco-officers-tortured-death-peacekeeper-diamond/

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Rwanda | Kabilizi: lack of electricity still a complex problem

Residents of Kabilizi cell in Gacaca sector in Musanze District are worried for spending a long time with no electricity when the Mukungwa power plant that distributes electricity in many parts of the country is built in their cell.

 These local residents decided to take their problem to their leaders on the Northern Province of Rwanda headquarters on the Wednesday the 30^th.Oct.2012 and asked for advocacy that will take them out of the darkness and poverty due to lack of electricity.

This was also said by Emmanuel Nteziryayo the executive secretary of Gacaca sector who said that though Mukungwa plant is built in his sector, people neighboring it have no electricity.

“Three cells in this sector have no electricity including Kabilizi and Gasakuza cells where Mukungwa power plant is located.” The executive secretary explained.

The governor of the Northern Province of Rwanda Aime Bosenibamwe said that it is not fair for people to protect Mukungwa power plant which supplies electricity to other parts of the country yet live with no power and in loneliness.

He promised the local people that he is going to discuss the issue with concerned parties to make sure people get out of darkness and loneliness.

He however asked people to live well, near the roads and to settle in established settlement villages for them to access infrastructure especially electricity.

Gacaca sector administration say that they have achieved 76% of the program of settling people in established villages; they are also set to achieve 100 percent for people to have complete security and access infrastructure.

http://rwandaenergy.com/2012/11/rwanda-kabilizi-lack-of-electricity-still-a-complex-problem/

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Rwanda : Nyungwe forest wins two global awards

Nziza Project, located in Rwanda’s Nyungwe forest has been named winner of the British Guild of Travel Writers’ top Globe Award (BGTW), at the Guild’s prestigious annual awards dinner in London’s Savoy Hotel on the night of November 04. 

Sited in south-west, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) project was praised for harmonising tourism, wildlife, environmental and agrarian development in one of Africa’s last surviving patches of primeval pre-Ice Age rainforests. The project was described as one of the world’s richest and most diverse eco-systems and home to 25 percent of all of Africa’s primates. 

In presenting the award, Guild Chair Roger Bray said: “Nyungwe Nziza is a model tourism project for developing countries whose benefits will long outlast this or subsequent governments.” 

The Nyungwe project also came first in the awards’ Wider World category where the two runners up were central Georgia’s Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, nominated by Peter Lynch, and San Antonio, Texas’s Morgan’s Wonderland, nominated by Mary Moore Mason. 

The former project, sited in the largest true wilderness area in continental Europe, has opened up accommodation, bridges and foot, bike and horseback trails to the public in the last few years, and the latter project is the world’s first theme park designed specifically for physically and mentally disabled people. 

Other major awards –all given to tourism projects completed in the past three years – went to Greenwich’s Cutty Sark Restoration and to France’s Loire à Vélo cycle trail.

 The BGTW also presented travel writing and photography awards, selected by an outside jury, to its own members during the evening, which was attended by some 300 top travel industry and media representatives. It was sponsored by the city of Las Vegas, which presented an array of glittering entertainment. 

The runners up were Glasgow’s Riverside Transport Museum, nominated by David Prest, and Edinburgh’s Extended and Improved Museum of Scotland., nominated by Paul Wade. The former is an outstanding collection of vintage cars, ships and boats set in a bold Zaheer Habib-designed building and the latter, the UK’s most visited attraction outside London, has integrated two adjacent museums into one, adding 16 new galleries and displaying 8,000 objects for the first time. 

The third category – for the best new European tourism attraction – was nominated by Gillian Thornton and honoured the completion of the safe, 800km Loire à Vélo cycle trail from Nevers to the Atlantic after 10 years of work by two French regions and six départements. 

The runners up were France’s totally revamped Toulouse Lautrec Museum, set in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Albi, and the Museum aan de Strom (Museum of the River) in Antwerp, Belgium. Nominated by Kathy Arnold, the first attraction contains the world’s largest collection – some 1,000 paintings – by world-renowned artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The second attraction, nominated by Stuart Forster and housing some 450,000 historical artefacts and works of art, has helped regenerate what had been the abandoned docklands north of central Antwerp.

http://sightsofrwanda.com/2012/11/rwanda-nyungwe-forest-wins-global-awards/

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