The visiting World Bank Group Executive Director Dr. Louis Rene Peter Larose has pledged continued support by advocating for changes on how the World Bank engages member countries and best approach to leverage maximum resources from the Bank.
The Executive Director is in Rwanda for a three day official visit to discuss and understand the development challenges facing Rwanda and in particular Rwanda’s relationship with the World Bank Group. Dr. Larose is the Executive Director of African Group 1 constituency, representing 22 countries including Rwanda at the World Bank Group Boards.
“To fully understand development challenges facing African countries, we need to get to the ground and make proper assessments to be able to draw strategies that would indeed address these challenges,” Dr. Larose said.
He lauded the government reform efforts that are transforming the country. He particularly singled out EDPRS 2 targets such as reducing poverty to below 20%, creation of more than 200 thousand jobs per annum, facilitating the private sector to be the engine for growth as well as government’s promotion of accountable governance as remarkable initiatives that will modernize Rwanda. He noted that the implementation of EDPRS2 requires more funding and assured continued partnership with Rwanda.
Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Claver Gatete acknowledged the role played by the World Bank in Rwanda’s development but called for innovative ways with which Rwanda could maximize benefits from the World Bank Ggroup instead of focusing solely on the International development Assistance (IDA).
“We need to look beyond IDA and take advantage of the Bank’s networks to tap into other resources which can support other aspects of our development plans such as facilitating the private sector to be the driver of the economic growth,” Minister Gatete said.
Minister Gatete further urged World Bank to look to partner East African Countries by supporting Northern Corridor infrastructure projects which would accelerate development across the region.
World Bank contributes to Rwanda’s development plans by aligning its support towards EDPRS2. Currently the Bank supports various projects including infrastructure, agriculture, energy, and Rural and Urban settlement, social protection among others.
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