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President Kagame yesterday addressed Wharton Business School during a lecture hosted by the Social Impact Initiative and the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

In a discussion moderated by Katherine Klein, Vice-Dean of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, President Kagame shared Rwanda’s journey of reconstruction with over 800 students, faculty and members of the Wharton community.

Speaking on Rwanda’s three choices of staying together, being accountable and thinking big, President Kagame pointed to determination as key to Rwanda’s progress:

“Seeing how far we have come gives a sense that nothing is impossible. If you start from a point everything is possible and if you think beyond challenges and you really want to achieve, you will get there,” he said.

On leadership and reconciliation, President Kagame pointed to Rwandan citizens as the driving force of reconciliation, adding that the message to every Rwandan is that any solution must come from within:

“There is not going to be a solution that will be delivered unless it comes from within and although it will still not be easy, we have to do it because if we don’t, it is going to be even worse,” Kagame said, adding: “We have turned the corner. We have built a firm foundation but we have to build on this foundation.”

Concerning the importance of gender equality, President Kagame referred to personal upbringing and defined equality as an issue of human rights:

“I was raised by my mother. I had to ask myself what sense it makes for a society to discriminate against a mother, a sister or a daughter. How can you discriminate against 52% of your population and think you are doing something sensible. It is an issue of human rights. Women have to be involved at all levels and in all activities.”

President Kagame concluded with advice to students on leadership:

“Find yourself in the world we live in. Be committed. Be and do the best you can. Do not be afraid to do what is right. Try and be as fair as possible.”

Established in 2010, Wharton Social Impact initiative works to develop and promote business strategies for a better world and focuses on the impact of finance, entrepreneurship, impact analytics, and strategic corporate social impact.

Students from Wharton Business School regularly visit Rwanda as part of a course titled “Conflict, Leadership and Change: Lessons from Rwanda” instructed by Katherine Klein.
President Kagame last met with students from the school during their last visit in January of last year.

Prime Minister Anastase Murekezi has called on the continent’s media houses to come up with concrete ideas on how African media can become more authoritative on issues concerning the continent.

The premier, who was opening a three-day regional conference on digital media technology in Kigali, yesterday, said while digital migration continues to experience smooth transition with the availability information and communication technology infrastructure, the broadcast media sector in Rwanda and across Africa in general still faces many challenges, especially in contextualising African content.

“For instance, here in Rwanda, the increase in the number of TV stations has not sufficiently translated into high quality content for the viewers,” he said.

“Quite often, the audience is fed with foreign soaps and news as if, we in Africa, lack our own stories to tell.

African media organisations, investors and practitioners need to come in and fix this African problem.”The meeting, dubbed “The Third Africa and Digitalisation Conference and Public Media Alliance Regional Meeting for Africa,” attracted participants from 14 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and three member states of the East African Community (EAC); Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

It is being held under the theme, “Opportunities for Africa Beyond the Digital Deadline.”

The conference is an initiative of South African Broadcasting Association (SABA), Public Media Alliance and is being hosted by Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA) .

Participants are deliberating on how the broadcast sector can best leverage available infrastructure to be effective in disseminating information.

Murekezi said the forum provides a great opportunity for public broadcasters and governments to explore ways to maximise the dividends presented by digital broadcasting.

“Although there have been many conferences and speeches on the need for Africa’s voice to be heard on the international scene, the results are not yet satisfactory. African media should and must tell Africa’s stories. You must come up with concrete ideas on how the African content can become a reality, not only to our local screens, but also in the international media,” the Premier urged participants.

“Africa is not about disease, despair and disaster. Africa is about the progress made in expanding our markets through regional integration; it is about the progress made in advancement of good macro-economic policies that are reducing poverty levels. It is about the investments we are making in ICT, and the good tourism attractions we have. Yet, it is a pity that we often don’t see these stories. The onus is on us to change this narrative and it begins today, not tomorrow,” Murekezi said.Elle Nanuses, the secretary-general of SABA, was optimistic that the meeting would set the pace for the future of media content from the African continent.

Clement Mshana, the acting president of SABA, said media fraternity in Africa should also ensure that the stories told are aimed at bringing peace and harmony.

His comments were echoed by Sally-Ann Wilson, the chief executive of Public Media Alliance, who said that the public broadcasting is changing but the future lies in becoming effective multimedia organisations.

“There is need to remain professional and tell true stories,” Wilson said.

The Public Media Alliance, formerly known as Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, is the largest association in the world of public broadcasters with 105 members in 56 countries across the world, including RBA.

Wilson said Africa was home of storytelling; however, good and high quality content remains a goal yet to be attained by African broadcasters.

RBA’s director-general Arthur Asiimwe said the meeting should ensure that the infrastructure available enriches the community by bringing modern television packaged local content.

“We should use this digital age to give Rwandans the right content. Our TV channels have to reflect the culture, transformation, and aspirations of the Rwandan people,” said Asiimwe.

The NewTimes

As the East African Community (EAC) moves to enhance its higher education system, it is looking to borrow a leaf from countries such as Germany and Singapore that have excelled in linking academia to the world of work.

The issue will be at the centre of discussions on how an ideal graduate for the EAC can be developed during the upcoming Academia-Public-Private Partnership Forum and Exhibitions 2015, in Entebbe, Uganda, next month.

The Inter-university Council for East Africa (IUCEA), the East African Business Council (EABC) and the East African Development Bank (EADB) are jointly organising the event set for October 22 under the theme “Developing the Ideal Graduate through Academia-Public-Private Partnership.”

Speaking at a news conference in Kigali, yesterday, Prof. Mayunga Nkunya, the IUCEA executive secretary, said in order to guide the discussion, experts from countries that have succeeded in this area had been invited.

“One such country that has excelled in this area is the Federal Republic of Germany, where the higher education system there receives 70 per cent of its funding from the private sector. We are bringing one of the German professors who is a champion in that area to give a key note presentation on how they did it,” Prof. Nkunya said.

About 300 participants are expected at this year’s forum, the fourth of its kind.

In addition to Germany, he said, South East Asia, too, has made tremendous progress in the past few years and the EAC can also borrow a leaf from there.

He listed Singapore as one of the South East Asian countries that EAC could emulate to advance higher education.

“Singapore is now a developed country and one of the strategies they used in promoting Academia-Public-Private Partnerships. We are bringing in an expert from the national university of Singapore who has been working in linking the academia to industry, to come and tell us what they did so that we can also learn from them,” Nkunya said.

He said, recently, EAC secretary-general Richard Sezibera had interactions with Horst Kohler, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the latter offered to make a presentation through a video-conferencing during the Entebbe forum.

Kohler’s presentation is expected to show participants what has transformed the German economy in linking the academia with the private sector.

Kohler, who was Germany’s president between 2004 and 2010, is also an economist and once served as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1998 to 2000) and head of the International Monetary Fund from 2000 to 2004.

He is the brains behind the “Partnership with Africa” initiative that was launched in 2005 to enhance the dialogue and encourage a genuine partnership between Africa and Germany.

{{Developing ideal graduates}}

Meanwhile, Prof. Nkunya said the development of an ideal graduate is not only the responsibility of the higher education system. The academia, he added, has a very important role but so is the private sector, the public sector and the parents and students themselves.

“For that reason, in this year’s forum, we will have panel discussions and current students and those who have graduated from universities and are now in the job market will come and help us discuss how best to develop an ideal graduate and what do we need to do.”

The forum will feature dialogue sessions focused on, among others, the role of higher education institutions, employers, the private sector, and governments in providing the best two possible opportunities to students to enable them build, refine and articulate their knowledge and entrepreneurial skills, creativity, and attitude, for them to become ideal graduates in the world of work.

In 2011, IUCEA and EABC entered into a partnership to provide the nexus between knowledge and human resources produced by higher education institutions in the region on the one hand, and the dissemination of the same to the private sector for their eventual diffusion into productive, social and service sectors on the other.

The partnership focuses on, among others, enhancing linkage between the private sector and higher education institutions through engagement with the public sector; and promoting the utilisation of higher education research output and innovations by the private sector/business community.

The first such forum and exhibitions were held in Arusha, Tanzania, in October 2012. Kigali hosted the last edition in 2014.

The NewTimes

The Central Bank’s diagnosis of the country’s economic performance in the second quarter has returned a positive outlook with Governor John Rwangombwa announcing at a news briefing, yesterday, a clean bill of health for the economy and stayed the repo rate at 6.5 per cent.

Flanked by members of the financial stability and monetary policy committees, Rwangombwa was in a buoyant mood when he said all the economy’s key performance indicators were in good shape and predicted strong growth in the third quarter, which closes today.

The Financial Stability Committee’s primary concern is the performance of the country’s financial sector consisting of commercial banks and microfinance institutions forming the engine that powers economic growth in form of credit to the private sector.

For the period ending June, the governor said, financial sector remained “sound and well capitalised with adequate liquidity levels and good quality assets.”

Commercial banks were adequately capitalised with 24.3 per cent and 31.4 per cent for microfinance institutions against the central bank’s benchmark of 15 per cent.

Non-performing loans were also seen dropping in the second quarter ending June, with the situation among commercial banks standing at 5.9 per cent from 6.6 per cent, while that of microfinance firms was at 7.4 per cent from 7.6 per cent, compared to the same period last year.

However, the NPL rate for both commercial banks and microfinances is still higher than the central bank’s 5 per cent target.

Meanwhile, profitability in the banking and micro-finance sectors slightly improved with commercial banks seeing their return on assets surging from 2.1 per cent recorded in June, last year, to 2.4 per cent in the same period this year, while that of microfinancial firms grew from 3.8 to 3.9 per cent.

Return on equity for banks grew from 12.1 per cent in June, last year, to this year’s 13.1 per cent, while that of micro-finance firms grew from 11.6 per cent to 11.9 per cent.

{{Accommodative monetary policy}}

The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s primary responsibility is to regulate the amount of money and credit in the economy in order to keep inflationary pressures manageable.

Boosted by what the Financial Stability Committee found to be a robustly sound financial sector, the Monetary Policy Committee reported that outstanding credit to the private sector grew by 26.6 per cent in the first eight months of 2015 compared to 15.5 per cent in the same period last year.

Newly authorised loans in the first eight months of 2015 increased by 9.2 per cent pushed by what the governor called an accommodative monetary policy.

Growth of ‘broad money’ which generally refers to the amount of cash in circulation drastically reduced in the first eight months to 16.1 per cent from 23.7 per cent in the first eight months of last year.

The industry lending rate average among commercial banks stood at 17.4 per cent between December 2014 and August this year, while deposit rates stood at 8.4 per cent.

Last week, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda released figures indicating that the economy grew by 7 per cent in the second quarter and was tipped to surpass earlier projections of 6.5 per cent.

This received further backing yesterday, with Rwangombwa noting that the economic performance in the first two months of the third quarter (July and August) was strong, at 8.8 per cent, showing signs of ending on a high with only September figures yet to come in.

{{Worrisome inflation
}}

The governor reported that inflationary pressures remained low and manageable, averaging 1.7 per cent in the first eight months, with the highest being 3 per cent recorded in August.

The central bank had earlier projected this year’s inflationary pressures to not exceed 3.5 per cent by December against the medium term target of 5 per cent.

However, revisions were announced yesterday on account of the projected El-Niño rains that could affect agricultural harvest, lead to low food supply and push the price of foodstuff above normal.

From 3.5 per cent, Rwangombwa said they expect inflationary pressures to play between 3.3 per cent and 4.6 per cent at most by the end of the year.

“But this should not be painted as alarming because it’s still below our medium term projections of 5 per cent,” he said.

Kenya Commercial Bank managing director Morris Toroitich, who chairs the Rwanda Bankers’ Association, agreed with the central bank’s projections on the likely impact of El-Niño, noting that food supply and its pricing is a key inflation factor.

While El-Niño is an internal factor, central bank also has external factors to worry about, including foreign exchange pressures mainly on account of Rwanda’s lowly performing exports whose resultant trade deficit has seen the Franc fast depreciating against US Dollar.

The official depreciation rate currently stands at 5.2 per cent, seen as stable and normal after an errant period on the forex market in the last couple of months that had seen the Franc depreciating at 8.73 per cent in June and July due to alleged speculation by dealers.

However, this has since stabilised, according to Rwangombwa, with the forex market rate standing at 7.3 per cent, commercial bank rate at 7.2 per cent and the central bank’s rate at 5.2 per cent.

With lower than expected growth globally owing to uncertainty in the US economy and a slowing Chinese economy, commodity prices are not expected to improve at least by the last quarter of 2015 and this prospect has already hurt commodity exporters such as Rwanda.

“That means the economy remains vulnerable to the exchange rate pull inflation due to continued external balance of payment deficit; however, the continued low oil prices is welcome as it will play a moderating effect,” Toroitich said.

Although Rwanda’s earnings from formal exports in the first eight months of the year declined by 7.7 per cent compared to the same period last year, the trade deficit improved by 5.3 per cent, to $1.14 billion from $1.21 billion, on account of a 5.7 decline in the value of formal imports.

“In view of the above key economic and financial developments and the fact that the current policy stance is already yielding results, we have decided to keep the repo rate at 6.5 per cent for the fourth quarter of 2015,” Rwangombwa said.

The central bank has kept the repo rate unchanged since June 2014 when it reduced it from 7 per cent.

Toroitich welcomed the decision on behalf of the sector, saying it is an indication of an “expectation of short/medium term stability around the key factors such as inflation and foreign exchange”

The NewTimes

President Paul Kagame has attributed Rwanda’s steady progress in the last decade to adoption of home-grown solutions.

The President was addressing a high-level meeting, Saturday, during the United Nations Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda convened under the theme, “A New Rural Development Paradigm and the Inclusive and Sustainable New Communities Model inspired by the ‘Saemaul Undong’” in New York, US.

Kagame said homegrown initiatives drawn from Rwanda’s culture have to a large extent contributed to Rwanda’s progress, according to a statement from the President’s office.

“From Gacaca, our community courts, which has brought restorative justice and reconciliation to a once divided nation; to Ubudehe, which supports rural communities to collectively solve problems related to poverty; to Imihigo, which enables citizens to keep their leaders accountable, to Umuganda and many others,” he said.

The event, co-hosted by UNDP, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea and OECD, was an opportunity to discuss the central role of rural development in sustainable development goals.

Citing Korea’s ‘Saemaul Undong’ success in achieving development, President Kagame described Korea’s homegrown solution as testimony that local ownership of development programmes, citizen involvement and national unity always yield results, according to the statement.

“These are the values that guided Rwanda’s post-genocide development agenda. We chose to take responsibility for our reconstruction, by building consensus on a national vision, and working together to ensure no one was left behind,” Kagame said.

Emphasising the importance of solutions informed by a local context, Kagame called on a future of sustainable development goals centred on mutual learning and global cooperation.

“Changing mindsets, and doing things differently, is never easy. But doing the right things and getting results builds resilience and the capacity to do even more. Each country has its own unique circumstances and challenges, but also the resources to solve its problems, complemented by external partnerships,” the President said.

The event was co-chaired by President Park Geun-hye of South Korea and attended by President Choummaly Sayasone of Laos, President Truong Tan Sang of Vietnam, President Ollanta Moisés Humala of Peru and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

President Park described ‘Saemaul Undong’ as a development strategy that has not only helped lift Korea up but also transformed the country’s national ethos.

“Half a century ago, Korea’s per capita GDP stood below one hundred dollars. We were among the poorest countries in the world. And yet, fired by a desire for a better life, the whole nation rallied together to climb out of poverty. And we did so in the spirit of diligence, self-help and cooperation that animated the ‘Saemaul Undong.’

As a result, Korea managed to industrialise, and within five decades, we rose to become one of the top 15 economies in the world,” she said.

‘Saemaul Undong’ or New Community Movement was South Korea’s home-grown initiative launched in 1970s by South Korean President Park Chung Heer. The initiative, which centred on traditional values of communalism and self-reliance, played a key role in modernising South Korea

The NewTimes

The First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, yesterday, urged global action on violence against children anywhere in the world.

She was speaking during a United Nations high-level meeting on ‘Children and the Sustainable Development Goals: Giving every child a chance’ at the UN headquarters in New York.

The UN General Assembly side event was sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations and the World Childhood Foundation US, in collaboration with Mentor International.

It was meant to discuss new opportunities that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework brings to improving millions of children’s lives.Mrs Kagame pointed to figures showing that among adolescent boys in low and middle-income countries, at least one out of four boys has been a victim of physical violence since the age of 15.

She also pointed out that about one out of 10 girls in the world has been subjected to some form of forced sexual acts, before the age of 20.

The First Lady described as appalling the numbers of abused and exploited children worldwide.

“These figures should be a wake-up call for all of us, especially when considering that the perpetrators may include friends, parents, and teachers, reminding us that often, those who pose the most dangers to our children are not always strangers, but can be the people entrusted with their care,” she said.

The event featured Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden; Irina Bokova, the director-general of UNESCO; Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi; and Hans Vestberg, the chief executive of Ericsson.Other delegates were drawn from UN leadership, governments, civil society, academia and the private sector.

The meeting sought to mobilise action for children using the SDGs’ framework and make the SDG 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children everybody’s priority.

“We are here today because of our most precious little humans,” Mrs Kagame said.

Reflecting on Rwanda’s experience, where hundreds of thousands of orphans were inherited after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the First Lady noted that humanity is defined by the way it treats the most vulnerable in communities.

Today, about one third of orphanages in Rwanda have reintegrated children in family homes, while over 3,000 street children have been rescued, rehabilitated, given vocational training, and reintegrated into society, she told the audience.Mrs Kagame also spoke about Rwanda’s integrated approach which led to the establishment of the Isange One Stop Centres across the country, where victims of sexual violence can seek free services, ranging from medical treatment, psychological and legal counseling to preliminary criminal investigation.

She called on everyone to ensure that the world reaches the sustainable development goal of “ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.”

“In the case of Rwanda, we have been able to achieve many and sometimes surpass the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) with limited resources. We have every intention of doing the same with the Sustainable Development Goals, especially when it comes to the protection and safety of our children. Children embody the best part of who we are.”

The SDGs, also known as the Global Goals, are set to be launched during the UN General Assembly in New York today.

The NewTimes

President Paul Kagame has said that the world has learned valuable lessons from the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were set in 2000 and are due to be replaced with a new set of global goals, at the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Kagame, who has been a co-chair of the MDGs Advocacy Group, was speaking on Thursday at the Columbia University World Leaders Forum in the United States ahead of the launch of the world’s new development framework, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the successor to the MDGs.

The MDGs, which had eight goals and 18 targets, sought to significantly reduce hunger and poverty, minimise deaths from preventable and treatable diseases and accelerate socio-economic development around the world.

“Poverty is part of the experience for millions of Africans and beyond, who need no reminder of what it feels like to be trapped in its brutal grip,” the President said during a session moderated by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

The Head of State said: “When some say MDG efforts fell short. I say: that’s fine, at least something was learned”.

He observed that when the MDGs were introduced some 15 years ago, Rwanda “was coming out of a dark period of our history, getting the debts of the previous governments cleared”.

“It was a moment at which we were most intensively engaged, in working out how to forge a new national consensus, on the most pressing issues facing us.

“These ranged from the particular problems of recovering from Genocide, to the challenges of development policy, that every growing country has to deal with,” he said.

Kagame pointed out that the MDGs were “timely, in creating a new basis, for the development partnerships necessary to rebuild our country, and create prosperity in the years ahead.”

For Rwanda, the President said, MDGs “linked the national vision for development to a wider global context, and was well aligned with changes Rwandans wanted to see in their lives”.

“The work of implementing the MDGs helped to build trust with funding partners, while keeping the locus of responsibility where we believed it had to rest, with ourselves,” he said. “It informed us and our partners, whether or not we were on the right track”.

And as the world ushers in the new Global Goals, Kagame said, it was time to pause and ask, “what will improve and make development sustainable?”

This is a complex question, he noted. “But let’s simplify the answer, by looking at development as a triangle”.

The first point, Kagame explained, are solutions – good ideas and policies. “The second point, is money; the financing to implement the programmes”.

And the third necessity which of often overlooked, he added, is the interaction between citizens and their leaders and partners. “That is good politics”.

“Sustainable development is not about what ‘we’, all of us here, do for them, but about the choices they make each day, over and over. We are working to provide the ways and the means to improve their lives, but it is also important to take the time to connect with these citizens, because in the end, they are the ones who implement these good ideas,” Kagame said.

He added: “We can start by recognising the many contributions and quantify that citizens themselves make. These amounts may look small compared to other sources of financing, but it’s a big deal”.

“Their contributions range from using their own money to buy necessary inputs, to time spent in community meetings, learning about new and better ways of doing things, to absorbing risks now in order to make gains in the future”.

These are important measures of the commitment of citizens and communities, without which there would be little development, the President noted. “Development is what happens when citizens are convinced about the logic and pace of change.

“Country systems must help people to understand their problems, and collaborate to find solutions, including serving as a conduit for development partnerships”.

Sharing Rwanda’s experience, Kagame said: “For Rwanda, there is nothing casual about the term “lessons learned”. We have been changed by real learning from our experiences and circumstances. And therefore we have had to do things differently, earning us different results”.

“At the core of our political mobilisation work, are the principles of inclusiveness, taking responsibility, and building consensus”.

In Rwanda, he observed, state effectiveness is derived from success at forging a common national vision. ‘This has enabled faster and deeper development results. And explains why the results achieved, sometimes far surpass available resources”.

The country is one of the few that have fully achieved several MDGs and made significant progress on all the others.

“The SDGs are the next chapter in global collaboration on development, and hopefully, a new opportunity to move away, from the business as usual mode,” Kagame said.

“The goals are more ambitious, and some would even say less focused. That is to be expected, given the progress of MDGs, and also the reality that, the most stubborn forms of poverty, may be much harder to eradicate”.

What’s key, he said, is that “we have a new template, for cooperation and dialogue for the next generation”.

For the SDGs to succeed, the President observed, “we need to have a more serious conversation, about the forms of governance and democratic participation, required to get there”.

“The challenge for all of us, is to close the triangle of sustainable development. The SDGs offer hope, of making the importance, meaning, and most importantly, practice of good politics, more widely understood,” he added.

He called on leaders to “work to complement the new SDG framework, with a genuine effort, to objectively assess the degree of citizen buy-in and involvement, in decision-making and accountability”.

It is up to us, to make the most of this new opportunity, he added.

The NewTimes

The Bilateral meeting between the Hon Gen James Kabarebe, the Minister of Defence of Rwanda and Hon Aimé Ngoi-Mukena Lusa-Diese, the Minister of National Defence, Veterans and Re-integration of the Democratic Republic of Congo was held in Kigali from 23rd – 24th September 2015 to review the security challenges facing the two countries and agree on comprehensive strategies to address them.
The meeting is a follow up of their meeting held at the sideline of the ICGLR meeting in Luanda, Angola on 13 May 2015.

The ministers took note of the Chiefs of the Defence Staff meeting of the two countries held on 27 June 2015 in Kinshasa, DRC.

The ministers stressed that the Kigali meeting has opened a new chapter to enhance the bilateral cooperation to resolve security challenges facing the two countries particularly the eradication of FDLR present in the Eastern DRC which continue to pose threat in the two countries and the repatriation of ex-M23 combatants cantoned in Rwanda.

The meeting received a brief from the J2-RDF on the current activities of FDLR and updates on ex-M23 combatants in Rwanda.
Following this brief, both governments expressed the commitment to build on what has been achieved so far and consolidate efforts to restore peace and security in the two countries.

{{Resolutions}}

Realizing the good opportunity presented by the Kigali Meeting that a new chapter for enhancing bilateral cooperation and build on the positive achievements, the meeting decided on the following resolutions:

a. A meeting of Chiefs of Defence/General Staff supported by Chiefs of Military Intelligence be held in Kigali as soon as possible on a date to be communicated and develop practical ways to eradicate FDLR.

b. A Joint Bilateral Team be established on repatriation of ex-M23 Combatants cantoned in Rwanda and FDLR combatants in DRC. National and International Institutions shall be invited to accompany the process.

c. In formalizing this new spirit of cooperation, DRC-Rwanda Bilateral Security meetings shall be held on a regular basis.