The Rwanda Transport Development Authority builds a road today and another player plants trees along. But the following morning when the Rwanda Energy Group (REG) brings electricity, they first cut the trees because they cannot cohabitate with power lines.
The ICT sector or the Water and Sanitation Corporation(WASAC) will also bring changes and affect previous infrastructure if they want to put utilities along the same road.
Such challenges were highlighted during a dialogue that brought together citizens, the private sector and authorities in their respective secondary cities of Huye, Rusizi, Musanze, Nyagatare, Rubavu and Muhanga.
Some of the participants at the national dialogue
The dialogue was organized by IPAR Rwanda, a research and policy analysis think tank under the project codenamed Urban Governance Issues in Secondary Cities in Rwanda since 2018.
The approach of IPAR in this research consists in offering safe spaces for interactions between policy actors, researchers and beneficiaries and at the same time tagging along all the key stakeholders.
A national dialogue to take the discussions further was organized last week where the IPAR researchers presented the report to stakeholders who also deliberated on findings and proposed way forward.
Dr. Muhirwa Jean Pierre
Dr. Muhirwa Jean Pierre, a Research Fellow at IPAR said, that there is a conflict in implementation of Master plan.
“During the implementation, institutions like REG, WASAC, RAB, Tourism sector, ICT sector have different plans which are contradictory,” Muhirwa said in his report.
Elsewhere in governance, the dialogue in the secondary cities indicated that stakeholders delay projects and plans, or else, there are limited resources to implement the project. Either way, this undermines city development.
Also identified were the case of poor waste management, including waste accumulation without a proper disposal in landfills.
These cases are exacerbated by rapid population growth in the secondary cities, followed by cases of hawking and an increased trend of street children.
Dwellers in secondary cities are of a view that urbanization deserves a dedicated and well-built technical team, taking into consideration the amount of work which varies from a city to another.
This report brought specific issues by secondary city in this project.
For example, it was indicated that Musanze city lacks innovation and creativity with development plan only based on developing existing housing with short timeline (10 years or 20 years).
“There is no development plan in long-term (100 years),” the report reads in part.
Rubavu in Western border of Rwanda lacks integrated policy or measures planned for protecting Lake Kivu from pollution.
“Each of these city dialogues uncovered unique urban governance challenges, reflecting the specific contexts and dynamics at the local level,” Eugenia Kayitesi, IPAR’s Executive Director said.
Eugenia Kayitesi, IPAR’s Executive Director
Among the possible solutions to the problems that were identified, stakeholders suggested inclusion, collaboration, coordination among the government institutions, stakeholders, implementers, private sectors and beneficiaries.
According to a report that was put together by Christelle Umutesi, a researcher at IPAR, good planning would require inclusion of qualified technical teams in water, electricity, roads, land managers, environment and recreational space.
A participant making a point
They suggest that there should be a joint planning or development plan between different institutions. The point is to work together and elaborate a common document for a consolidated development planning in order to avoid contradiction during implementation of development plan.
This project is implemented in partnership with PASGR, an organization which works to enhance research excellence in governance and public policy that contributes to the overall wellbeing of women and men.
Christelle Umutesi
They use Utafiti Sera, a research and policy initiative. Utafiti Sera is a Swahili term meaning “research policy,” aims to bridge the gap between research and policymaking by building research-policy communities platforms that use evidence to inform and influence policy processes and outcomes.
According to Kayitesi, this initiative employs an innovative approach that includes mapping stakeholders, creating networks of policy actors, and fostering inclusive dialogue.
“The objective is to ensure that research evidence not only identifies policy gaps but also supports solutions through a negotiated, multisector process,” she further said.
