Author: IGIHE

The appointment of Eugene Torero to head the revenue body, due to be established, was approved by South Sudanese lawmakers on Tuesday.

After several deliberations, members of the country’s Transitional National Legislative Assembly endorsed Torero to oversee the running of the body that will be tasked with assessing and collecting domestic taxes, customs duties and other revenues specified by law.

What, however, dominated Tuesday’s debate in the national legislative assembly concerned whether to appoint a national or foreigner as the first Director General of the revenue collection body.

But David Nailo Mayo, chairperson of the parliament’s specialised committee for economic planning, argued that the Rwandan national has a wealth of experiences likely to benefit South Sudan.

Torero is currently the director of trade policy at Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), a position he has held since October 2015. Previously, however, he was responsible for TMEA South Sudan country office, during which he oversaw the design as well as the implementation of the customs development and trade facilitation programme.

The Rwandan national had, prior to joining TMEA, also held various positions within Rwanda Revenue Authority, including leading customs services from 2005 – 2010. He was previously a member of the Rwanda doing business task force from 2007-2010 and oversaw Rwanda’s reform efforts on the trading across borders and tax payment indicators of the famous World Bank Doing Business report.

When South Sudan got its independence five years ago, one of its daunting challenges was how it would diversify an economy, largely dependent on oil revenues, which supports 98 percent of its budget.

{{Source: Sudan Tribunal }}

The Prime Minister said:
“Regarding economic transformation: we will create 1.5 million jobs. We will put in place a mechanism to support at least one model income and employment-generating project in each village (umudugugu). We will also continue to promote the ‘Made in Rwanda’ brand working with the private sector to recapture at least USD 400 Millions of imports by 2024. We will double tourism revenues to USD 800 million by 2024 from USD 404 million in 2016. We will also upscale our mining sector by completing exploration of potential mineral areas to establish the extent of national resources and reserves, in terms of quantity and quality with the aim of exporting USD 800 million by 2020 and USD 1.5 billion annually by 2024.”

The Prime Minister said that in order to reduce the cost of doing business and facilitate trade and ease of transport across the country; 3,000km of feeder roads will be rehabilitated, 800 km of national asphalt roads will be built.

In his speech, the Prime Minister reiterated that easing access to quality healthcare is a top priority for the Government and one of the main component of the social transformation pillar of this programme. It is in this regards that the 17 sectors which didn’t have health centre will each have one, as well as 150 new health posts will be constructed. This will reduce the doctor-patient ration to 7,000 from 10,055, one nurse per 800 people from 1,142 and one midwife per 2,500 from 4,037.

On the issue of access to utilities, the Prime Minister said that: “All Rwandans will get access to electricity and water, from 34.5% and 85% today, respectively. Access to sanitation will be also be scaled up to all from 84% (2016) to 100% and waste management systems will be developed in cities, towns and rural areas.”

On the governance pillar, the Prime Minister reiterated that there will be a special focus on an efficient, smart, accountable and service-delivery oriented public service. It is in this regards that the Prime Minister said that 100% of Government services will be delivered online by 2024 from 40% in 2017. He also said that districts revenue collection capacity will be increased to finance their development needs by focusing on local economic development and reforming laws on locally administered taxes.

This programme includes views from the citizens collected through public consultations around the country. It also captures the RPF Presidential Manifesto, as the winning party in the previous presidential elections; presidential pledges made during the presidential campaign, key priority lines as elaborated in the President’s inaugural speech on 18 August 2017 as well as his speech during the swearing-in of the new cabinet.

The programme also includes elements from EDPRS 2 (2013-2018), Vision 2020, Vision 2050, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), African Union’s Agenda 2063 as well as the East African Community’s Vision 2050.

Through various sessions, during the next four days, experts will be formulating useful approaches for effective waste management on the continent. They will be also suggesting ways to address the challenges of municipal waste, waste from agriculture, mining, electronics usage and other forms of industrial manufacturing among others.
While opening the conference, the Prime Minister pointed out that addressing waste management in Africa’s fast-growing cities require innovative engineering and technology-based solutions. He called participants to work hard and find solutions but as well to stay true to their profession. He said:

“Strong measures are needed for adequate and sustainable development of this critical sector of human existence and well-being. Come up with answers to what African engineering fraternity should do so that challenges raised by waste management be addressed”, said; adding:

“We also encourage you to create confidence and trust within systems and African governments. Take concrete measures in dealing with engineers who do not respect ethics and professionalism” concluded the Prime Minister Ngirente.

The Prime minister noted that effective waste management is timely in light of Rwanda’s and the continent increasing urbanization, natural resources exploitation, agricultural production and utilization of electronic gadgets as the need to focus on sustainable development and the reality of climate change. He also reminded participants that the ultimate goal ahead should be to reach a time when waste can be rightly transformed into one of the resources to power the continent’s sustainable development.

Rwanda has adopted a green growth strategy and is working towards effective achievement of the sustainable development goals. For Example, the country is promoting integrated sanitation and waste management planning in Kigali and the six secondary cities. In Kigali city, the construction of centralized sewage system is expected to commence next year. Through Rwanda Environment Authority and associated government agencies, Rwanda is ensuring that all forms of development go hand in hand with its green growth and environmental protection agenda.

Most of the participants are from the continent but as well international specialized institutions and experts are taking part in the conference. Represented countries include Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Ghana Nigeria South Sudan, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Somalia, Ethiopia and a delegation from China.

The meeting has been organized by Association for the Development of Education (ADEA), a forum for education policy dialogue in Africa.

The Director General of Rwanda Education Board (REB), Janvier Gasana said that all experts will examine common trend that would regulate education in Africa.

“After this week, we shall have tangible measures that will lead African countries to have a common vision of education, a vision that will lead us to sustainable development,” he said.

Gasana said that combining efforts will help to reduce problems in education sector in Africa. He said that regular inspection will be conducted to address challenges that hamper the quality of education.

The project manager in ADEA, Gertrude Tafadzwa Bvindi, said they will share ideas that will inspire them to work for advancing the quality of education. She expects that will be changed through different training.

“In this forum, we will see how to change curricula and see how we could add new lessons that will help advance our education to targeted quality,” she said.
Participating countries are Burkina Faso, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Rwanda, Kenya and Botswana.

He said that this year’s engineering conference comes at time when African cities are rapidly growing and generating big volumes of waste, a challenge which he said needs strong measures for adequate and sustainable development in the critical sector of human existence and well-being.

“Science and technology have always been some of the strongest pillars of prosperity and development, no country has ever moved from developing to developed status without adequate engineers,” he said.

“We believe that one of Africa’s most important resource is the skills of its people. A well trained labour force is the single most important enabler of economic transformation for African countries,” he added.

He said that the investment in quality education is required to develop schemes and explore solutions to engineering challenges of the continent.

Using an example of Rwanda, Ngirente said that the country has established special educational institutions that train scientists, engineers and specialists.

“This conference is an opportunity to remind our engineers of their role in promoting innovative engineering services. Our call to you is to uphold professionalism, build and consolidate true values and ethics expected from engineering profession,” he urged engineers.

“Come up with answers to what African engineering fraternity should do to create confidence and trust within systems of African governments” he added.
Ngirente also encouraged engineers to take concrete measures in dealing with colleagues who do not respect ethics and professionalism.

The president of Institute if Engineers in Rwanda Eng. Papias Dedeki Kazawadi said that participants will discuss best waste management practices.

“Based on skills and experiences from different individuals, we believe that Rwandans will also benefit from them as long as they acquire waste management techniques practices that have brought some impact in other countries,” he said.

On 18th September 2017, Kagame and 56 Heads of State or Government accepted the Secretary-General’s invitation and e joined the Circle.

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on world leaders, heads of international and regional organizations, and key civil society partners to stand with him in solidarity to condemn the scourge of sexual exploitation and abuse.

Through this extraordinary demonstration of political commitment, the Member States and the United Nations commit themselves to measurably improve the Organisation’s effectiveness in preventing sexual exploitation and abuse and pledge to put the rights and dignity of victims at the centre of their efforts.

The Secretary-General stressed that sexual exploitation and abuse is a global menace from which no country, institution, or family is immune

“It is a moral and organizational imperative to put an end to sexual exploitation and abuse”Guterres stressed

The Secretary-General thanked Member States for their contributions to the Victims’ Trust Fund and formally marked the establishment of his Circle of Leadership on the prevention and response to sexual exploitation and abuse in United Nations.

This initiative serves as a visible demonstration of commitment and resolve at the highest levels of government across the Member States to end impunity, strengthen measures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, and give the victims the justice and assistance they deserve.

The Secretary-General also invited key non-governmental partners to the High-Level Meeting to collaborate with the United Nations in this effort, recognizing the important role of civil society in protecting vulnerable groups from acts of sexual exploitation and abuse.

The Secretary-General encouraged civil society and humanitarian organizations to work more closely with the United Nations, as there is so much to gain from closer interaction and collective efforts on the ground to strengthen preventative and responsive measures.

Together, united in common purpose and interconnected in multi-stakeholder partnerships, the Organization, Member States and civil society members can be an unstoppable force to make zero tolerance of sexual exploitation and abuse a reality, he said.