Aimed at improving performance in their areas of jurisdiction, all District Mayors in the country met on 27th -28th July 2012 at La Palme Hotel, Musanze District.
The meeting was in the context of the regular fora organized by the Rwandese Association of Local Government Authorities (RALGA) to allow its members to share experience and to devise ways to improve their performance.
During the meeting, for local leaders were able to interact with Central Government officials and exchanging on how to improve their collaboration.
Participants discussed the decentralization policy and agreed there exisits challenges affecting implementation process.
Key challenge identified was that some civil servants from Ministries and public institutions do not yet have enough understanding of decentralization principles sometimes working outside its framework.
District Mayors recommended there should be continuous sensitization initiatives for such people and institutions.
As one of the guest speakers during the meeting, the Minister of Local Government, James Musoni, commended Mayors for “dedication and impressive professionalism” in terms of planning, monitoring, performance indicators, and mass mobilization.
He encouraged them to build team work and abide by a set of values that upgrade the quality of a good Mayor in general.
He gave them hints for effective team work such as mentoring, information sharing, continuous coaching, and empowerment for collective delivery.
Joseph Bahenda also presented. He is the Director General of ASSETIP, an association bringing together various actors in the field of implementation of public infrastructure projects in Rwanda.
Considering the benefits some Districts got from their collaboration with this association under the completed PIGU Project, Mayors strongly recommended the government to adopt a framework that would allow all Districts to work with ASSETIP to speed up the implementation of infrastructure projects in Local Governments.
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