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Africa Governance Initiative and the Government of Rwanda establish innovative new partnership

In December, Tony Blair joined President Kagame in Rwanda to praise the launch of a new and innovative programme, the Strategic Capacity Building Initiative (SCBI), which will drive Rwanda’s development and has the potential to transform the way capacity development is done in Africa.

Rwanda has made great strides in the past decade in improving the lives of its citizens – average incomes have doubled since 2000, and access to health and education has soared. But challenges remain, and the Government of Rwanda is committed to taking its fight against poverty and disadvantage to the next level. The Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative (AGI) is proud to join the UK’s Department for International Development, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and many others in supporting Rwanda on this next step in its development journey.

The SCBI, supported by AGI, will bring in 41 international experts to train the next generation of Rwandan public servants, while improving the delivery of the Government’s priorities, in agricultural productivity, energy generation and access to electricity, increasing investment and gaining greater value from natural resources.

“This innovative programme reflects the increasingly important role the Government of Rwanda has taken as a leader in aid effectiveness,” said Tony Blair. “Last week in Busan we discussed how Africa can lead its own development, Rwanda is showing us how. The SCBI is truly government led, owned and managed, focused on delivering concrete results in the priority areas Rwanda has laid out.”

This pioneering approach was developed by the Government of Rwanda as a new approach to capacity building. In contrast to many capacity development programmes which take a very broad approach, the SCBI is focused on clear priority areas, developing capacity in the long term while delivering results today and includes the centre of government as well as ministries to link the setting of development priorities with those responsible for delivery. The programme will include rigorous monitoring and evaluation to measure its performance.

“The Strategic Capacity Building Initiative is demand-driven,” Rwanda’s Minister of Finance John Rwangombwa said. “It is focused on Rwanda’s delivery priorities, allowing us to secure targeted support to meet our needs, rather than merely accepting whatever is offered.”

The SCBI is owned and led by the Government of Rwanda and uses country systems to deliver. This is precisely what President Kagame challenged the international community to do at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan last December.

"While donors may not be entirely to blame for bypassing these systems where they are weak, or non-functional, why not use aid to build up and strengthen such critical systems? A case in point is the partnership between Rwanda's government and Tony Blair's African Governance Initiative, which uses embedded support to balance fast implementation of development programmes and transfer of skills."

Living up to these principles, the World Bank, African Development Bank and United Nations Development Program are funding the Government of Rwanda to deliver this $46m initiative.

As part of the SCBI, AGI will begin a new phase in its partnership with the government, contracted directly by the government to deliver the centre of government element of the work, both building the capacity of the institutions and using their leverage to drive progress on the priorities.

AGI’ s Country Head in Rwanda, Steve Haines said: “It is a real privilege for the Africa Governance Initiative to be part of this groundbreaking initiative. With the SCBI, the Government of Rwanda is training the next generation of Rwandan public servants, while improving the delivery of Government services today, making a real difference to Rwandans.”