Kigali: The Government of Rwanda, through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) and the Kingdom of Belgium through the Belgian Embassy in Rwanda signed a new Belgo-Rwandan cooperation agreement that will focus on health, agriculture and sustainable urbanization.
The new cooperation program worth 120 million Euros, will cover the period 2019-2024 and intervene mainly in three sectors: Health (€45.000.000), Agriculture (€30.000.000) and urbanization (€28.000.000).
The program will concentrate on better access to sexual and reproductive rights and health. In addition, attention will be devoted to the improvement of value chains in agriculture, the commercialization of agricultural products and sustainable urbanization; public finance management being the fourth priority.
With regard to health and agriculture, the program will be piloting a new aid instrument: Results-Based Aid (RBA). In RBA the donor contribution is released to MINECOFIN after verifying that the agreed sectoral targets have been achieved.
Speaking after the signing event, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana hailed the contribution of the bilateral to achieving Rwanda’s sustainable development objectives.
“The Government of Rwanda regards health, agriculture and urbanization as critical sectors that have significant impact on Rwanda’s development outcomes as articulated in our National Strategy for Transformation. Therefore, Belgian support in these sectors is a step forward in realizing the targeted achievements,” Minister Ndagijimana said.
The Ambassador of Belgium in Rwanda, H.E Benoit Ryelandt said the signing of this agreement is a sign of the special relations between the two countries;
“This country program is the result of a year of intensive preparations and discussions between Belgium and Rwanda, to define the priority sectors and the objectives, aspired results, and implementation modalities in each sector. The specific agreement signed today gives also the start to the first bilateral program between our two countries, where no longer any tax exemptions are requested. This commitment not to request tax exonerations is in line with the ambition to support improved local revenue collection and underlines the importance of the support the program includes to the further development of the Public Finance Management (PFM) in Rwanda through the PFM multi-donor fund” he affirmed.
The program was developed by the Belgian Development Agency, Enabel in close collaboration with the different Rwandan line ministries. Implementation will be assured mainly through Rwandan government institutions in coordination with Enabel. (End)