President Kagame on Open Government in Rwanda

I have had the pleasure of chatting with President Kagame multiple times on Twitter as well as exchanging emails with him on his views around open government in Rwanda.  His level of engagement is outstanding and I’m hopeful even more world leaders will model their behavior a bit more after his in terms of their use of Twitter.  Here is what President Kagame shared with me, in his own words, about open government in Rwanda.

Open government is an integral part of Rwanda’s democratic process. It puts our citizens in the center of government decision-making process, and holds public officials accountable to the citizens they serve and is a cost-effective way to deliver essential services and information to Rwandans.

The Government of Rwanda is working to create the necessary environment for our citizens  to be engaged and continuously informed of government programmes and activities at all levels of government from central to local administration and across all sectors of the society , including in education, healthcare, agriculture, business and trade, and revenue management. We have found this to be an empowering tool for ordinary Rwandans.

As an example, we recently held our 8th Annual National Dialogue (known locally as Umushyikirano), a constitutionally mandated forum involving nearly 1000 participants from local and central government, civil society, diplomatic community and media to discuss national issues. The two-day forum held in our parliament, is broadcast live on radio and television, and streamed online. This year, over one hundred thousand people worldwide viewed proceedings online, over one thousand text messages sent by Rwandans, and numerous live calls were received, with messages transmitted in real-time to participants in the parliament hall.  

Other examples are the way our government accounts to its citizens is by publishing cabinet meeting resolutions, see a recent posting at: http://www.gov.rw/news.php?id_article=123.  Public tenders are equally published online for all the citizens to be informed, participate and even demand explanations from the Rwanda Public Procurement Authority on decisions taken.

The Office of the Ombudsman that handles social disputes and holds public officials accountable recently launched an online wealth declaration information system, a paper-free and efficient method for public officials to declare their wealth. This is an important tool for fighting corruption and misuse of public resources by officials who manage them.

The Rwanda Revenue Authority’s tax revenue management has been computerized eliminating the need for repeated face-to-face tax declaration and payment. This not only improves taxi payment efficiency, but also increases transparency and accountability of collected revenues.

In education system, student exam results are published online and are accessible by students and their parents via mobile applications.

Rwanda’s TRACnet system has improved HIV/AIDS patient care by linking health professionals across the country, even in remote areas, to key national health institutions via phone and internet.

We continue to build information systems in order to implement our principles of a democratic and accountable government across all levels of society.