2nd PUBLIC POLICY DIALOGUE ON INVESTING IN CHILDREN AND YOUTH - IN RWANDA

Date & Venue : December 19th, 2019 @ Kigali Serena Hotel
Organized jointly by EPRN, UNICEF, Save the Children, GIZ,CVT and CLADHO

1. Background

Article 4 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the obligation of States’ Governments to invest the appropriate resources for guaranteeing that all the rights safeguarded by the convention are fulfilled “to the maximum extent of their available resources”. Safeguarding of these rights requires States to engage in budgeting processes that allocate the necessary amount of resources to provide access to social services for all children for them to be able to reach their full potential […]”.

In June 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made general comment No. 19 on Public Budgeting for the Realization of Children’s Rights which sets out detailed guidance to states on their obligation to invest in children. The UN Committee recommends open, inclusive and accountable resource mobilization, budget allocation and spending. It clearly states that States must not discriminate against any child through resource mobilization, budgeting and spending. the committee underlined the fact that States parties are obliged to take measures within their budget processes to generate revenue and manage expenditures in a way that is sufficient to realize the rights of the child and suggested Governments to refer to principles of effectiveness, efficiency, equity, transparency and sustainability as tool of resource mobilization.

Rwanda is entering a new phase of development which will be propelled by Vision 2050 ambitions, primarily transforming Rwanda into an Upper Middle-income country by 2035 and a High-income country by 2050. The National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) is being implemented to support Rwanda’s transition from vision 2020 to the Vision 2050.

The Government of Rwanda in collaboration with the World Bank recently completed an analysis on the future drivers of growth. The findings emphasize the need for an even stronger focus on human capital development and innovation as catalysts for development in the long term.

In this regard, the Government of Rwanda’s investments are putting more emphasis on strengthening the human capital development under the Social Transformation pillar of the NST1. This is reflected accordingly in the national budget FY2019/20 whereby the government is investing more than 25 per cent of its resources in Human capital development interventions such as education, health, and social protection.

It is against this background that there is a vital need for policy makers to keep on engaging with other players in the development journey, to continually reflect on the required investments for children and youth as key beneficiaries in human capital and innovation strengthening. Further review is also very critical on the assessment of efficiency and effectiveness of the use of public financing through robust monitoring, evaluating and analyzing the impact existing policies, strategies and plans in the transformation agenda that Rwanda has embarked on.

2. Objective

The main objective of this public policy dialogue is to enable stakeholders from Government (central and district), Development Partners, Non-Government Organizations, Faith-based organizations, Private sector organizations, researchers and academics to reflect on the investment needs for children and youth in Rwanda toward the achievement of highly productive human capital country and innovation hub.

Specifically, the policy dialogue will be an opportunity to :

  • Show case the recent analytical works (budget briefs) conducted around public financing for children and young people,
  • Present the Citizens guide to the national budget 2019/20,
  • Share success stories about children and young people’s participation in national and decentralized entities planning and budgeting processes.
  • Draw lessons learned from access to public budget information - Open Budget portal and public consultation.

3. Expected results

After the policy dialogue, participants will have : (i) an increased understanding of the scale and level of investments needed in children and youth (Public Financing for Children) in Rwanda ; (ii) increased awareness on the investments trends in children and young people and the areas that require further improvements ; and (iii) proposed recommendations on how to strengthen transformative and participatory planning and budgeting in Rwanda. The participants will additionally have an increased understanding of the existing tools and framework in place to access budget information.

4. Agenda

The public dialogue will last for half a day and shall be characterized by thematic presentations and panel discussions.

Time Activity Responsible
8:30 - 9:00 Registration EPRN
9:00 - 9:20 Opening remarks EPRN- Chair Person UNICEF- Country Representative Save the Children- Country Director EU-Representative ? MINECOFIN/MINALOC (TBC)
9:20 - 10:00 Presentation on Budget briefs (Health, Education, Social Protection, WASH) UNICEF
10:00-10:30 Presentation on the Citizens guide to the national budget 2019/20 MINECOFIN
10:30-10:45 Coffee Break
10:45–11:10 Children’s Participation in the budgeting process at local level : Opportunities and challenges

Save the Children/CVT

11:10–11:45 Children and young people’s participation in national and decentralized entities’ planning and budgeting processes. What did we learn ? How to streamline the children engagement CLADHO
11:45-12:00 Access to budget information : central Government and Decentralized Entities MINECOFIN/ RALGA/ Save the Children
12:00-12:30 Children’s Panel Discussion CLADHO & Save the children/CVT
12:30-13:00 Recap and Closing remarks Save the Children/EPRN

5. Participants

The policy dialogue will bring together stakeholders from the following institutions :

  • Government (Ministries, Agencies, and decentralized entities (Districts))
  • Civil society and faith-based organizations
  • International Non-Government organizations
  • Academics, Research and think thanks
  • Development partners (UN Agencies, International Financial Institutions, Bilateral Agencies/Organizations)
  • Private Sector Federation

A. Government Institutions

  • MINECOFIN
  • MINALOC
  • MIGEPROF
  • MINEDUC
  • MIFOTRA
  • MINUJUST
  • MINIYOUTH
  • MININFRA
  • MINISANTE
  • WASAC
  • LODA
  • NCC
  • RGB
  • NECDP
  • RBC
  • REB
  • NISR
  • NCHR
  • DISTRICTS
  • PARLIAMENT-Chamber of deputies

B. Development Partners and bilateral organizations

  • European Union
  • World Bank
  • DFID
  • USAID
  • JICA
  • KOICA
  • GIZ
  • Enabel
  • SIDA

C. UN Agencies

  • UNICEF
  • UNDP
  • UNHCR
  • UNFPA
  • UNWOMEN
  • FAO
  • WHO

D. Local and International NGOs
E. Children’s representatives
F. Media
G. Academia and Think tank (All Tertiary Institutions)

6. Date and Venue

19th December 2019, Venue : TBC

7. Policy dialogue Organizers

A. EPRN Rwanda

The Economic Policy Research Network (EPRN) is formerly registered with the Rwanda Governance Board as a national non-Governance Board as a national non-governmental organization (Registration No 240/RGB/NGO/2017), and its mission is contribute to the evidence based policy making in Rwanda and capacity strengthening through offering professional trainings creating networking opportunities, carrying out high quality research and organizing national policy dialogues as a space for research dissemination and advocacy thus promote socio-economic policy reforms for well being of Rwandans.

B. SAVE THE CHILDREN

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In Rwanda and around the world, Save the children work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, Save the children is always among the first to respond and the last to leave. Save the Children has been working in Rwanda since 1994. In the immediate aftermath of the genocide, Save the Children helped trace parents or relatives of thousands of children who had become separated from their families. Since then, it has been working in partnership with the government and local stakeholders to promote a bright future for Rwanda’s children.

At present, Save the Children has Programmes in Child Protection, Child Rights Governance which include public budget analysis, Education, Humanitarian Relief and Health and Nutrition. In 2017, Save the Children in Rwanda directly reached 395,079 children and 127,633 adults. Currently, Save the Children Rwanda Program coverage reaches 30 districts of Rwanda. https://rwanda.savethechildren.net/

C. UNICEF

UNICEF began its development work in Rwanda in 1986. After the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, UNICEF’s assistance focused on emergency, recovery, and small-scale projects. When the Rwanda Aid Policy as passed in 2008, with the beginning of the UN Delivering as One reform, UNICEF’s work as part of the One UN programme shifted to larger scale projects and national policy support to the Government key programme areas. The 2018-2023 Country Programme continues to support the realization of the rights of every child, especially the most disadvantaged. Guided by the SDG principle ‘leaving no one behind’, the programme contributes to five priorities under the social transformation pillar of the Government’s National Strategy for Transformation 2017-2024 : The areas of focus are ;
(i) ensuring access to quality health for all ;
(ii) reducing malnutrition ;
(iii) increasing access to and improving the quality of education ;
(iv) moving towards a modern Rwandan household ; and
(v) enhancing graduation from poverty and promoting resilience. https://www.unicef.org/rwanda/about-unicef-rwanda

D. CLADHO (Collectif des Ligues et Associations de Défense des Droits de l’Homme au Rwanda) is the umbrella of Human Rights organizations in Rwanda, founded in 1993 with an aim of promoting, protecting and defending human rights in all settings. CLADHO participates also in promoting open informed debates on key social and economic policy issues and proposes feasible policy alternatives. Through government budget interventions, CLADHO provides comments on budget programmes that addresses legal and institutional constraints to facilitate economic reforms and growth, poverty reduction and human rights. CLADHO runs different programs on human rights, social protection, advocacy and social economic rights. https://www.cladho.org.rw/index1e35.html?id=39

Children’s Voice Today (CVT) is Child/youth led organization that was established in 2001 to promote the rights of the child through meaningful child participation where children/youth initiate and lead all activities of the organization. (Registration No 26/RGB/NGO/2015). Children’s Voice Today (CVT) is envisioning a child-friendly society whereby children are empowered to meaningfully participate in addressing issues affecting them and that their voices are heard. With its mission, CVT is committed to be the voice of Rwandan children, to empower them to advocate for their rights and to fight against poverty.https://childrensvoicetoday.org/

Kindly, register here to confirm your availability as we have limited places.

FINAL POLICY DIALOGUE BRIEF

Presentation on Citizen Guide

Final Presentation_Public Investments for children-In Rwanda 2019-20_Final

CLADHO UNICEF_ Presentation

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