Speaking during a workshop on the role of media in Deepening Accountable Local Governance in Rwanda (DALGOR) on Friday, RALGA Chairperson Innocent Uwimana asked media practitioners to offer a greater contribution in promoting accountable governance.
“We all recognise that bad collaboration between the media and local governments impedes good governance and seriously affects the citizens whose welfare we all claim that we are working for,” he said.
Journalists complained that they are sometimes denied access to information by local leaders and wondered if those leaders give any information to citizens who are supposed to hold them accountable.
Jean-Claude Rusakara Mugwaneza, a reporter with KT Radio, said leaders denied him information on different occasions, adding that some local leaders openly say that they do not like talking with journalists.
Albert Baudouin Twizeyimana, National Coordinator of Pax Press, said that local leaders need sensitisation about Access to Information law and media role in helping them carry out their activities. He also urged RALGA to improve its collaboration with the media and advised journalists to create a friendly relationship with leaders so that they stop seeing media as hostile.
About these issues, RALGA acting Secretary-General Winifrida Mpembyemungu pledged RALGA mediation between the media and local leaders.
“We are looking into how we can have a memorandum of understanding with the media on collaboration for the better of the citizens we are all serving. We are together with you to promote good governance and citizen participation,” she said.
Poor citizen participation revealed
RALGA also presented to media the findings of the study on Dynamics of Direct Citizen Participation in Rwanda’s Local Governance between 2011 and 2017 which indicated that the level of direct citizen participation in monitoring and evaluation is less than 40% due to insufficient knowledge and skills of citizens, wrong belief that government should do everything for the citizens, lack of citizens’ sensitisation and mobilisation, among other challenges.
Funded by the European Union through DALGOR project, the study covered five districts namely Burera, Nyamagabe, Nyamasheke, Gasabo and Ngoma with the target population for the study was 1,027,721 while the total sample was 2,288.
Only 21.7% of respondents confirmed that they participated in planning and budgeting while the level of direct citizen participation in implementation of local agenda was at 66%.
At least 53.2% of citizens said that they did not directly participate because they were not invited by local leaders while 51.9 % confirmed that the reason was that they did not have knowledge and skills in planning and budgeting, Among local leaders, 51.2% said that citizens do not have enough knowledge and skills necessary for them to directly participate in planning and budgeting while 28.6% of citizens said that there was lack of clear information about what was supposed to be done.
Article 48 of the 2003 Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda as revised in 2015, provides for the right of every Rwandan to directly and or indirectly involve in the governance and development of the country.
Rwanda Governance Scorecard report highlighted indicated in 2014 that overall citizens’ participation was at 71.68%)
Leave a Reply