Rwanda’s Road to Recovery
Though the massacre still casts a long shadow over the small Central African state, the past three decades have seen Rwanda undergo a significant transformation, becoming a rare success story in Africa. Rwanda may be a more prosperous and stable state now, but the road to recovery has been long, and reconciliation with the events of the past is still ongoing. While the genocide destroyed the social, moral, and ethnic fabric of Rwandan society as a whole, it is important to note that the Rwandans rose like a phoenix from the ashes by adopting “locally engineered policy innovations,” known popularly as “home-grown solutions” (HGS).
The Genocide of 1994 and its aftermath changed the political economy in Rwanda. Forgiveness, peacebuilding, and good governance initiatives were key elements of HGS. No other country in the world has effectively made use of the power of HGS more than Rwanda. The peacebuilding initiatives undertaken through the Urugwiro Village (President’s Office), formed between 1998 and 1999 to discuss ways to strengthen national unity, democracy, decentralisation, justice, economy, and security, are notable in this regard. The consensus outcomes that emerged from consultative meetings in Urugwiro Village were incorporated into the 2003 post-transition constitution in Rwanda.
The HGS played an important role not only in ensuring peacebuilding but also in achieving sustainable development. The HGS have been in vogue even before the onset of the pandemic. Between 1990 and 2017, Rwanda’s Human Development Index (HDI) doubled from 0.250 to 0.524; in 2021, it stood at 0.534. GNI per capita changed by about 19.51% between 1995 and 2021. Rwanda is also a global leader in health care in the East African region in terms of alternative care reforms. The Multidimensional Poverty Index in Rwanda declined from 0.461 in 2005 to 0.231 in 2021. In the case of the Gender Development Index, the 2021 female HDI value for Rwanda is 0.521, in contrast to 0.574 for males, resulting in a GDI value of 0.954.
Source link : https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/rwanda-makes-peace-with-its-violent-past-2968853
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Publish date : 2024-04-07 07:00:00
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