President Paul Kagame and the best performing district mayors
President Paul Kagame on Friday was among those who were wondering what befell districts that previously performed well but emerged among the last ones in the Imihigo Performance Report for 2019/20 which was announced on Friday.
The Prime Minister Dr. Edouard Ngirente read out the names of the best and worst performing districts with the Southern Province district of Nyaruguru pipping 29 others to the top slot while Rusizi emerged last.
President Kagame said that it is not clear why districts that previously used to perform well like Rusizi and Musanze, which emerged 27th, something he attributed to the revised methodology of measuring performance.
The 2019 Imihigo were suspended to allow proper mainstreaming of the methodology used to measure performance, to make sure that the scores attained by districts reflect what is on the groundnd and actual impact on people’s lives and service delivery.
In the case of Musanze, President Kagame said that he had personally followed up on the performance of the district, pointing out that he had to summon the Mayor of Musanze and the Governor of Northern Province Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi to explain a few things he saw in the district that in a way reflect in its performance.
In the performance results presented by the Prime Minister, Nyaruguru district emerged the best performing district in the 2019/20 Imihigo, scoring 84 percent followed by Huye with 82.8 percent and Rwamagana with 82.4 percent, completing the top three.
From the bottom, Rusizi district emerged last with a score of 50 percent, followed by Karongi with 51.2 percent and Nyabihu with 52.9 percent, while Musanze district, which is 4th from bottom scored 53.2 percent.
When Dr. Ngirente announced Nyaruguru district as the best performing district, ululations filled the gathering of leaders at Epic Hotel, Nyagatare district where the ceremony was held.
The district that borders Burundi, is considered one of the most rural districts of Rwanda but it outperformed even the City of Kigali districts, the nearest being Kicukiro district emerging 8th with 77.1 percent, followed by Gasabo in 9th with 76.4 percent.
Nyarugenge emerged a distant 22nd with 64.6 percent. Under the new format of Imihigo, the Prime Minister said they will be doing an assessment every year and another review to check the impact on citizens every three years.
He also mentioned that each target will be considered if it has been achieved 100 percent, otherwise it will score 0 percent, except in a few exceptions such as the uptake of the community health insurance scheme Mutuelle de Sante. Infrastructure projects will only be considered if complete.
In terms of sector performance, the Economic Cluster outperformed other clusters, garnering 71.9 percent while Governance and Justice and law and order scored 69.1 percent while the Social Affairs sector scored 66.3 percent.
The Eastern Province outperformed other provinces based on the performance of the districts, scoring 73.7 percent, followed by Southern Province with 73.5 percent, City of Kigali with 72.5 percent, the Northern Province with 61.2 percent and the Western Province with 60.8 percent.
Dr. Ngirente said that they put into consideration the fact that the New Coronavirus outbreak affected the performance of districts, which could explain why Rusizi emerged last. The Western Province district was hard hit by COVID-19.
He pointed out that focus for 2020/21 will be put on recovery from the COVID-19 impact and job creation, to ensure that the unemployment gap, which was increased by the pandemic, is narrowed.
Unemployment in Rwanda currently stands at 22.1 percent, from 13.1 percent in February this year.
How the 30 districts performed in Imihigo
1. Nyaruguru -84%
2. Huye -82.8%
3. Rwamagana -82.4%
4. Gisagara -78.3%
5. Nyanza -77.9%
6. Nyamasheke -77.4%
7. Ngoma -77.3%
8. Kicukiro -77.1%
9. Gasabo -76.4%
10. Kirehe -76.2%
11. Kayonza -73.9%
12. Kamonyi -73.6%
13. Nyagatare -69.3%
14. Gicumbi -68.7%
15. Bugesera -68.5%
16. Gatsibo -68.4%
17. Ruhango -67.9%
18. Rubavu -67.8%
19. Burera -66%
20. Nyamagabe -65%
21. Rutsiro -64.6%
22. Nyarugenge -64.6%
23. Rulindo -62.3%
24. Ngororero -61.5%
25. Muhanga -58.7%
26. Gakenke -55.9%
27. Musanze -53.2%
28. Nyabihu -52.9%
29. Karongi -51.2%
30. Rusizi -50%
