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
