UK to support Rwanda’s budget

By EUGENE MUTARA
Tuesday, 24 October 2006
The Permanent Secretary of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), Sir Suma Chakrabarti has announced the UK’s commitment to support Rwanda by providing direct finance to the national budget.According to a press release from DFID, Sir Chakrabarti announced this on his arrival on Sunday for his four-day official visit to Rwanda.“This is the efficient form of development assistance,” the DFID boss is quoted in the release as saying.He said that UK will also continue to assist Rwanda in key areas like education, agriculture and land reform as well as strengthening public financial management.The support will also extend to the care and treatment of Genocide survivors suffering from HIV/Aids which Chakrabarti said was a key priority to his country.Chakrabarti is slated to meet president Kagame today and he is expected to meet other, high profile government officials to share experience and provide advice on strengthening policy processes and introducing performance budgeting among other objectives for his visit.“I am looking forward to deepening the partnership between our countries by sharing ideas and experience about planning and policy making,” the DFID boss added.He emphasized that getting the best development results requires having the right policies in place.“Policy preparation is a vital part of the development process,” Chakrabarti is quoted as saying.This made it Chakrabarti’s visit to Rwanda after having been here in February where he signed a ten-year partnership agreement between the United Kingdom and the Rwandan government.It is also Rwanda’s major bilateral development partner providing high predictable levels of resources in support of Rwanda’s poverty reduction strategy, according to the release.Through the UK bilateral programme Rwanda has benefited about 200 million pounds to Rwanda for the last 10 years and currently, they provide assistance totaling 46 million pounds of which 31 million pounds goes directly to the national budget.According to this release, the UK committed itself to provide 1.3 billion pounds for development assistance to Africa by 2007/8 to help the continent accomplish the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty by half by 2015.