ADVANCING THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN THROUGH IMPROVED AND INNOVATIVE CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS IN RWANDA

Authors: Francisca MUJAWASE and Didas KAYITARE

The government of Rwanda (GoR) through the National institute of statistics (NISR) has worked towards improving its national statistical systems by enhancing the capacity of local government institutions to establish functional systems that collects timely and quality data which feeds the national statistical system. Harmonization and linkages plus innovations of new techniques and approaches have been adapted to build reliable vital registration systems. Rwanda’s vision defined in the Civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) strategic plan is to build a modern time, complete and integrated CRVS systems to ensure legal identity for all, good governance and evidence-based decision making for sustainable development. The country aims to achieve the three outcomes of the CRVS strategy that is achieving legal identity and rights for all, good governance and accountability and reliable statistics by 2022.

Rwanda like many African countries was defined by paper based systems for CRVS for many years. In order for the GoR to change the approach, it designed project scale programme with a quick-fix, where a holistic and integration of 27 national systems were merged to have a central data point for easy sharing of information and dissemination. The new approaches facilitated the process of providing legal identification with most easily and quickest means through decentralization of the services incorporating new developments of E-governance and application of ICT. This new trend created an opportunity to enhance service delivery at the benefit of the ordinary citizen and ensure increased efficient utilization of public resources.

Integration of CVRS systems across sectors has been done and data sharing across ministries has been launched. Examples of effective operation systems include harmonization of the health information systems and the local administrative databases at sector level. The merging of these two systems has significantly impacted on the cost and time taken to secure documents such as birth, death and marriage certificates. Ten years ago, it could take someone to secure a birth certificate in a weeks’ time. Today, any citizen can apply or send a request through Irembo online services and collect the birth certificate in less than 24 hours. Another challenge the system has addressed is that an ordinary citizen is able to collect their documents from anywhere in the country which was not the case before. Initially, one had to collect their birth certificate from the hospital they were born and could only collect a marriage certificate from the sector where the civil marriage took place.

The vital events recorded in Rwanda are birth, death and cause of death, marriage and divorce cases and adoptions. Over the last decade, the government of Rwanda has worked on setting standard systems of civil registration and vital statistics to ensure improved coverage and completeness of all vital events to fulfill the rights to legal identification as stipulated in the national constitution of the Republic of Rwanda. The existing governance and legal frameworks on civil registration defines the country’s ownership and political will towards enhancing access to legal identification to facilitate people who need population registration related services such as social protection, education, health and exercise democratic rights to election for both male and females, inheritance and ownership of property, free movement and access to financial services among others. CRVS in Rwanda has also empowered women and girls in the sense that they have full rights to Legal identity and benefit from all public services provided by the access to property and inheritance protects them from gender based violence and early marriages. From the point of Rwandan context, women are the ones who collect birth certificates; they are the ones in most cases who register children to receive health insurance and first time schooling. Women also mostly care for the sick in their families and the community. The system therefore supports their ease to carry out their family and societal responsibilities. 

Improving civil registration and strengthening production and use of vital statistics has been presented as crucial for achieving inclusive in development but also an important reference for national planning and evidence based policy decision making. CRVS also support the efforts towards achieving the national development agenda the national strategy for transformation, the vision 2030, the sustainable development goals and the Africa Union agenda for 2063.

Despite all these opportunities and the call to compulsory CRVS, Rwanda hasn’t yet achieved universal coverage. The current state of civil registration system in Rwanda shows that the country hasn’t fully subscribed to web-based CRVS systems. There remains an unconventional data collection method at the sector level where the registrar still records vital events in books. In 2007, the introduction of the national population registry facilitated issuance of national identity card to all Rwandan citizens. The health information systems estimates 90% of birth in Rwanda take place in a health facility but only 53% of all births are registered each year. Records on death statistics shows that only 40% of the deaths occur in hospitals. All civil marriage engagements take place at the sector level witnessed by the executive secretary and the civil registrar.

The 2016 report on the status of civil registration and vital statistics in Africa shows that only four countries (Egypt, Seychelles, Mauritius and South Africa) have maintained compulsory and universal registration systems that match international standards. In the same report, Rwanda scores 50-64% under the indicator on existing legal framework on CRVS, 35-49% on infrastructure and resources for CRVS, the same score 35-49% was recorded for planning, monitoring and coordination of CRVS. On the civil registration processes, Rwanda scores 50-64%, while vital statistics quality checks and dissemination, Rwanda scores 35-49% below average and on the use if vital registration documents verses data similarly scores <35%. Data suggests that Rwanda’s overall score on the coverage and complete rates are far below the 90% UN recommended standards.

Denied, delayed or complex civil registration is a burden to the ordinary citizen and denial for human rights mostly for children. In addressing the gaps, Rwanda remains visionary and committed towards modernizing civil registration and vital events with the overall goal of enhancing services to its citizens at the same time fulfilling rights of both men and women as obliged by the national constitution of the Republic of Rwanda. CRVS has been integrated in the district performance contracts which is a strategic fit for achieving increased coverage. Districts have a clear mandate to assist the government in recording and reporting on vital events on a timely basis and raising awareness among the population on the importance of civil registration. 

VISION2020 UMURENGE PROGRAMME (VUP) A TOOL TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY AMONG POOR FEMALE HEADED HOUSEHOLDS IN RWANDA

Francisca MUJAWASE and Didas KAYITARE

Rwanda’s social protection floor is established mainly on non-contributory schemes where the state is responsible for financing programmes that benefit poor and vulnerable households. In Rwanda social protection programmes and other developmental approaches target households as a unit entity. Social security schemes exist for a small elite population that directly contribute for their future income security. Only 10% of the population in Rwanda is covered by social insurance scheme. The biggest share of the contributors is public servants followed by a small portion of the private/individual contributors. In 2018, in an effort to extend social security to the informal economy, the government of Rwanda introduced and piloted a new social security scheme that responds to the needs of the informal sector. The long term saving scheme known as “Ejo Heza” intends to guarantee a smooth income flow for the poor Rwandan population in their old age and improving the quality of life during retirement.

Poverty levels and levels of vulnerability in Rwanda vary by region, age, gender and education background. Data shows that young people under 21 years of age and adults beyond 60 years are prone to poverty than any other population group. Gender differences in poverty levels in Rwanda are significant where by female headed households experience poverty more than male headed households. Factors that contribute to this situation include women’s engagement in unpaid care and domestic work, low levels of education which puts women at risk of being disadvantaged in the labor market, sustained effects of Gender based violence, and limited access to and use of productive resources etc. These factors and many others put women at a risk of experiencing poverty compared to their counterparts. Despite the fact that poverty levels in Rwanda tremendously declined in the last decade, a significant segment of the population remains in poverty where majority are women. However, a positive trend in poverty reduction among female headed households was recorded as significant with 4.4 percentage points within a period of four years attributed from a reduction in poverty from 43.9 percent in 2013/14 to 39.5 percent in 2016/17. Similarly, a decline in extreme poverty among female headed households was recorded from 19.5 percent in 2013/14 to 17.8 percent in 2016/17. On the other hand numbers of female headed households categorized under moderate poor declined from 24.4 percent to 21.7 percent.  

VUP is the vast non-contributory social protection programme launched in 2008 to respond to worrying poverty trends reported in the country at the time. The programme is a means tested and financed through domestic taxation. VUP has three components that target different categories of poor household’s depending on their levels of vulnerability. Component (1) is Direct Support (DS) programme eligible for poor elderly household heads with no capacity to work. Component (2) is a public works programme. This is a short-term programme for identified poor households in Ubudehe category 1 and 2 eligible to the household whose household head has the capacity to work. Component (3) is financial services. The programme provides poor households in Ubudehe category (1, 2 and 3) low interest loans to invest in income generating activities.

Existing data shows that there are more female beneficiaries of VUP than males. The number of beneficiaries increased over the years under component 1 and 2 except for financial services which slightly reported a decline on enrollments. Under VUP direct support, female beneficiaries accounted for 60.4 percent in 2013/14. The programme reported an increase in the number of beneficiaries to 64.4 percent in 2016/17. Under public works programme, female beneficiaries accounted for 54.7 percent of VUP beneficiaries in 2013/14 while the numbers increased slightly to 56.4 percent in 2016/17. However, data shows a slight decreased in the proportion of female participants of VUP financial services from 55.9 percent in 2013/14 to 51.2 percent.

Among other demographic variations in VUP beneficiaries, 65.9 percent of recipients of VUP were female headed households in 2013/14. The number slightly increased to 67.8 percent in 2016/17. However, disparities in enrollment under public works remain unpleasant. The percentage of female household head participating in VUP public works was reported as low as 24.7 percent in 2013/14. In 2016/17 however, the number of female headed households participating in VUP public works almost doubled to 45.4 percent as a result of the newly adopted gender inclusion guidelines on VUP programme. Further, data shows gender disparities in VUP financial services. Only 16.6 percent of participants of VUP financial services were females. The numbers were reported as constant in the 2016/17.

In Rwanda, VUP has proved to have positive impact on household material well-being in the short term. According to Integrated Households Conditions Survey 2017 (EICV5), VUP beneficiaries reported that cash transfer enables them to acquire basic household needs such as food, caters for household affiliation to health insurance and financing education for their children. Social protection programmes also advance women’s empowerment in managing resources directly given to them. The programme has also contributed significantly to household asset accumulation such as livestock specifically among VUP direct support beneficiaries. Studies shows that provision of basic social assistance transfer to poor households with young children and a modest pension to the elderly population could reduce poverty incidence by 40%, and the programme was reported as a major contributor towards achievement of the first round of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The EICV5 VUP report shows the breakdown changes in the VUP status on household conditions and poverty transition. 38.9 percent of VUP participants enrolled on (DS) VUP in 2014 were poor. By 2017, only 20.6 percent of (DS) beneficiaries maintained their poverty status after enrolling on the programme for fours years. The results shows that 18.3 percent of (DS) beneficiaries dropped out of poverty within the period of four years. The reported number of beneficiaries who graduated out of poverty is not dis-aggregated by gender but the important aspect in the equation is that 64.4 percent of beneficiaries under VUP direct support programmes are females which mean that female beneficiaries of VUP direct support benefited significantly from the programme. Further analysis reveals change in household consumption expenditure among (DS) beneficiaries. In 2014, 46.5 percent of beneficiaries recorded an increase in welfare in 2014. The number had increased to 55.9 percent by 2017 for all those beneficiaries who enrolled on the programme until 2017.

Among other livelihood indicators reported include acquisition of basic economic necessities such as asset accumulation. 20.8 percent of beneficiaries of VUP direct support owned a mobile phone, 30.8 percent owned a radio, 0.7 percent owned a TV set, while 79.2 percent engaged in poultry farming and livestock keeping and more than 90 percent owned a saving account. Through the multi-sector integrated programmes, the EICV 5 reported that 36.6 percent of female headed households received additional public income support excluding (VUP).  Given the description of (DS) beneficiaries old and unable to work, only 0.8 percent engaged in productive work while 0.1 percent engaged in off-farm jobs. Another appealing statistics is that 57 percent of (DS) supported households maintained the number of their household size between 2014 and 2017 which reduces the burden of spending on family. In the previous section we saw that 18.3 percent of DS beneficiaries dropped out of poverty. The EICV5 VUP report present reasons that justify dropout of beneficiaries from the VUP programme. 43.2 percent of VUP beneficiaries reported to have moved to another  (Upper level of Ubudehe group) as the leading cause. Meaning that the beneficiaries of the programme are no longer poor or they graduated out of poverty.

VUP program presents sound evidence not only for smoothing household income during economic shocks but also presents future investments that tackles inter-generational poverty and inequalities. However, the programme has several challenges among which sustaining poor households from falling back into poverty remains a complex puzzle. In addition, immediate results achieved and reported could be weighed as short term benefits and not sustained solutions to eradicate poverty. However the short term results achieved are so important to the extreme poor households because they gain minimum level of resources to meet their basic needs. In the long run however livelihood support programmes such as education and health may positively contribute to the graduation of poor households from poverty.  The good news is that eradicating poverty in Rwanda is a government priority set out in the current national strategy for transformation and the long term Vision2020 development programme. A minimum package programme under VUP has also been piloted to test a defined package of assistance which is need to end poverty among the extreme poor households.

PROJECTED IMPACT OF THE INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (IDP) MODEL VILLAGES ON POVERTY REDUCTION IN RWANDA

Francisca Mujawase and Didas Kayitare

The government of Rwanda is committed towards achieving economic growth acceleration and rapid poverty reduction and reduced inequalities as overarching long term goals formulated in the long term strategy vision2020 and the medium term development goals the national strategy for transformation (NST1). National policies have been formulated and enforced to achieve development targets that reach permanent solutions to improve the lives of Rwandans. Despite remarkable success on high growth rate and rapid poverty reduction, the country still faces several challenges and one of it is settlement issues among both urban and rural population.The GoR in its strategic plan UHSHD under rural settlement actions aims at ensuring 70% of rural population settled in integrated viable settlements. The target will be achieved through re-allocation of  households in scattered settlements and those living in high risk zones to new IDP model villages.

Situation Analysis

According to EICV5 the proportion of the population that is multidimensional poor and deprived in 2/5 (40%) of weighted indicators declined since 2010/11. However, we observe that Rwanda still face development challenges on important dimensions categorized under 14 indicators. Under housing dimension, the reported indicator with the highest MPI is cooking fuel. It was revealed that 29% of households in Rwandan use non-improved cooking fuel. This indicator is followed by 27.9% of households deprived of floor materials. It is observed that only 8% of people in Rwanda lack access to electricity which shows GoR's efforts to provide electricity in both rural and urban areas. On health and hygiene matters, 17% of the population lack access to health insurance while only 7% take long distances to the nearest health facility. 22% of the population doesn’t have access clean drinking water while 9% lack sanitation facilities. School attendance is one of the lowest deprivations were only 6% of the population doesn’t attend school however 20.5% of the population attend only few years of schooling (primary).  Further, data shows that 14.8% of the population lack assets for communication while 12.5% work only in subsistence agriculture. Poverty disparities between rural and urban are significant and vary by province, the southern province of Rwanda being affected more. However, the highest drop in poverty is recognized in rural areas where by poverty decline by 17 points from 49.2% in 2013/14 to 32.1% in 2016/17. The MPI was found to be 10 times among the poorest than the rich population in Rwanda. Data also shows that MPI increases by wealth Ubudehe categories. It is important to note that MPI declined by 10% points among the poor population from 0.071 in 2010/11 to 0.299 in 2016/17.  However, data reported on MPI in Rwanda is isn't dis-aggregated by gender limiting analysis on the disparities and vulnerabilities among households headed by female or those headed by females. 

Solutions

The above figures reflects the urgent need to invest in programmes that impacts and transforms the lives of the population especially the most deprived. IDP is the most appropriate solution to the poorest population in rural Rwanda. In 2009, the GoR introduced the (IDPs) as a lasting settlement solution for people in rural areas by ensuring transformation of their daily lives in all aspects. Shelter is a basic need among the rural population given the fact that close to 30% of the population in Rwanda lack floor materials. IDPs provides integrated services in the same village ranging from Education developments and ICT, Health and Hygiene, Infrastructure and Resource management. Other social and economic aspects enjoyed are nearest sector and cell administration offices, marketplaces, smart schools and a model pre-primary within the village. Transport services and financial services are among other services introduced on the IDP model village.  This type of model presents multiple benefits because success in one sector impacts on the success of the other sectors as well.

Key Results

IDPs led to increased access to public services including education services from pre-primary to secondary education, health services including antenatal care, family health and planning, hygiene education, nutrition, access to clean water and sanitation facilities. The programme enhanced land consolidation and efficient utilization of land and enhanced farming practices and access to improved seeds. The IDPs promotes unionization in cooperatives which facilitates easy access to financial services and bargaining power on their produce including buying farm equipments. In addition, the programme contributes to increased social cohesion for households living together have common interest and this impacts on the journey of unity and reconciliation among Rwandans. IDPS presents direct impact on environment protection with the introduction on modern ways of farming. The art of the model village itself is environmentally friendly. It promotes green village and water harvesting, green houses and use of renewable energy. Direct jobs are created on construction sites of model villages while indirect jobs on potential new established businesses in the area are projected to as income generating activities for mostly the youth and women. Increase in the number of hours spent by women on productive and payable jobs is projected since model villages use improved cooking methods. Schools are also closer to community this gives women opportunities to engage in other productive and payable jobs that may impact on livelihoods on the family. With easy to access public services, the share of burden on household unpaid care work is reduced on women.

Long terms Impact

The GoR consider IDPs as a significant contributor towards achieving poverty reduction among the poorest population in Rwanda by improving standards of living. Long term results projected include improved health and hygiene, increased school attendance and love for school among young children, increased agricultural and livestock productivty which results affect increase  in household income. Access to clean water and improved diets are among other projected results. Performance of the pilot model villages in Rwanda reported amount of positive impact on the lives of the rural population as part of GoR's Imihigo. Programme scale-up will directly impact on Rwanda's achievement of its NST1 goals and the SDG goals. The policy design of the programme is explicit but one may ask the role of citizen participation and contribution towards the development of IDPs and how prepared they are in taking advantages of the services available to them to graduate out of poverty.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM IMIHIGO PERFORMANCE CONTRACTS

Authors: ^aFrancisca Mujawase, ^bDidas Kayitare and ^cMutale Wakunuma

^a Senior Evaluation Specialist at Institute of Social Policy in Africa, ^b Director of Project Management at Institute of Social Policy in Africa, ^c President of the Institute of Social Policy in Africa.

The objective of this issue is to appreciate Imihigo performance measurement practice defined and validated by the government of Rwanda as a performance management approach to achieve institutional and individual performance goals in the public sector.

WHAT IS IMIHIGO AND WHY IT MATTERS?

Imihigo is plural for “Umuhigo,” a Kinyarwanda word which means “Vow to deliver”. Imihigo also involves the concept of Guhiganwa, which means to “Compete among one another.” This can be among individuals, groups, communities or administrative levels. Imihigo is a unique cultural performance measurement practice which derives from the pre-colonial era in Rwanda.

Over the past two decades the government of Rwanda (GoR) built on the cultural Imihigo practice to define its performance measurement model in all public institutions. The GoR invested in developing a more responsive model that supports public institutions to enhance their capabilities to contribute to the development of the country.  The approach has determined standards of great demand for transparent and accountable systems for better performance of national programmes. The renewed focus on evidence based performance, budget based and result-oriented programming in Rwanda has proved Imihigo as an outstanding organizational practice that aims at accelerating a culture of excellence in public institutions towards achieving policy objectives and national programmes that directly impact on the lives of the citizens.

The Rwandan cultural practice adopted by the government involves the process of setting targets or goals to be achieved within a specified period of time normally one year. Imihigo is built on the idea that government institutions should aim to achieve a hundred percent of the defined programme targets. Therefore, the Imihigo implementers are determined to overcome any possible challenges that may hinder them from achieving their desired goals.

HOW DOES IMIHIGO WORK?

Imihigo is a well-structured process of defining focus-led performance goals and targets in a participatory manner. The model has been adopted at national scale by both central and local government structures as an approach for setting local priorities, defining annual institutional performance targets and defining aligned activities to achieve the set priorities. The approach has set the ground for informed organizational planning and decision making in public institutions which is well defined and result oriented. The model has an evaluation rating procedure which helps the government to examine institutional and individual performances against the planned targets and goals in a defined period of time. In the Imihigo logic, when an institution fails to achieve expected results, it means “it has failed citizens because Imihigo is meant to directly impact on the lives of citizens”. To achieve institutionalization of imihigo model, the GoR support establishment of performance systems in public institutions, provides technical assistance, material support, and knowledge and skills transfer to build the capacity of institutions with the goal to improve performance that foster long term and sustainable results.

In 2018, the GoR identified the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda as a body to monitor consistency in quality and impact of Imihigo activities.  Systematic monitoring of imihigo activities at district level is conducted on a regular basis by a team composed of staff from the Prime Minister’s office and a team identified from the provincial level which consists of members from the government and other development partners in the district together with the Joint Action Development Forum (JADF).

Imihigo model has complementary national performance measurement models such as the governance score card, the citizen report card which is a two way approach that measure citizen participation in development planning, and their satisfaction on the quality and timeliness of services delivered. The Auditor General’s office also produces an annual report on the state financial statements stipulated by the Article 184 of the Republic of Rwanda of 4 June 2003 as amended to date. The report provides details on budget utilization by state agencies and operations of government business enterprises   performance budgeting. The parliamentary public accounts committee is another mechanism which examines and summons the institutions to clarify their misuse of public funds and reports to prosecutor general for further investigation and action.  

HEADLINE FACTS ABOUT IMIHIGO

Imihigo approach is valued by the government and credited by the public as an essential instrument to achieve national policy objectives. The approach is considered a significant practice to good governance and public accountability. The model has been widely acknowledged to be a valuable tool that has enabled effective measure of performance in public institutions but also a basis for discussion on policy change by defining elements of actions.

Imihigo has demonstrably and effectively fostered linkages between national and local priorities creating synergies in planning and implementation of development goals for better results.

The model has proven to be an active instrument for enhancing organizational and individual performance targets for achieving desired national and institutional goals.

A sense of programme ownership and responsibility among institutions and individuals to maximize both social and economic impact on the lives of citizens has been recorded.

A culture of creative thinking, problem solving, positive competition and the element of delivering on institutional targets have greatly contributed to the increased performance of public institutions.

Citizen participation in Imihigo processes has strengthened the capacity of citizens to demand for high quality and transparent services but also given citizens the power to hold leaders accountable.

The model was introduced by the Minister of foreign affairs for Rwanda Dr. Richard Sezibera during the African Union Summit as a potential instrument to achieving performance goals in the African Union and a best practice for other African countries to adopt.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM IMIHIGO

The paper identified four major areas of assessment in the context of adoption and implementation of Imihigo approach. This paper finds substantial achievements attributed to the well stated government of Rwanda’s (GoR) interests to make Imihigo a functional model that reflects evidence governance and politics that promotes significant effects on the country’s development.

A better Enabling Environment for Imihigo Performance: It is not possible to achieve Imihigo national development targets without a critical political will which drives sustainable performance results in public institutions. The success of Imihigo is drawn at the highest level of political will that has enhanced formalization of Imihigo model in public institutions. Imihigo has set the rationale of promoting a culture of good governance and accountable systems. The government has continuously worked hard on empowering ministries, government agencies and local government structures to support effective planning and implementation of national programmes for better and sustained results. In the same line, the model provides an essential starting point for discussion on the need for resources to finance action plans. In Rwanda, national priorities are sector programmes which are clearly defined in the national development programmes both long term (Vision2020), the mid-term Economic Development Poverty Reduction Strategy (EPRS) (1&2) replaced by the current national strategy for transformation (1). Imihigo therefore works as a central process to obtain alignment between national and local priorities which both responds to the needs and interests of the citizens. The national performance targets work as a reference against which districts define indicators and set performance targets. In the same line, Imihigo serves as an instrument that ensures linkages desired at both central and local levels.

Citizen Participation in Imihigo Processes: Effective citizen participation in public policy offers a variety of rewards to citizens. Rwanda has a decentralized government with local administrative structures closer to communities (District, sector, cell and village the lowest administrative structure). The decentralization system enhanced the smooth process of adopting Imihigo. Imihigo approach provides citizens a wider space to participate in the Imihigo planning, implementation and monitoring processes. The citizen participation approach is effective in a way that citizens present their priority needs at village level to be financed and facilitated by the government. The role of citizen participation in imihigo processes is considered as critical because the government works for the citizens and is accountable to the citizens. Research on citizen report card 2018 conducted by Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) indicated that 75.89% of citizens who participated in the survey reported participating in national programmes. The structure of local administrative entities in Rwanda therefore responds to the question of how citizens participate in national programmes.  On the question of who participates in national programmes, every citizen in Rwanda has a say in imihigo programming at a certain defined level. Participation level in Imihigo planning wasn’t found significantly different by gender, residence (urban/rural) in the citizen report card 2018.

Measuring Imihigo performance: Imihigo in Rwanda is not a choice but rather an important, relevant and mandatory model for public institutions to achieve high performance on policy objectives. Imihigo targets are relevant and important for institutional processes in order to achieve expected and significant results but this is not enough. What is more important is that Imihigo results directly impacts on the lives of an ordinary citizen and inform important decisions that are pivotal for evidence based decision making and policy changes.

Rwanda Performance Systems: Institutional systems support effective performance monitoring and measurement of actual institutional and individual Imihigo expected results. The government has invested in functional systems in public institutions to support proper measurement of Imihigo targets. Institutions have standard tools to facilitate them in planning and reporting both the budget and activities. Further, most of public institutions have set positions for professional statisticians and monitoring and evaluation specialists who provide technical support in the process of planning and budgeting as well as monitoring and evaluating institutional performance in the defined reporting calendars.

In addition, the government through different platforms provide trainings to ensure staffs have the appropriate skills to monitor and measure Imihigo performance. Staffs are equipped with tools to support staffs on effectively delivering on their responsibilities. However, glaring gaps remain on how Imihigo is designed and implemented in public institutions. Some districts still lack credible baseline data and lack knowledge to define standard indicators by sector. These mistakes are justified by lack of knowledge and carelessness that caused by lack of serious supervision and limited follow up. It was revealed that district planners tend to intentionally set low baseline or actual targets deliberately so as to confuse evaluators or just simply set low targets that they think is achievable.

Each district has an independent database where data is recorded in most cases, this is an excel sheet. There is no integrated and functional database at the central level to ensure greater rigor in quality of data reported, timeliness of data submitted and close monitoring of interventions related to plans, goals and results.

A gap is visible between staff Imihigo performance versus institutional performance and evaluation calendars are contradictory. For example, staffs performance appraisal is done after the institutional performance scoring is done. You may find a district ranked as low performing yet their staffs have scored high rated performance appraisal.

Evaluation timeframe given for imihigo national programmes is very short to evaluate programme outcomes. Therefore, there is need to stretch imihigo programme evaluation calendar from 1 year to at least 2 to 3 years to ensure expected results are achievable within a realistic period of time.

Lack of data quality assurance measures remains a performance gap. Districts lack information systems to support Imihigo process. This raises concerns regarding credible ways of measuring key performance indicators, as well as assessing contribution and attribution of programmes to observed results.  In some institutions, where administrative data exist, there is a lack of sound analysis to generate knowledge from existing data to inform decision making, institutional learning, improved performance, credible reporting and accountability assessments. Despite these challenges, Rwanda has made a number of positive impacts by promoting empirical evidence and good practices of Imihigo approach in an attempt to address a wide array of concerns of public institutions’ performance results.  

These notes are based on literature review on Imihigo in Rwanda and interviews conducted with public servants. 

Corresponding Author: Francisca Mujawase, Email: fmujawase@gmail.com  

RESOLVING THE GAP IN ACCESS TO EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION THROUGH UNIVERSAL CHILD GRANTS PROGRAMME IN RWANDA

Rwanda is one of the sub-Saharan African countries that demonstrably achieved MDGs performance indicators of progress in education. Inclusive education in Rwanda follows a rights based approach whereby every child regardless of their economic status or sex has access to school. The universal primary and 12 Year Basic Education (12YBE) programme has addressed access and equity constraints yielding to increased enrolment and encouraging effects at national level. The highest participation rate of 98.7% is observed in population aged between 7 and 12 years. The Rwandan legal framework that promotes education for all shows strong commitment towards meeting the rights of children to education. Following the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC) coupled with the ambition of becoming a knowledge based economy, the Government of Rwanda (GoR) has invested in and initiated several steps in the direction of addressing the rights and needs of children in the country.  Participation in primary school is the highest at 98.7% observed in population aged between 7 and 12 years (official school age for primary education).

Whereas the GoR has promoted basic education, a visible gap in promoting and provision of services in Pre-Primary Education (PPE) persists in practice, despite fairly supportive education legislation. The Sustainable Development Goals’ agenda now invites the extension of this success in primary education be strengthened with comparable achievement at the pre-primary level (UNICEF, 2015).

According to the education statistics year book, Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) in PPE has grown steadily over the years increasing from 16% for boys and 17% for girls in 2008 to 23.7% for boys and 24.1% for girls in 2017.  Net enrolment rate (NER) for both boys and girls remains lower compared to GER by a difference of 4%. Obscuring factors in pre-primary were reported as follows: Funding of pre-primary services at national level remains low accounting for only 0.4% of the national education budget. Low investments in PPEs have called for a fee-based education programme in the country yet other education levels are fee-free. Pre-Primary Education is largely financed by parents who contribute towards paying teacher salaries. The contribution for teacher reimbursement in Rwanda creates disparities in PPE attendance because of household inability to afford the contributions. By 2010, poverty incidence in Rwanda was at 44.9% while extreme poverty was at 24%. According to integrated household living survey data, income poverty incidence was reported to as 16.4% in 2013/14 for children between age of 0-4. This makes PPE expenditure a luxury for the majority Rwandan households. Also, considering its post conflict context, households’ perception of the importance of PPE is still a deterrent to access. Child Grants and other social protection benefits, in several countries, have been found to elicit and motivate positive behavior for child-related beneficial outcomes. This paper posits that introducing a Universal Child Grant in Rwanda, conditioned on access to PPE would be a viable policy solution that would further bolster the PPE GER.   It examines and analyses the impacts that Child Grants have had on ECE globally and the Rwandan Social Protection policy context and suggests ways that UCG would increase Social Protection coverage for Children while also increasing their access to PPE.