Dr. Claudine Uwera, Rwanda’s Minister of State for Economic Planning, has advised Nigeria to prioritize gender equality and be more citizen-focused in governance to ensure sustainable development.
The Rwandan minister gave the advice when she received Nigeria’s Head of Civil Service, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, on Tuesday in Kigali.
She said that gender equality, home-grown innovations, and solutions, good governance as well as visionary leadership were key to the success of Rwanda.
Uwera added that the visit was a platform to share knowledge and learn from each other’s experience.
Earlier, Oyo-Ita, who led a delegation on Post-Conflict Learning Visit to Kigali, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his efforts in returning normalcy to North-Eastern Nigeria.
“Restoring infrastructure in the frontline states that faced the crises is not enough, we also need to rebuild the public service.
“Rwanda is the best country to study and learn from, considering the genocide the country experienced in 1994,” she said.
Godfrey Kabera, Rwanda’s Director General of National Planning and Research, told the Nigerian delegation that development vision, priorities and donor coordination framework were the country’s planning tools.
He said that engaging development partners in the budget planning process to help identify priority areas was essential to development, adding that poverty rate in Rwanda had reduced drastically through the country’s economic and result oriented policies.
Kabera said that the government had also reduced inequality, promoted regional and international integration in Rwanda.
He noted that one of the key factors to the success of Rwanda was the determination to succeed, accountability and sustainability on the part of the government and the citizens as well.
He disclosed that the country already had a development plan tagged: vision 2050, aimed at making Rwanda a country with high living standards in 2050.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) delegation also visited Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, where it understudied its health sector in order to rebuild the health system in North-Eastern Nigeria.
Receiving the Nigerian delegation, Rwanda’s Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Mr. Nyemazi Jean Pierre, said that the vision of the country’s health sector was to provide equitable and accessible quality healthcare services.
He said the vision was in line with the vision 2050, adding that the health sector had been decentralized from national to the district levels.
He said that every district in Rwanda currently has a hospital catering to the health needs of over 200,000 people.
According to him, it takes less than an hour for a citizen to access health facility and see a doctor in Rwanda.
“The country utilizes and harnesses home-grown innovations for their development as well as citizen-centered policies,’’ he said.
