L-R: Minister Jeannette Bayisenge and Jean Claude Musabyimana
Parliament has resolved to summon two ministries to explain standing issues in the Early childhood development (ECD) program and poor service delivery that were indicated in the governance reports.
The resolve was taken this April 24, following a report and recommendation done by the Parliamentary Political, Gender Equality, and National Development Committee review on the 2021/2022 activity reports of the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) and the Office of the Ombudsman.
The committee report showed that after assessing the RGB report on ECDs there was no specific picture of the state of ECDs in the country thus calling for a comprehensive study to show the status quo.
RGB had conducted the 2nd ECD Scorecard, which revealed that the health pillar is at the top at 82% and the child rights and protection pillar came in 2nd place with 43.6%, while sanitation and hygiene (59.2%.) were lacking in most ECDs due to lack of water and sanitary facilities (toilets).
The report also showed that while prenatal and postnatal care is at the top at 85.3%, care for children with disabilities and special needs is the lowest at 15.8%.
Parliament thus resolved that “the Ministry of Gender and Family Planning will in six months have to present to the Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, the state of ECDs in the country in their categories and the measures to solve the problems as shown in the RGB report.”
“We as parliament did a sampling of the issues in ECDs but now need the whole picture of ECDs nationwide and from this status we shall know what to task the ministry with,” said MP Furaha Emma Rubagumya, the committee chairperson.
To the Ministry of Local Government, parliament resolved to summon the Minister to give a verbal explanation on the issues that emerged providing poor service of some of the civil servants as indicated in the Governance report for the year 2021-2022.
“This is done within a period of no more than three (3) months,” the committee resolution said.
This, the committee said that it is based on findings that show that there are issues and citizen’s dissatisfaction in the delivery of services, in the functioning and management of civil servants and local institutions in Kigali and upcountry.
The 9th RGB Citizen Report Card (CRC) published in 2022 rated some local government officials who insult citizens seeking services. In a few areas, this ranged between 30%-49%, but in other areas, the level was above 52% on average, although overall this rating exceeded 75%.
The parliament also tasked its economic committee to monitor the implementation of the measures identified in solving problems in public transport services in the City of Kigali and in the Province that appear in the RGB report for the year 2021-2022.
The 2022 CRC report showed that Public transport services, in general, are appreciated at the rate of 64.42%, and in the city of Kigali in particular but also passengers were dissatisfied at the rate of 31.67% due to delays at bus stops and the long hours spent waiting for a bus is long.
The Parliament said that this issue, which was raised at the recent National dialogue (Umushyikirano2023) will have to be addressed in line with the resolution of providing more 305 new buses and dedicated bus lanes, e-payment among others.
