Rwanda
Rwanda
RWANDA
SUMMARY
Rwanda is a democratic republic with two spheres of government, national and
local. Local government is enshrined in Chapter 1 of the constitution and the main
governing legislation is the Organic Law of 2005. The Ministry of Local Government
(MINALOC) oversees the local authorities, which are structured in four tiers: 30 districts
(akarere), 416 sectors (imerenge), 2,148 cells (utugari) and 14,837 villages (imudungu).
Following the 2016 local elections approximately 40% of all councillors were
women. Local government can raise revenue through user fees and property taxes,
and receives a core funding grant from national government as well as grants for
specific services and one-off development projects. Many locally provided services are
implemented in partnership with other government and non-governmental agencies,
including rural electrification, environmental management, primary health, water and
sanitation services, local economic development and tourism, municipal planning
and transport, and social protection.
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COUNTRY PROFILE 2017–18 THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM IN rwanda
3.2 Ministerial oversight In addition, four seats are reserved for the 3.3.4 Village (imudungu) authorities
The Ministry of Local Government33.3b representation of marginalised groups: are committees elected for a five-year
(MINALOC) oversees local governance three for the National Youth Council and term to identify, discuss and prioritise
in Rwanda. The main mission of one for the district coordinator of the issues, and take decisions on behalf of
MINALOC is to ‘promote the wellbeing National Council of Women. The district their electorate. The village is the lowest
of the population by ensuring executive committee ( DEC) manages administrative entity in Rwanda and
good governance, community the day-to-day affairs of the district and village authority members are elected
development and social affairs’. is the contact point between district by all adult residents of the village.
MINALOC is responsible for establishing residents and their elected council The village authority consists of a five-
democratic, denationalised members on matters of service delivery member committee which includes the
administrative structures and for and development. village chief, a member for development
ensuring synergy, collaboration and and social affairs, a member in charge
coordination between all government of security, a member in charge of
institutions in their support for local 3.3.2 The sector (imerenge) council youth and a member for gender.
government. It also works to: is a political organ for policy-making Village authority staff are responsible
decisions; it is elected by all sector for administration and community
■■ build the human, material and
residents over the age of 18. The number development, including the day-to-day
financial capacities of local
of council members is determined administration of the village and the
government, so that councils can fulfil
by the number of cells (utugari) implementation of decisions taken by the
their roles and responsibilities
within its boundaries. The council’s village council on behalf of all residents.
■■ establish help and self-help
functions include approval of sector
mechanisms for vulnerable groups
plans and action programmes and 4. ELECTIONS
such as genocide survivors, people
ensuring their implementation. There
with disabilities and older citizens 4.1 Recent local elections
is a sector executive committee, which
■■ strengthen planning, coordination The last local elections were held
is composed of 12 members drawn
and mobilisation mechanisms to in February 2016 with a turnout of
from the council and is responsible
deliver the resources necessary approximately 90%, and the next elections
for day-to-day administration and the
for good governance, community will be held in 2021.33.4a The previous local
implementation of the decisions and
development and social protection. elections were held in 2011 with an overall
plans of the council. Technical support
turnout of 98.9%. In 2011 the turnout for
to the council is provided by two sub-
each local government level was as follows:
3.3 Council types committees, namely the sector political
districts: 93.6%, sectors: 91.2%, cells: 90.4%,
and administrative committee (SPAC)
Local government in Rwanda has four and villages: 87.1%.
and the sector community development
tiers. There are 30 districts (akarere)
committee (SCDC).
which constitute the primary local
4.2 Voting system
authorities, as well as sectors (imerenge),
cells (utugari) and villages (imudungu). 3.3.3 Cell (utugari) councils are elected At the village level, local government
for a five-year term to identify, discuss law stipulates that all village residents
and prioritise issues, and take decisions are members of their village council.
3.3.1 The district (akarere) council Cell council members are directly
on behalf of their electorate. The cell
is the policy-making and legislative elected by universal adult suffrage of
executive committee is composed of
body at district level. It is the authority the cell residents. Representatives are
the executive secretary and a secretary
through which the people, via their then indirectly elected from the cell
in charge of coordinating social
representatives, can exercise their council members to the sector council,
developments. Staff are responsible
decision-making and planning powers which then in turn indirectly elects a
for administration and community
to determine the development of the representative to the district council.
development, including the day-to-
district. For transparency and inclusivity
day administration of the cell and the
the district council chairperson must
implementation of decisions taken by 4.3 Elected representatives
be a different person from the district
the cell council. The cell executive works At its inaugural meeting, the district
mayor. The size of each council is
through its technical committee, the cell council elects a chairperson from among
determined by the number of sectors
community development committee the elected councillors and the three
(imerenge) within its boundaries. Each
(CCDC), to identify and prioritise needs, members of the executive committee
sector provides a representative to the
draw up development plans and mobilise elected by all council members from cell
council.
development resources. level to district.
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THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM IN rwanda COUNTRY PROFILE 2017–18
4.4 Women’s representation Table 33.1b Women councillors and mayors following the last three local elections
In accordance with local election Election 2006 2011 2016
legislation and the constitution, the
percentage of women elected in local All councillors # % # % # %
government cannot drop below 30%
of total representation in any level of All female councillors na na na na na na
local decision-making including full All male councillors na na na na na na
council and executive committees.
The proportion of women councillors Total councillors na 100.0 na 100.0 na 100.0
following the 2016 elections was
approximately 40%. This was a slight District councillors # % # % # %
increase overall on the 2011 elections, Female district councillors na na na 43.2 na 43.6
with small increase in the proportion of
women councillors at the district and Male district councillors na na na 56.8 na 56.4
village levels, but a larger decrease in
Total district councillors na 100.0 na 100.0 na 100.0
the proportion of women councillors
at the sector and cell levels – see Table Sector councillors # % # % # %
33.1b. Data on the number of female
chairpersons and mayors at all levels Female sector councillors na na na 45.1 na 42.7
following the 2016 elections was not
available; however following the 2011 Male sector councillors na na na 54.9 na 57.3
elections, at district level, 10% of mayors Total sector councillors na 100.0 na 100.0 na 100.0
and 50% of deputy mayors were female.
Cell councillors # % # % # %
5. SYSTEMS FOR
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Female cell councillors na na na 43.9 na 41.7
5.1 Legal requirement and Male cell councillors na na na 56.1 na 58.3
5.2 implementation
Total cell councillors na 100.0 na 100.0 na 100.0
There are various official channels to
encourage community participation Village councillors # % # % # %
in decision-making, including but not
limited to: community assemblies (inteko Female village councillors na na na 38.7 na 39.4
z’abaturage): these convene monthly
to discuss government policies and Male village councillors na na na 61.3 na 60.6
programmes and resolve domestic Total village councillors na 100.0 na 100.0 na 100.0
disputes in a given community. There
are also local mediators (abunzi) who All chairpersons # % # % # %
convene to resolve disputes in the cells;
community work (umuganda): on the Female mayors na na na na na na
last Saturday of each month, citizens Male mayors na na na na na na
participate in community work known as
umuganda to develop their communities. Total mayors na 100.0 na 100.0 na 100.0
The Vision 2020 Umerenge Programme
District chairpersons # % # % # %
(VUP) is part of Rwanda’s poverty
reduction strategy and a mechanism Female district chairpersons na na na ∼10.0 na na
through which communities in targeted
sectors participate in public service. Male district chairpersons na na na ∼90.0 na na
Existing channels for local participation Total district chairpersons na 100.0 na 100.0 na 100.0
include:
■■ a joint action development forum at Sector chairpersons # % # % # %
both district and sector levels
Female sector chairpersons na na na na na na
■■ public accountability days to
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COUNTRY PROFILE 2017–18 THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM IN rwanda
5.3 ICT use in citizen engagement Table 33.2a Aggregate income and expenditure for local government 2013/14
All local governments are encouraged to Income RWF (bn) Expenditure RWF (bn)
have an active website.33.5
Centre–local transfers Staff and administration
Table 33.2b Local government expenditure as a percentage of total government expenditure 2013–16
2012/13 actual 2013/14 actual 2014/15 actual 2015/16 actual
RWFbn RWFbn RWFbn RWFbn
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THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM IN rwanda COUNTRY PROFILE 2017–18
10. DISTRIBUTION OF SERVICE highlights the need for greater progress 33.6b Local Government Institute,
DELIVERY RESPONSIBILITY on decentralisation, especially in North Rwanda www.lgi.rw
10.1 Overview of local government Africa. Its highlighted priority areas 33.7 No references for this section
service delivery responsibility include: ensuring fiscal decentralisation 33.8 No references for this section
The constitution assigns executive follows political decentralisation;
33.9 Based on figure provided in the
powers to local government over matching grant mechanisms; local
profile by MINALOC and the
the following areas of activity, often capacity-building, and equitable
Ministry of Finance annual finance
implemented in partnership with other distribution of extractive royalties.
reports 2012–16 www.minecofin.
government and non-government Focusing on Rwanda, MINALOC and
gov.rw/index.php?id=124
agencies: RALGA are working with CLGF to
33.10a SDG Centre for Africa
take forward an EC-funded project
http://sdgcafrica.org
■■ rural electrification on strengthening local government’s
role as a partner in development, with 33.10b CLGF activities in Rwanda
■■ environmental management
specific reference to localising and www.clgf.org.uk/regions/clgf-east-
■■ local economic development and
implementing the SDGs.33.10b africa/rwanda
tourism
33.11a UN 2012 statistics surface area
■■ municipal planning, building
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/
regulations, public works and REFERENCES AND USEFUL WEBSITES demographic/products/dyb/
transport 33.1a Rwanda Government www.gov.rw dyb2006/Table03.pdf
■■ social protection 33.1b Inter-Parliamentary Union 33.11b Commonwealth Local
■■ primary health services ‘Women in national parliaments’, Government knowledge hub
■■ water, sewage and sanitation services www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm www.clgf.org.uk/resource-centre/
■■ involvement of community 33.2a Rwandan Constitution 2003 knowledge-hub
organisations in matters of local www.parliament.gov.rw/ 33.11c ‘Assessment of Local Democracy
government. fileadmin/Images2013/Rwandan_ and Local Governance:
Local governments also have the Constitution.pdf Benchmarking Rwanda against
discretion to deliver the following services: 33.2b Organic Law No. 29 of 2005 the Aberdeen Principles’ www.
https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/ minaloc.gov.rw/fileadmin/
■■ community policing handle/2152/5067 documents/Minaloc_Documents/
■■ civil status register 33.2c Revised National Assessment_of_Local_
■■ kindergarten, nursery and adult Denationalisation Policy 2013 Democracy_and_Local_
education www.minaloc.gov.rw/fileadmin/ Governance_Benchmarking_
■■ housing construction permits documents/Minaloc_Documents/ Rwanda_Against_Aberdeen_
■■ town planning, rural road Revised_Decentralisation_Policy_ Principles.pdf.
construction and transport for_Cabinet_30_01_2013.pdf 33.11d Taking stock of Rwanda’s
■■ cemeteries, crematoria and religious 33.2d Rwanda National Urbanization decentralisation: changing local
facilities Policy 2015 www.kigalicity.gov.rw/ governance in a post-conflict
fileadmin/Template/Documents/ environment. Chemouni, B. 2016
■■ environmental protection
policies/Rwanda_National_ Third World Thematics 1:6, p.
local economic promotion.
763–778 www.tandfonline.com/doi/
■■
Urbanization_Policy_2015.pdf
33.3a Population and Housing Census full/10.1080/23802014.2016.1297207
10.2 ICT use in service delivery 2012, provisional results www. 33.11e Beneath the veneer:
E-government is used in service delivery statistics.gov.rw/publications/2012- decentralisation and post-
and communication. population-and-housing-census- conflict reconstruction in
provisional-results Rwanda. Gaynor, G. 2016 Third
33.3b Ministry of Local Government World Thematics 1:6, p. 779–798
10.3 The role of local government
www.minaloc.gov.rw www.tandfonline.com/doi/
in achieving the UN Sustainable
33.4a National Election Commission full/10.1080/23802014.2016.1333450
Development Goals (SDGs)
www.nec.gov.rw 33.11f Decentralisation as a post-conflict
In 2016, President Kagame opened
33.4b Gender Monitoring Office, Annual state-building strategy in Northern
the new Sustainable Development
Report 2015/16 http://gmo.gov. Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone and
Goals Centre for Africa (SDGC/A) in
rw/fileadmin/user_upload/ Rwanda. Wall, G 2016 Third World
Kigali, which was set up to support
Annual-Reports/GMO_Annual_ Thematics 1:6, p. 898–920. www.
governments, civil society, businesses
Report_2015-2016.pdf tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2
and academic institutions in achieving
3802014.2016.1369859
the SDGs in Africa33.10a The SDGC/A’s 33.5 List of local council websites www.
minaloc.gov.rw/index.php?id=492 33.11g UNDP HDR Rwanda country
inaugural report, entitled ‘How Africa can
profile http://hdr.undp.org/en/
achieve the Sustainable Development 33.6a Rwanda Local Government
countries/profiles/RWA
Goals’ and launched in January 2017, Association www.ralgarwanda.org
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