The Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) launched the 2014 edition of the Rwanda Governance Score Card (RGS). The RGS is a tool used by the Government of Rwanda to measure the governance performance using eight indicators namely: rule of Law, political rights and civil liberties, participation and inclusiveness, safety and security, investing in human and social development, control of corruption and transparency and accountability, quality of service delivery and economic corporate governance.

Speaking during the launch of the RGS , the One UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Lamin Manneh, commended the government for the “remarkable progress when you compare the first RGS in 2010 and the current” he  singled out the rule of law indicator as having improved tremendously during the period.

The RGS is tailored on Rwanda’s evolving governance context and combines global governance research methods and international standards. RGS therefore relies on a wealth of new local data from expert perception such as citizen report card   and hard data from Rwanda institutions surveys.

 The Minister for Local Government Mr. Francis Kaboneka, who was the guest of honour during the launch, underscored the importance Rwanda places on the evidence based policy making processes, which is the reason behind this innovative approach to data generation.    “Data offers us an opportunity to reflect on challenges and how to overcome them” he said.

The One UN in Rwanda has been supporting the RGS as one an innovative approach to availing evidence for law and policy making as well as programming. Mr. Lamin Manneh underscored this in his review of the RGS “it is the broader recognition of the RGS including at the headquarters level of the UN that prompted the selection of Rwanda to pilot the governance and capacity building indicators for the sustainable development goals SDGs”

On his part, the EU Ambassador in Rwanda Mr. Michael Ryan underscored the need to continue improving participation and inclusiveness indicator as they are important for cohesive society, which were among the least improved when you compare RGS 2012 and 2014 editions.  He further emphasised the need to “address media concerns especially as they relate to libel and defamation law which, in the current state, are criminal offences.” He recalled that the African Union court of Justice and Human Rights has decriminalised the same and urged Rwanda to follow suit.

Minister Kaboneka concluded the launch by congratulating his colleague the Minister for Justice on the progressive improvement in the area of rule of law and urged other sectors to “multiply their efforts to improve areas which were highlighted as still weak”.

On the overall, the RGS set a good baseline for improving the governance environment in the next one year.