On Thursday, 29th January 2015, UN agencies, government agencies, and development partners gathered to support national civil society in Rwanda at a Program Steering Committee meeting of the Joint Program on Strengthening Civil Society Organizations for Responsive and Accountable Governance in Rwanda.

“A vibrant civil society is important for any democratic society,” said Lamin Manneh, One UN Rwanda Resident Coordinator, stressing the significance of empowering civil society to become a paramount actor to further deepening accountable governance in Rwanda.

This 5-year Joint Program was launched in early 2014, aiming to enhancing the capacities of civil society organizations in Rwanda, including moving more towards an evidence-based and advocacy driven civil society.

During the meeting, concrete results were reported, and the participants discussed further development of the Program. Last year, the Program provided about USD 1 million to 26 civil society organizations (CSOs) which were selected through a transparent, competitive selection process. Beyond financial support, the selected CSOs were also trained in the areas of project management, result-based monitoring, and communication. The Program will further expand its capacity building activities to the areas of human rights, gender, monitoring and evaluation, as well as advocacy in coming months.

“Now, we would like to step up efforts beyond grant-making components,” said Prof. Shyaka, CEO of Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), an implementing partner of the Program.

The Program is increasing its engagement at local levels by supporting the Joint Action Development Forum (JADF), a consultative forum for district stakeholders (CSOs, development partners, and private and public sectors), to strengthen the coordination at district level and the contribution of CSOs in local development. It has also been conducting a CSO mapping exercise to get a clear picture of the CSOs engagement at local level and foster partnership and synergy between local development actors. Moreover, the program will support RGB in carrying out its mandate towards CSOs including the establishment of the electronic registration tool and capacity building of CSOs.

One UN Resident Coordinator, Lamin Manneh, expressed his appreciation for the high performance of the Program which was made possible by the level of trust and cooperation between One UN Rwanda and the Government of Rwanda.  He also emphasized the One UN’s commitment to continue empowering national civil society in partnership with the Government of Rwanda.