CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS AND CITIZEN

ENGAGEMENT IN RWANDA: ASSESSING

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR
EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION

By BARIHUTA Pacifique
Senior Researcher
Rwanda Governance Board (RGB)

IPAR-Rwanda’s Annual Research Conference

Kigali, 11-12 November, 2012
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 PRESENTATION OUTLINE

DEFINITIONS

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CSOs IN RWANDA

OBJECTIVES, METHODOLOGY AND DATA SOURCE

FINDINGS:
- Indicators, scores, strengths and weaknesses
- CSOs and Participation
- CSOs and Development process
- Government efforts to promote CSOs
- Major challenges

WAY FORWARD AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 Definitions: The World Bank

 CSOs are defined as the wide array of non-

governmental and not-for-profit organizations which have
a presence in public life, expressing the interests and
values of their members or others, based on ethical,
cultural, political, scientific, religious or philanthropic
considerations”

 These organizations include community groups, non-

governmental organizations (NGOs), labor unions,
indigenous groups, charitable organizations, faith-based
organizations, professional associations, and
foundations,
 Definitions: CIVICUS

 CIVICUS defines CSOs as the arena between family,

government and market where people voluntarily
associate to advance their common interest

THE CSOs ROLE IS TO PROVIDE

AN INTERACTION SPACE
BETWEEN THE SOCIETAL VALUES
AND INTERESTS.

Market Family State

 Definitions: Rwandan context

Rwandan Law (No 04/2012 of 17/02/2012, Art. 2, Al. 2)

 NGOs commonly identified as CSO is an organization

which is comprised of natural persons or of autonomous
collective voluntary organizations whose aim is to
improve economic, social and cultural development and
to advocate for public interests of a certain group, natural
persons, organizations or with the view of promoting
common interest of their members.
 Classifications:
Minimalist vs. maximalist approaches

The maximalist
The minimalist approach include
approach tend any organizations
to limit CSOs to which are not part
Non-
organized State of the
secular groups Actors government,
in social settings political society
and/or private
sector

Focus for this paper: Local Non-Governmental Organizations (LNGO)

Public Interest Orgs, Common Interest Orgs, Foundations
 CSOs Promoting citizen participation

Actors of change: Reaching out ordinary people

Linking citizens
to their leaders

Empowering
Advocating for
citizens for better CSOs
their better lives
participation

Citizens
 Brief history of the CSOs in Rwanda
 1956: Creation of agricultural CSOs answerable to the
catholic Church
 1980-1991: Boost of CSOs as they benefited support from
the World Bank. Estimated total: 170
 1991-1994: CSOs fighting for civil liberties and social justice
emerged. These included LIPRODHOR, HAGURUKA,
COSYLI, etc.
 1994 to date:
 Associations and NGOs addressing genocide consequences and
development challenges(IBUKA, AVEGA, IMBARAGA, etc.). It also
include media and youth organizations
 National and regional umbrellas/forums initiated (CSP, CCOAIB,
CLADHO, CESTRAR, EACSOF, Press House. etc.)
 Objectives of the paper
This paper basically seeks to:

 Understand the status of CSOs in Rwanda in

terms of participation

 Identify opportunities and challenges faced by

Rwanda’s CSOs

 Provide recommendation to various stakeholder

for improved participation
 Methodology and data source
 Secondary data (“second-hand” analysis)

 Qualitative and quantitative analysis

 Major Data source:

 Rwanda Governance Scorecard (by RGB)
 Civil Society Index (by CIVICUS-CCOAIB)
 Review Articles
 Reference Books
 The World Wide Web
 Findings:
CSOs Indicator: How do they score?

CSOs have not successfully responded to societal needs and interests

(More than 4% fall)
 CSOs: Strength and weaknesses

CIVIL SOCIETY STRUCTURE

1. Citizens’ participation in non-partisan action,
2. Volunteering,
1. Charitable giving 3. Membership of umbrella bodies,
4. Geographical distribution (which is skewed
towards major cities), and
2. Collective community action 5. Civil society activities that affect citizens‟ daily
lives

CIVIL SOCIETY EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

1. Civil society registration
2. Restrictions on civil society 1. Collaboration between the
restriction, civil and the private sectors,
3. dialogue between state
4. civil society, public trust and 2. Corporate social responsibility
public spiritedness
 CSOs: Strength and weaknesses

CIVIL SOCIETY VALUES

1. Anti-corruption
1. Encouraging governmental
2. Gender equity
transparency
3. Poverty eradication
4. Tolerance and democracy promotion
2. Environmental protection

CIVIL SOCIETY’S IMPACT

1. Meeting societal needs

1. Public information activities 2. holding of state and
2. community capacity building corporations to account.
 Findings:
CSOs and participation
CSOs participation: How are they vibrant in different areas?

i. CSOs in holding state and private corporations accountable: 33%

ii. CSOs influencing public policy: 57%

iii. State-CSOs relations: 90%

CSOs ENGAGEMENT IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE

 
% of CSOs registered in Joint Action Dev’t Forum (JADF) 87.00%
% of CSOs that fully participate in JADF 68.00%
 Findings:
CSOs and Governance

i. Level of trust in involvement in

national reconciliation : 50.55%

ii. Incidence of corruption: 36%

There exist NGOs dealing with corruption issues but they

are more focused in combating corruption in public sector.
 Findings:
Government efforts to promote CSOs participation

 Advocacy for CSO development

 Providing grants to empower CSOs (eg. RGB)
 Conducting/supporting scientific studies to showcase
the role of CSOs in governance, possible improvement
and their role in Rwanda’s development process
(Rwanda Governance Scorecard 2012, Civil Society
Development Barometer 2012, etc.)
 Supporting JADF for effective CSOs participation and
contribution in local governance and economic
development
 Findings:
Major Challenges faced by CSOs

 Low level of transparency and accountability

 Promoting donor’s agenda vs advocating for their
constituencies needs and aspirations
 Funds driven vs citizens needs
 Low capacity to implement their actions
 Low level of active participation in Government
development frameworks, both at local and national
levels (JADF, SWG)
 Poor coordination and communication of their activities
and achievements
 Recommendations

 CSOs to upgrade their ethics for them to build strong

accountability and transparency within their systems;
 Rwandan CSOs to heavily invest in improving their
capacities and serving their initial objectives;
 CSOs to strengthen their participation in Government
development agenda;
 The GoR to support CSOs (finance and capacity building)
for bigger impact on citizen participation;
 The GoR to improve its communication with CSOs (timely
and focused communication);
 International NGOs and other donors to support CSOs
with no hidden agenda.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH/
MURAKOZE CYANE!

pbarihuta@rgb.rw
pbarihuta@gmail.com
#pbarihuta

National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda 19