December 18, 2019;  A team of six staff from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in Rwanda successfully completed an eight months training program offered by the Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI), that seeks to build Public Finance Management (PFM) capabilities in Africa.

Unlike the hiring of consultants or technical assistants to solve PFM problems in different countries, CABRI’s PDIA (Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation) approach involves support of local country teams (through training) to identify local PFM problems, identify the causes and the entry points and solutions to address them, an approach that promotes ownership and sustainability of the PFM reforms.

At the heart of the PDIA approach is the identification of local solutions for local problems by Government officials backed by strong support of executive management and collaboration with relevant stakeholders in identifying as well as committing to address the problem.

The Rwandan team chose to address the “Low Citizen participation in Planning and Budgeting leading to limited accountability for results” as indicated by different RGB Citizen Report Cards.

The program involved online courses that started on 15th April 2019, a framing workshop for all participating countries that was held in Kigali in May and the final training and peer review workshop held from 11th to13th December 2019 in Dar es salaam, Tanzania.

Having met all the requirements that include completion of both individual and team assignments, all Rwandan participants successfully completed the program, scooping the Best presentation award.
The Rwandan team comprised of  Geoffrey Asiimwe, Diana Mbabazi, Wilson Twesigye, from the National Budget Department, Bruce Nsengyiyumva and Jonathan Havugimana from the office of the Accountant General and Richard Mushabe, from National Development Planning and Research.

The acquired skills and knowledge will be transferred to other relevant public servants and applied to address the PFM challenges both in central and local Governments.

Other African countries participating in the CABRI’s PDIA program in 2019 include Ethiopia, Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Central African Republic.