On Friday 14^th October 2022, Rwanda Governance Board launched the Rwanda Governance Scorecard (RGS) 9^th Edition. The event took place at Kigali Serena Hotel and attracted a wide range of participants including Heads of Government institutions, members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Rwanda, Heads of international organisations, representatives of CSOs, the private sector, the academia and the media.

RGS is a national index published annually to consistently gauge the state of governance in Rwanda. It is built on eight pillars, namely: Rule of Law; Political Rights and Civil Liberties; Participation and Inclusiveness; Safety and Security; Investing in Human and Social Development; Anti-corruption, Transparency and Accountability; Quality of Service Delivery and Economic and Corporate Governance.

RGB CEO, Dr. KAITESI Usta presenting the findings of RGS 9^th Edition

The pillar of Political Rights and Civil Liberties recorded the highest rate of increase (4.04%) compared to its performance in RGS 8^th edition. The improvement derived from the increase in performance of the four indicators comprising this pillar; the most improved indicator being Respect for Human Rights & Core International Conventions which registered an improvement of 11.59%.

In regard to the performance of other pillars, Safety and Security, just it did in the previously eight editions, retained the first position with a score of 95.53%, followed by Rule of Law with 90.81%, Political Rights and Civil Liberties 87.84%, Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability with 87.31%, Participation and Inclusiveness with 87.19%, Economic and Corporate Governance with 77.85, Quality of Service Delivery 77.69 while the least performing pillar was Investing in Human and Social Development with a score of 75.81, but its score increased by 0.58% compared to RGS 8th Edition. The pillar also had the lowest score in the two previous editions of RGS. Its performance was affected by issues in social protection for people with disabilities and climate change resilience.

While presenting the findings of RGS 9^th Edition, Dr. KAITESI Usta, the Chief Executive Officer of RGB described RGS as an accountability and transparency tool that is founded on the core definitions of governance in Rwanda.  

In RGS 9^th Edition, out of its eight pillars, all but one pillar recorded improvements in scores.  Quality of Service Delivery is the only pillar that registered a downward trend, declining by 4.17% compared to RGS 8th Edition.

In her opening remarks, UNDP Rwanda Deputy Resident Representative, Ms. Varsha Redkar-Palepu, observed that the launch the 9^th edition was an opportunity to reflect on the state of governance in Rwanda, improve areas that need to be improved and define strategies to address those that are lagging behind.  

UNDP Rwanda Deputy Resident Representative Ms. Varsha Redkar-Palepu delivering opening remarks during the launch of RGS 9^th Edition.

She reiterated her institution’s support to Rwanda governance accountability tools such as the scorecard as they help stimulate discussion around emerging governance issues.  

RGS is a home-grown quantifiable index that consistently gauges the state of governance in Rwanda. It places global governance standards and home-grown indicators at the center of its method which makes it uniquely relevant to both the international and national contexts.