RWANDA GOVERNANCE BOARD AND ICGLR LUSAKA REGIONAL CENTRE SIGN AN MOU

On the left is Dr. Frank Okunthe, Executive Director of the ICGLR Levy Mwanawasa Regional Center of Excellence and Prof. Anastase Shyaka, the CEO of Rwanda Governance Board

Tuesday 10 July 2012
Material Released By Dr. Frank Okuthe

Kigali, 29th June, 2012. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), represented by the Chief Executive Officer Prof. Anastase Shyaka on the one part, and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Levy Mwanawasa Regional Centre for Democracy, Good Governance, Human Rights and Civic Education based in Lusaka, Zambia, represented by the Executive Director Dr. Frank Okuthe on the other part.

The MoU provides a framework for cooperation between the two institutions in all activities especially those that seek to promote Good Governance and Democracy, Peace and Security and Capacity Building of partner institutions including public, private and civil society organizations in Rwanda and ICGLR Member States.

The MoU will also enable signatory parties to contribute to the promotion of activities and policy intended to ensuring the implementation of framework aimed at preventing and fighting sexual and gender based violence (SGBV).

As far as implementation is concerned, the Parties will use different approaches, namely conducting research activities and analysis on existing policies and practices; undertake capacity building activities to strengthen Rwandan Actors and Institutions; monitor the implementation of ICGLR Protocols as well as facilitating multi-actor dialogue between Rwandan and Regional Stakeholders.

The MoU comes in the wake of the highly successful International Conference on Governance and Democracy which took place in Kigali from 28th to 30th June, 2012 prior to the 50th celebrations of Rwanda’s independence. According to Prof. Anastase Shyaka, “..the two parties would liket to take the appreciation of measuring governance to a higher level”, adding that “we also want to use scientific and objective approaches to the analysis of democracy and governance in the Region”.

A need for practical actions is indeed a joint commitment as reiterated by Dr. Frank Okuthe: “We are moving from theory to practice, we want to walk the talk!”.