Articles de revues sur le sujet « Businesswomen – Government policy – Rwanda »

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the Rwandan government’s anti-corruption strategy and identify lessons for policymakers in other countries. Design/methodology/approach This paper relies on materials obtained from the Rwandan government, from websites, research reports, press articles and publications as well as interviews with scholars, with Rwandan government officials, and the staff of non-governmental organizations. Findings The Rwandan government formulates and implements its anti-corruption efforts via donors’ governance support and homegrown initiatives. Corruption has been minimized by eradicating opportunities for misconduct and by focusing on governance reforms and maintaining a zero-tolerance policy against corruption. Political will and strong leadership, the active role played by the anti-corruption agency, and effective governance reform have made Rwanda’s anti-corruption activities successful. Originality/value This paper is a scholarly examination of the Rwandan government’s anti-corruption strategy.

Although ,Rwanda has approved its Early Childhood Development (ECD) Policy and Strategic Plan in September 2011, the policy was established and implemented in different ways in early childhood education, yet preschool has a long way to go. Equally, having a focus on preschool education is the best investment that Rwanda can make to achieve other national goals such as, reducing maternal mortality, eliminating malnutrition and improving access to quality education. Empirical evidence gathered from secondary sources indicates that government has put more effort in improving quality of education. Yet on preschool level, indicators available illustrates that the results are far from expectation. The study further discusses the challenges faced by government in the design and implementation of ECD policy that have led to the ensuing situation.

This paper attempts to quantify the coordination between monetary and fiscal policies in Rwanda from 2008 to 2018. The paper uses Granger causality test and vector autoregressive (VAR) framework to determine whether these policies are implemented independently and also looks at the extent of their coordination. The empirical results using unstructured VAR model suggest that monetary and fiscal policies interact and are coordinated in Rwanda. The impulse response functions demonstrate significant interaction between monetary and fiscal policy. For instance a positive shock on government expenditure induces an increase in broad money that in turn induces an increase in liquidity in the economy. Finally, the paper recommends that both policies should continue interacting in order to strengthen policy coordination. Therefore, ultimately achieve a stable and low inflation together with high growth.

The aim of this study was to explain the relative effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policies in explaining output in Rwanda. The study used a sample of quarterly data for the period 1996-2014. Applying a recursive VAR, the study used 12 variables, including 5 endogenous and 7exogenous variables to the benchmark model and other two specifications were attempted to capture the true contribution of monetary and fiscal policies to variations in nominal output. Obtained results using impulse responses and variance decomposition provide evidence that monetary policy is more effective than fiscal policy in explaining changes in nominal output in Rwanda. In addition, monetary policy explains better output when the VAR model contains domestic exogenous variables than when they are not included, suggesting the relevance of including domestic exogenous variables in VAR specification of monetary and fiscal policies effectiveness on economic variables. Another suggestion is that in order to achieve higher growth, the government of Rwanda should rely more on monetary policy as compared to fiscal policy.

Abstract This article studies donor–government relations in Rwanda since the end of the 1994 genocide. The notion that Rwanda enjoyed or enjoys exceptional relations with donors because of guilt regarding their inaction during the genocide is widespread in the literature and in policy circles. To assess this myth, the article first looks at aid trends for Rwanda and comparable countries, and then takes an in-depth look at aid relations with two average-size donors: Canada and the Netherlands. It demonstrates that Rwanda is not as exceptional as claimed, but instead should be considered one amongst a group of exceptional cooperation partners. The article further highlights that donors operated informally immediately following the genocide, but soon renormalized aid relations, and that there has always been a complex set of rationales determining donor behaviour regarding Rwanda.

In this decade, the formalization of informal sector is challenging as it provides jobs to the big number of the population and on the other hand, this group of active population work in conditions, which do not allow them to benefit some advantages from the government and these lead to not providing enough contribution to the economic growth. The main objective of the study was to find out the factors underlying for formalization of informal enterprises in Rwanda. In order to respond to the main objective, we used a desk research approach and we found that there is a necessity of enterprise formalization in Rwanda and the identified key factors are the enterprise motives/long term objectives, cash less economy/innovation in payment system and government policy for enterprise registration. The study also illustrated the factors or ways for private informal-rural enterprise formalization process may consider and some of them are affordable cost of taxation, accessibility to finance, accessibility to the markets as well as the time taken for getting legal documents. From the findings, the study recommend that the consistency capacity building so that to help managers to understand the necessity of informal sector formalization, government to continue working on the minimization of the costs related to the enterprise registration that include time, distance and other procedures and government also to continue enhancing infrastructures in rural zones. The study used secondary data both qualitative and quantitative from existing reports and data from National Institute of statistics of Rwanda.

ABSTRACTDifferent strategies have been used by the Rwandan government to promote capitalist accumulation. In some sectors, party and military owned enterprises are predominant. In others, the government has chosen to embrace market-led reforms. Ultimately, the vulnerability experienced by ruling elites contributes to the choice of how capital accumulation is promoted in different sectors. Ruling elites use party and military enterprises to centralise rents and establish control over the direction of economic policy. However, centralising rents is a political choice and excludes individuals from developing access to rents. The pyrethrum sector shows that the use of such groups has resulted in unequal outcomes despite increases in productivity. Reduced international prices have stunted further productivity. Conversely, the mining sector shows evidence of the pursuit of market-led reforms. These reforms have been accompanied by rapid growth in domestic production and exports. Foreign investment was necessary in order to bring capital and expertise to the sector. However, the government has struggled to retain the capacity to enforce legislation and discipline foreign investors in line with national priorities. Both sectors show evidence that ruling elites have been prompted by vulnerability to commit to economic development. Constraints that have accompanied strategies pursued in these sectors have forced the government to work ‘reactively’ to achieve strategic targets.

Awareness of the importance of spatial data in achieving development strategies is high in Rwanda. Government and non-governmental institutions are aspiring to use Geographic Information Technologies (GITs) in their day-to-day activities. The non-existence of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) in Rwanda brings to light serious issues for consideration. Still lacking is a spatial data policy relating to spatial data use. A mechanism to ease spatial data access and sharing is imperative. This paper describes SDI related efforts in Rwanda in a bid to establish the NSDI. Employing a multi-stakeholder approach to drive the process is advocated. To support this, SDI models in some countries are presented that could be applicable to the Rwandan context. Key players with potential roles in the NSDI were identified.

Rwanda has aimed to achieve food self-sufficiency but faces binding land and budgetary constraints. A set of government policies have been in force for 20 years that have controlled the major cropping decisions of farmers. A cost–benefit analysis methodology is employed to evaluate the financial and resource flow statements of the key stakeholders. The object of the analysis is to determine the sustainability of the prevailing agricultural policies from the perspectives of the farmers, the economy, and the government budget. A total of seven crops were evaluated. In all provinces, one or more of the crops were either not sustainable from the financial perspective of the farmers or are economically inefficient in the use of Rwanda’s scarce resources. The annual fiscal cost to the government of supporting the sector is substantial but overall viewed to be sustainable. A major refocusing is needed of agricultural policies, away from a monocropping strategy to one that allows the farmers to adapt to local circumstances. A more market-oriented approach is needed if the government wishes to achieve its economic development goal of having a sustainable agricultural sector that supports the policy goal of achieving food self-sufficiency.

In 2003, Rwanda introduced free education as part of government policy to improve school enrolment in general and the attendance of deprived children in particular. However, in addition to school fees, other factors hamper school careers of children. Shifts in attendance were analysed using binary logistic regression on data from the 2000 and 2005 Integrated Household Living Conditions Surveys. The results show that although the policy has been very successful, the objective has not been achieved. We find a strong effect of the sibling position of the child in the household and its relation to the household head. Substantial numbers of orphans/foster children in Rwanda do not profit from the free education policy and part of the children leave before completing school, in particular girls. Free education is only one step towards a more equitable distribution of educational opportunities.

If ever Africa had disappeared, it has now reappeared on the maps of investors seeking for land and resources. The entire continent seems to have become attractive for international financial institutions, which intensify their recommendations to single national Governments in order for them to further remove obstacles and make Africa an “ever better place to do business”. Rwanda represents an emblematic example of the rapidity and size of transformations Africa is faced with, which touch every sector, from the land ownership model to the modes of land use, from the distribution of population, to the construction of infrastructure. It is a fertile country, with a good water supply and two crop seasons, and is almost entirely cultivated. The majority of the inhabitants work the land, and subside thanks to agriculture. Today, however, the Government's goal, synthetically expressed in the slogan that defines the future of Rwanda as Africa's Singapore (Vesperini, 2010), is the modernization of agriculture, and the reduction of its weight in favour of a service economy. The most visible effects of this approach are the expulsion from the countryside of a huge number of families which lose any type of sustainment, and the grouping of many small plots in large territorial extensions which are often given for long term use to multinational agribusiness corporations. The transformation of agriculture is accompanied by the redistribution of population, traditionally settled in scattered patterns across the whole country. The massive migration from the countryside is explicitly sought by Government, whose target is to reach, by 2020, a 35% urbanization rate up from today's 18%. The three issues, total and unconditional opening to foreign investment, population resettlement and transformation of the agricultural activities, which are the pillars of the development programs initiated by Government and international advisors, are producing dramatic changes on the physical and built environment, and affect the living conditions of the weakest groups (White, Borras, Hall, Scoones, Walford, 2012). The paper proposes a reflection on themes which have general relevance, but which also need to be locally grounded. Of particular importance are urbanization, the relationship between towns and countryside, and the relationship between social and economic structure and territorial planning. In 2012 the author took part as consultant to the drafting of the Urbanization sector strategic plan 2012-2017. The views expressed here are personal and do not in any way represent the Government or Institutions’ point of view.

Financial inclusion is a major policy concern with governments across the world. Rwanda as a country with fast development averaging to 6.9% from 2011 to 2015 has done an improvement in financial inclusion as well. This country with stable growth interested the researchers to know whether this development goes hand in hand with financial inclusion. This paper is an attempt to show the overview of financial inclusion in Rwanda. Secondary data from Rwanda Fin scope survey 2008, 2012 and 2016 were used in this study. Apart from that, this paper uses data from Banque National du Rwanda from 2011 to 2015. Many researches were conducted on financial inclusion in different countries but none of them took Rwanda as a special case. The results show that there is an improvement in financial inclusion in Rwanda as the number of financially excluded dropped from 52% in 2008 to 11% in 2016.The problem is that the number of banked adults did not increase from 2008 to 2016. Banked adults in Rwanda were 14% in 2008, 23% in 2012 and 26% in 2016.This shows that many Rwandan adults are not banked. The government should continue to mobilize citizens to join banks. Mobile payment improved tremendously and this should be strengthened and more regulated as it is serving many Rwandans.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline the S&T and innovation policy challenges that Rwanda is experiencing in building a knowledge-based economy and draw some more general lessons for African countries. Design/methodology/approach The approach is based on methodological framework of country reviews used by international organizations in the field of science, technology and innovation policies. Findings The paper presents government policies that have been decisive for the good performance of the country in rebuilding its economy and society since the genocide (1994). It highlights the policy measures that have been taken in the fields of education, information and communication technologies, industry, science and so on with a view to put the country on a knowledge-driven development process. It pinpoints the need for more proactive policies to stimulate the diffusion of new technologies and innovation throughout the economy and the different sectors, including agriculture which employs still 80 percent of the population. Research limitations/implications The paper is based on a short field mission (conducted for an international organization) and the collection of published data, in focusing on important messages that should be given to the government, without an in-depth empirical and detailed research. Practical implications The paper is a kind of summary of a 80-page report to be published in the course of 2017. It is expected that the analysis will be clear enough to stimulate appropriate action by the Government of Rwanda. Social implications There is no direct social implications, but one may expect that the ideas if adopted by the government will help improving the living conditions in the country. Originality/value Such country reviews performed by international organizations are unique. They provide key insights on the innovation climate and policy of the nation that is studied, while they offer useful perspectives for countries at similar level of development.

Since the 1994 genocide and civil war, the Rwandan government has implemented an externally funded disarmament, demobilization and reintegration/security sector reform (DDR/SSR) programme culminating in the consolidation of armed groups into a new, professionalized Rwanda Defence Force. Feminists argue that DDR/SSR initiatives that exclude combatant women and girls or ignore gendered security needs fail to transform the political conditions that led to conflict. Less attention has been paid to how gendered relations of power play out through gender-sensitive DDR and SSR initiatives that seek to integrate women and transform hyper-masculine militarized masculinities. This article investigates how Rwanda’s DDR/SSR programme is governed by an oppressive masculine logic. Drawing on critical studies on men and masculinities and feminist work on peacebuilding, myths and the politics of belonging, it argues that Rwanda’s locally owned DDR/SSR programme places the military and militarization at the centre of the country’s nation-building programme. Through various ‘boundary-construction’ practices, the Rwandan government attempts to stabilize the post-1994 gender order and entrench the hegemony of a new militarized masculinity in Rwandan society. The case study draws on field research conducted in 2014 and 2015 and a discourse analysis of historical accounts, policy documents and training materials of the Rwanda Defence Force.

In conflict situations, many people are displaced because of hostility and arms in the area. Displaced people are forced to leave behind their properties, and this in turn interrupts the relationship between people and their land. The emergency period in particular has been identified as a weak point in the humanitarian response to land issues in post-conflict situations. In addition, during this period of response, most post-conflict governments do not prioritize land administration as an emergency issue due to other social, economic, security, and political challenges, which countries face in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. In the longer run, this results in post-conflict illegal land occupation, secondary occupation, numerous disputes and claims over land, and dysfunctional government institutions that legalize these illegal and secondary occupations. This research explores the nexus between displacement and land administration in a post-conflict context. It uses empirical data from fieldwork in Rwanda, and discusses how government interventions in land administration in emergency and early recovery periods of post-conflict situations affect future land administration during the reconstruction phase. The post-conflict Rwandan government envisaged proper land administration as a contributor to sustainable peace and security as it enhances social equity and prevents conflicts. Thus, it embarked on a nationwide systematic land registration program to register land all over the country with the aim of easing land administration practices and reducing successive land-related claims and disputes. However, the program faced many challenges, among which were continuous land claims and disputes. Our research anticipates these continued land claims and disputes are due to how land issues were handled in the emergency and early recovery period of the post-conflict Rwanda, especially during land sharing initiatives and Imidugudu (collective settlement policy).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of economic factors in choosing alternative service providers and to recommend suitable measures that could be taken to improve the use of health services in Rwanda. The study uses a multinomial logit framework and employs the Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey (EICV2) conducted in 2005 by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR). To handle the problem of endogeneity, we estimate a structural model. The results indicate that health insurance is an important factor in the choice of health facilities. User fees are major financial barriers to health care access in Rwanda. The results suggest that as household income increases, patients shift from public to private health facilities where quality is assumed to be high. A number of policy recommendations emerge from these findings. First, as insurance is an important factor in choosing a health care facility, policies that reduce health care costs to patients would substantially increase the use of health services. Second, since an increase in income allows the patient to shift to private facilities, the government should consider subsidizing private health facilities to enable access to care in private sector facilities by low-income households. Finally, since distance affects access to health care in Rwanda, there is a need to improve geographical accessibility to health facilities across regions by upgrading and expanding transportation and health infrastructures.

ABSTRACTThe humanitarian impulse in the United States routinely clashes with isolationist sentiment, with appeals to the national interest, and with apathy in and out of government. This class exercise encourages students to explore the contours of the debate over humanitarian intervention with a crisis unfolding in Belagua, a fictitious Latin American country. As the crisis deteriorates, students increasingly feel the tension between wanting to help the at-risk civilian population and avoiding a messy conflict from which the United States could have trouble extracting itself. The project requires students to address key questions about the US role in the Belagua case and to consider what the United States could or should have done in actual situations, such as Rwanda and Syria. Because these crises are likely to occur in the decades to come, this exercise initiates students to the challenges that the United States, as well as the international community, undoubtedly will face.

Following the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, the Rwandan government implemented a policy of strengthening national identification at the expense of the ethnic group identities, which resembled the common in-group identity model (CIIM) known in social psychology. The present interview study examined how participants live being a member of the survivor or non-victim group and being a Rwandan. It also investigated the different perspectives of survivors and non-victims in relation to the policy of strengthening national identification at the expense of the ethnic groups. Consistent with socio-emotional needs-based model (NBM) (Nadler & Shnabel, 2008), the results show that most non-victims support the policy of strengthening national identification at the expense of the ethnic group identity because the national identity permits them to escape this negative moral image conferred by the subordinate identity. For survivors, their subordinate identity is related to the history of victimization. Half of them were supportive of this policy but they had to ensure that the commemoration period is maintained. The two oldest survivors preferred political identities which consider the ethnic group and national identity at the same time. Other reasons advanced of supporting single recategorization policy are related to the official translated version of the history, diverse government policies, empathy towards to the members of the perpetrator group and not representing the prototype of the group.

This study aimed to estimate students’ internal efficiency in Public Day Schools implementing Nine Year Basic Education (9YBE)[1] policy in Ngoma Sector, Huye District of Rwanda. Since the Government of Rwanda embarked on the implementation of 9YBE policy, the remarkable increase has been achieved in students’ enrolments at both primary and secondary education levels. But, little is known about the extent to which the policy has improved the indicators of internal efficiency such as duration of studies, years-input per graduate, survival and wastage rate. Through a descriptive design, data on students’ enrolments and graduation at lower secondary education for the cohort 2013/14 and 2017/18 were gathered from all 2 public day schools in Ngoma Sector by use of a statistical survey questionnaire. A reconstructed cohort analysis of 1000 students for both cohorts was computed and compared. The findings provided evidence that during the school years 2013/2017 there had been an increase in indicators students’ internal efficiency. Nevertheless, dropouts and stagnation have continued to be hindrances to high school internal efficiency at this level of education. The findings suggest further investigation of the causes of students' stagnation and dropout and workable interventions that consider the context of 9YBE policy. [1] 9YBE is an acronym given to Nine-Year Basic Education. According to the Ministry of Education, it is defined as " all children to be able to get an education in nine years, this is made up of six years of primary education and three years of the general cycle of secondary education without paying school fees."

This commentary is a further discussion of a paper published in this journal on the health professional training initiative led by the Government of Rwanda since 2012 and presented as a case study. According to the authors, the partnership program with international academic institutions may serve as model for other countries to address the shortage of health professionals and to strengthen institutional capacity, based on the competencybased and innovative training programs, the numbers of graduates, the improved quality of health services and institution strengthening. However, the conditions may not be as optimal elsewhere. A supportive government policy, massive funding and an academic consortium comprised of 19 United States academic institutions have contributed to the success of the program. We also noted that the trained professionals were clinicians almost exclusively, at the expense of public health specialists and other health professionals who can better address emerging issues such as non-communicable diseases (NCDs) particularly for their prevention, which is now compelling. Among others, the training of more nutritionists as members of the health team is needed.

Education is a key instrument for any nations’ economic, political, and social development. This is because education increases productivity of workers, reduces criminal activities, reduces mortality rates, and controls birth rates among many others. To these ends, governments assume the responsibility for providing and financing education. However, due to limited resources, governments, particularly in low and middle income countries are not able to respond to the high need and demand for education. It is in this perspective that governments have to explore diverse ways of financing and providing education. They therefore involve the private sector in financing and management of educational institutions. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine the role of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in widening access to higher education in Rwanda. Specifically, it tried to find out the extent to which PPPs has widened access to tertiary education in Rwanda, to highlight different forms of PPPs in Rwandan tertiary education and finally to explore different challenges to PPPs in Rwandan tertiary education. The study was a critical review critical review of different educational documents about the role of the public-private partnership in education. The study revealed that PPPs has considerably widened access to tertiary education. It was also revealed that PPPs take the form privately managed educational institutions, public and private organizations offering scholarships to students and the purchase of educational services from private sector by the government. It was finally revealed that lack of qualified staff, limited financing, and lack of policy and framework are key challenges to PPPs in tertiary education. Hence, government was recommended to develop clear PPPs policy and framework governing PPPs and both public and private sectors to strengthen PPPs to widen access to tertiary education for country sustainable development.

This contribution focuses on the study of Linguistic Landscapes in the Central/Western African state of Cameroon, with particular reference to its capital, Yaoundé. Linguistic landscapes is a relatively recent area of research, and can be broadly defined as the visual representation of languages in public space. This paper will show that the field of linguistic landscapes can act as a reflection of linguistic hierarchies, ideologies and acts of resistance in multilingual and multicultural communities. At the same time, the sociolinguistic situation in the country will be investigated, which is paramount to understanding the linguistic and ideological conflicts between the anglophone minority and the francophone government. Cameroon’s linguistic landscape will be explored via the various spaces that English, French, Pidgin English, Camfranglais and, to a minor degree, indigenous African languages occupy in its sociolinguistic composition. The methodological design is quantitative in nature, involving collecting more than 600 linguistic tokens (digital photos) in various public places mainly in and around the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé. It will be demonstrated that the deployment of languages on signs and linguistic tokens, apart from serving informative and symbolic functions for the audiences or passers-by they target, also has social and political implications in an ethnically heterogeneous and linguistically hybrid society such as Cameroon. Whereas in some other former British colonies there are indications that the public space is being symbolically constructed in order to preserve some of Africa’s indigenous languages (e.g. in Botswana, Rwanda, Tanzania), in Cameroon the linguistic landscape almost exclusively focuses on the dominant status and role of one single language, i.e. French, and to a lesser extent English, whose speakers therefore feel marginalized and oppressed by the French government.

Abstract. Air pollution is understudied in sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in a gap in the scientific understanding of emissions, atmospheric processes, and impacts of air pollutants in this region. The Rwanda Climate Observatory, a joint partnership between MIT and the government of Rwanda, has been measuring ambient concentrations of key long-lived greenhouse gases and the short-lived climate-forcing pollutants CO2, CO, CH4, black carbon (BC), and O3 with state-of-the-art instruments on the summit of Mt. Mugogo (1.586∘ S, 29.566∘ E; 2590 m above sea level) since May 2015. Rwanda is a small, mountainous, and densely populated country in equatorial East Africa, currently undergoing rapid development but still at less than 20 % urbanization. Black carbon concentrations during Rwanda's two dry seasons (December–January–February, DJF, and June–July–August, JJA), which coincide with the two regional biomass burning seasons, are higher at Mt. Mugogo than in major European cities with daily values (24 h) during the dry season of around 5 µg m−3 (daily average concentrations ranging from less than 0.1 to over 17 µg m−3 for the entire measurement period). BC baseline concentrations during biomass burning seasons are loosely correlated with fire radiative power data for the region acquired with a MODIS satellite instrument. The position and meteorology of Rwanda is such that the emissions transported from both the northern and southern African biomass burning seasons affect BC, CO, and O3 concentrations in Rwanda. Spectral aerosol absorption measured with a dual-spot Aethalometer varies seasonally due to changes in types of fuel burned and the direction of pollution transport to the site. Ozone concentrations peaked during Rwanda's dry seasons (daily measured maximum of 70 ppbv). The understanding and quantification of the percent contributions of regional and local (beyond large-scale biomass) emissions is essential to guide policy in the region. During the rainy seasons, local emitting activities (e.g., cooking, transportation, trash burning) remain steady, regional biomass burning is low, and transport distances are shorter as rainout of pollution occurs regularly. Thus, local pollution at Mugogo can be estimated during this time period and was found to account for up to 35 % of annual average BC measured. Our measurements indicate that air pollution is a current and growing problem in equatorial East Africa.

Abstract:This article situates the sexual violence associated with the Rwandan civil war and 1994 genocide within a local cultural history and political economy in which institutionalized gender violence shaped the choices of Rwandan women and girls. Based on ethnographic research, it argues that Western notions of sexual consent are not applicable to a culture in which colonialism, government policy, war, and scarcity of resources have limited women's access to land ownership, economic security, and other means of survival. It examines emic cultural models of sexual consent and female sexual agency and proposes that sexual slavery, forced marriage, prostitution, transactional sex, nonmarital sex, informal marriage or cohabitation, and customary (bridewealth) marriages exist on a continuum on which female sexual agency becomes more and more constrained by material circumstance. Even when women's choices are limited, women still exercise their agency to survive. Conflating all forms of sex in conflict zones under the rubric of harm undermines women's and children's rights because it reinforces gendered hierarchies and diverts attention from the structural conditions of poverty in postconflict societies.

Abstract Objectives Focusing on national trends can mask sub-national differences in reducing undernutrition. Using qualitative data, we aimed to understand differences in stunting reduction rates in Rwanda through the roles of commitment to improve nutrition and coherence across sectors and administrative levels in implementing Rwanda's multisectoral nutrition policy. Methods For this study, we purposefully selected 5 districts in which stunting decreased (reduced) and 5 where it increased or stagnated (non-reduced). We conducted 58 semi-structured interviews with district leaders (n = 38) and frontline workers (n = 20) from sectors involved in implementing Rwanda's nutrition policy. Interviews focused on topics related to commitment and coherence in nutrition. Responses were coded to capture themes on changes and challenges in commitment and coherence and were compared between reduced and non-reduced districts. Results Respondents from reduced districts were more likely to define commitment to nutrition as optimal implementation of policy whereas those from non-reduced districts tended to focus more on financial commitments to improving nutrition. Differences in coherence between the two district types mainly revolved around the implementation of Rwanda's District Plans to Eliminate Malnutrition (DPEMs). Respondents from reduced compared to non-reduced districts were more likely to report optimal DPEM implementation, including regularly conducting nutrition planning meetings, using data from different sectors to assess plans and progress in improving nutrition outcomes, and having better integration of the agriculture and nutrition sectors. In contrast, respondents from non-reduced districts were more likely to report limitations in their relationships with various national level stakeholders and in their nutrition and/or monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacities. In turn, several people in non-reduced districts requested additional training on these topics. Conclusions Coherence among sectors and stakeholders and capacity in nutrition and M&E were stronger in reduced districts. Enhancing these in non-reduced districts may lead to greater stunting reduction. Funding Sources The Dutch Government through SNV and the Voice for Change Partnership Programme (V4CP) and A4NH led by IFPRI.

Small and Medium Enterprises are the key to the national economic development as a way to improve its population livelihood. The main reason for this sector is a potential employment with the low cost of the capital. The contribution of small and medium enterprises run by women in society was recognized to the employment generation, gender equality and economic development. A personnel initiative, vision, and innovation to grow their businesses are well needed. In this research 15 districts out of 30 were selected to get all needed data, and thirteen (13) women were communicated in each selected district (15) as a sum of a hundred and ninety-five (195) correspondents. The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to analyze data, and questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data. Our results have been proved that small and medium enterprises run by women and sustainability of Rwandan economic development were closely related as the SMEs run by women increase and employment opportunities also increase. It was noted that women owned SMEs is a central driving effort behind gender equality, poverty reduction, and job creation. Therefore, it is recommended that the government might set the policy to encourage women in doing business whereby women in different regions of Rwanda should be given enough attention in economy activities through both small and medium enterprises, and entrepreneurship.

The ‘deinstitutionalisation’ (DI) movement, also known as ‘care reforms’, is spreading rapidly across the globe, gaining momentum with the growing understanding among both practitioners and policy makers of the harmful effects of institutionalisation on the development and well-being of children as well as the strengthening of the child rights discourse. This has led to a growing international trend towards the development of, and a strong belief in, family-based care options for children deprived of parental care, away from large-scale institutions. This trend is reflected in and supported by international frameworks guiding the care of children, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and in particular the United National Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, which was hailed in 2009. These instruments recognise that a caring and protective family is central to a child’s development, that governments should fulfil children’s right to quality care in families of origin and in alternative care and that institutionalisation of a child should be discouraged. DI processes are, however, not simple and straightforward as there are many challenges and complexities in their cross-cultural implementation. Even though unequivocally agreed by all stakeholders that the ‘best interest of the child’ should be at the heart of such care reform processes, its actual practice can often contradict such understandings as it gets submerged in numerous other considerations, constraints and challenges. This article analyses some of the dominant DI trends prevailing at present, in particular the primacy of family-based care and the misconceptions associated with the suitability of residential care, illustrated by the experience of SOS Children’s Villages in the DI process and its outcomes in Rwanda. The analysis is premised on the framework of the UN guidelines for the alternative care of children and strives to understand whether DI as it is practiced in Rwanda is aligned with the principles of ‘necessity’, ‘suitability’ and the ‘best interest of the child’ as stipulated in the Guidelines. The attempt is to draw lessons for South Asia from the success as well as the challenges faced in Rwanda, as many governments in South Asia progressively join the DI movement. It is critical for all child-focused international non-governmental organization/ non-governmental organizations (INGOs/NGOs) in Asia to understand the UNGL, learn from different experiences about the challenges of DI and prepare to engage with policy makers. One of the most important lessons from the Rwanda experience is that the ‘quality’ of care should take precedence over the ‘form’ of care, and that quality is not always guaranteed in family-based care. The shift in the positionality of the government of Rwanda and their willingness to rethink their approach to DI particularly in terms of recognising quality residential care is commendable. This needs to be taken as a precedence by other governments across the world including in South Asia—especially by those who are truly interested in ensuring the best interest of children who have lost the care of their parents.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the Rwandan Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) practice and identify the possible constraints faced by EIA practitioners in Rwanda. The results presented here will help to highlight strengths and weakness of the Rwandan EIA practice. Design/methodology/approach The EIA practice was evaluated by a self-administered questionnaire survey for respondents including approved EIA experts in Rwanda, government agencies involved in EIA process and corporate which have received environmental clearance. The aspects of practices and challenges were evaluated and include the suitability of institutional arrangements, the scientific methodological bases of EIA, the conduct of EIA, the effectiveness of EIA with respect to influence decision making, overall results and EIA as a learning process. These aspects were rated on different scales by the respondents to identify where the Rwandan EIA practice stands now in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and constraints. Findings The institutional arrangements of EIA were judged to be good overall by the respondents with main strengths being seen in the policy and legal base, and the scope of application. Only the marginal weaknesses are seen in the monitoring. The scientific and empirical basis for assessment was judged to stand moderately strengthened during the last five years. The performance of key activities is more than satisfactory. A majority of Rwandan EIA stages are good and excellent to some extent. Originality/value This paper identifies some of the constraints and challenges faced by the Rwandan EIA practitioners. It will contribute to an understanding of EIA practice and robust practices across the globe.

More than 90% of Rwandans rely on polluting solid fuels to meet their cooking needs. The negative impacts on health, climate, and the environment have led the Rwandan government to set a target of halving that number to 42% by 2024. A National Master Plan to promote scale up of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has been developed to define (i) the necessary market conditions, (ii) public and private sector interventions, and (iii) the expected societal impacts. Findings are reported from modelling scenarios of scaling LPG use towards the 2024 policy target and the 2030 target for “universal access to clean modern energy” (SDG7). Household LPG use is projected to increase from 5.6% in 2020 to 13.2% by 2024 and 38.5% by 2030. This level of adoption could result in a reduction of 7656 premature deaths and 403,664 disability-adjusted-life-years (DALYs), as well as 243 million trees saved. Reductions in carbon dioxide and black carbon emissions equivalents (CO2e and BCe, respectively) are estimated to reach 25.6 million MT and 14.9 MT, respectively, by 2030. While aggressive policy intervention is required, the health, environmental, and developmental benefits are clear. Implementation of the Rwanda National LPG Master Plan will provide a model for other sub-Saharan African countries to address the priorities for cessation of reliance on solid fuels as an energy source.

Abstract Universal health coverage (UHC) aims to ensure that all people have access to health services including essential medicines without risking financial hardship. Yet, in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) inadequate UHC fails to ensure universal access to medicines and protect the poor and vulnerable against catastrophic spending in the event of illness. A human rights approach to essential medicines in national UHC legislation could remedy these inequities. This study identifies and compares legal texts from national UHC legislation that promote universal access to medicines in the legislation of 16 mostly LMICs: Algeria, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey, Tunisia and Uruguay. The assessment tool was developed based on WHO’s policy guidelines for essential medicines and international human rights law; it consists of 12 principles in three domains: legal rights and obligations, good governance, and technical implementation. Relevant legislation was identified, mapped, collected and independently assessed by multi-disciplinary, multi-lingual teams. Legal rights and State obligations toward medicines are frequently codified in UHC law, while most good governance principles are less common. Some technical implementation principles are frequently embedded in national UHC law (i.e. pooled user contributions and financial coverage for the vulnerable), while others are infrequent (i.e. sufficient government financing) to almost absent (i.e. seeking international assistance and cooperation). Generally, upper-middle and high-income countries tended to embed explicit rights and obligations with clear boundaries, and universal mechanisms for accountability and redress in domestic law while less affluent countries took different approaches. This research presents national law makers with both a checklist and a wish list for legal reform for access to medicines, as well as examples of legal texts. It may support goal 7 of the WHO Medicines & Health Products Strategic Programme 2016–30 to develop model legislation for medicines reimbursement.

The government of Rwanda recently passed housing development regulations and funding schemes which aim at promoting access to affordable houses for the low- and middle-income Kigali city inhabitants. The existing studies on housing affordability in this city did not yet discuss whether this government-supported programme is likely to promote access to housing for these target beneficiaries. This study applies the price-to-income ratio (PIR) approach and the 30-percent of household income standard through the bank loan to assess whether housing units developed in the framework of affordable housing schemes are, for the target recipients, affordable at all. It relies mainly on housing prices schemes held by real estate developers, data on households’ incomes collected through the household survey and a review of the existing studies and socio-economic censuses reports. Findings reveal that the developed housing units are seriously and severely unaffordable for most of the target beneficiaries, especially the lowest-income urban dwellers, due to the high costs of housing development, combined with the high profits expected by real estate developers. The study suggests policy and practical options for promoting inclusive urban (re)development and housing affordability for various categories of Kigali city inhabitants. These options include upgrading the existing informal settlements, combined with their conversion into shared apartments through the collaboration between property owners and real estate developers, the development of affordable rental housing for the low-income tenants, tax exemption on construction materials, progressive housing ownership through a rent-to-own approach, and incremental self-help housing development using the low-cost local materials.

Background: Agriculture contributes a third of Rwanda’s GDP and is the main source of income for rural households, with 80% of the total population involved in crop and/or livestock production. The Government of Rwanda established the Muvumba rice project in 2011 amidst a policy shift towards rice as a national staple crop. However, the indiscriminate use of pesticides by local, low-income rice growers has raised concerns about potential human, animal and ecosystem health impacts as pesticide distribution and application are not strictly regulated. Although pesticide use can directly influence farmer health and ecosystems, little is known about small-scale farmers’ pesticide application practices and knowledge. We aimed to assess local application practices and understanding of pesticides to identify gaps in farmers’ knowledge on safe pesticide use and deviations from established standards and recommended practices. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study consisting of observations of pesticide practices and interviews with 206 small-scale rice growers in Nyagatare District, Rwanda, in March 2017. Descriptive statistical analyses (sample means, standard deviation and range) were performed, and we evaluated the association between farmers’ personal protective equipment (PPE) use and their education level and literacy status. Results: Over 95% of observed farmers did not comply with minimum standards for safe pesticide use, and 80% of respondents reported that they stored pesticides in their homes without personal protection measures. Education and literacy level were not significantly associated with PPE use. Additionally, 90% of respondents had experienced adverse health effects after using pesticides including intense headache, dizziness, stomach cramps, skin pain and itching, and respiratory distress. All respondents also reported animals in and around the rice scheme (cattle, birds, and fish) behaving abnormally or with signs consistent with pesticide exposure in the six months preceding the study, which may be linked to pesticide-contaminated water. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates potential for high exposure to pesticides for farmers, their families, and animals sharing rice-growing or downstream environments and points to the need for training on safe and effective pesticide use.

This article highlights evidence and lessons learned from the InnovAfrica project conducted by the Agricultural Research Council in collaboration with other international organizations between 2017 and 2021. This project aimed to test and upscale best-bet Sustainable Agricultural Intensification (SAI) practices through Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) and improved dissemination strategies across six African countries (viz. Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania). The goal of the project was to improve the food and nutritional security of smallholder farmers in Africa. The article briefly discusses some of the key challenges that smallholder agriculture is facing, results from the agricultural interventions brought in by the InnovAfrica project, evidence-based actions and policy recommendations to improve the sustainable agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers in the South African case study. The study showed that SAI practices increased crop yields and build climate-resilient farming communities. It is recommended that the promotion of SAI practices should be supported by enabling institutions and conducive policies that will enhance access to inputs, market linkages, improved access to credit and good agricultural lands, the establishment of functional farmer groups and participatory learning models. These recommendations can be used by the government and other agencies to develop effective interventions to improve food and nutrition security.

This study was conducted in eight universities within the East African Community (EAC). Its objective was to investigate the endangerment situation of the Humanities in order to suggest some lessons for Rwanda in transforming the teaching of these subjects. The endangerment was measured in terms of stakeholder salience, declining student enrolment, government budget-cuts as well as the devalorisation of these disciplines and negative society perceptions towards them. The study investigates the causes and consequences of this endangerment and shows how the embattled disciplines can be helped to survive. It draws on the stakeholders’ theory of salience to argue that less salient stakeholders in universities can have their saliency strengthened through policy. Humanities are disciplines holding the key towards solving a set of complex social problems in the current globalised world because they offer a sure channel of imparting analytical and critical thinking skills, effective argumentation and negotiation skills. It is argued that if left unchecked, the current devalorisation of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) in favour of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) will eventually lead to a non-holistic education with inadequate skills for all categories of students, including science ones. Graduates need these skills to cope with challenging social demands in their workplace.

Abstract Rwanda has experienced exceptional economic growth since 2000 despite more than 60% of the predominately-agrarian population living on less than $1.25 a day. Approximately 76% of the country’s working population are engaged in agricultural production, which makes up about one-third of the national economy. Agriculture is also an important source of foreign exchange, making up about 63% of the value of Rwanda’s exports. An important component of household diets – food produced on subsistence agriculture parcels averaging 0.6 ha – faces the challenge by government and private sector development to replace subsistence farming with a value-creating market-oriented food sector. A complex set of relationships across public incentives and programs encourages participation in markets. Designed to promote wealth, the Crop Intensification Program (CIP) has increased access to land, inputs, extension services, markets, supply chains, etc. Wealth and access to land are the dominant predictors of the ability to participate in markets and the extent of participation. For example, smallholders producing a diversity of crops are more likely to sell in markets. Within the confluence of competing policy objectives and market forces, further research is necessary to understand the household-level tradeoffs of both producers and consumers along the food value chain.

Background and context: The African Palliative Care Association (APCA) is a pan-African palliative care organization hosted in Uganda but supporting initiatives to integrate palliative care into national health systems across Africa. Uganda hosts one of the oldest cancer units in Africa and also reconstitutes its own oral liquid morphine to reduce barriers and cost of access to pain control for patients. Aim: The aim of this effort is to expose government officials and other NGOs from other African countries to best practices in oral morphine manufacture, distribution and access to controlled medicines for pain control in cancer and other conditions with a view to benchmark and establish similar or better systems. Strategy/Tactics: APCA working with its funders in consultation with the Ugandan Ministry of Health and Hospice Africa Uganda, facilitates other African ministries of health delegations to conduct study visits in Uganda to benchmark the oral morphine reconstitution, the supply chain mechanisms for its distribution to patients in both public and private hospitals and at home. Program/Policy process: APCA identifies countries with morphine access challenges and makes arrangements for key personnel in those countries in ministries of health, medicines control authority, central medicines stores and national palliative care associations where they exist to spend a study period in Uganda. While in Uganda, the delegations visit the oral morphine manufacturing facility, Hospice Africa Uganda, the Ministry of Health, national medical stores, National Drug Authority, joint medical stores and some of the palliative care providers and training facilities. Once the period with the various stakeholders in the country is completed, the visiting teams draw up plans for implementation and identify required technical assistance from APCA. The costing and sources of funding are identified including contribution from the government in need and then activities are implemented. Outcomes: As a result of this South-to-South approach, Uganda has hosted delegations from 14 African countries. At one instance, it involved the Minister Of Health from Swaziland heading a delegation to Uganda while others sent other high level delegates to the peer learning and bench marking. All these countries have taken steps to establish access to oral liquid morphine as well as policy and capacity building activities for their staff. Some of the countries like Malawi and Swaziland are already having morphine reconstitution and national palliative care policies while others such as Rwanda and Botswana are in the process of changing to the same system. Cancer and palliative care related activities are also being implemented in some of countries. Some countries have graduated to host others like Uganda does. What was learned: The South-to-South learning and bench marking visits are very practical in Africa and have triggered palliative care initiatives at national level.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to engage African subject matter experts to assist with a needs assessment of international capacity building for developing countries in Africa, to establish a prioritized list of capacity building keywords substantiated by a current literature review. Design/methodology/approach A pragmatic mixed-method research design was used which involved conducting literature reviews and applying a modified Delphi technique to determine future research needs. The credibility of these results was strengthened by selecting a Delphi subject matter expert panel from African countries including Benin, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Cameroon, Congo, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Algeria and Nigeria. Non-parametric statistical techniques were used to objectively analyze the qualitative data and prioritize the findings. Findings The results clearly identified seven literature keywords which could improve future African capacity building research (in order of highest importance first): Trade Union (regional economic integration), Governance, FDI, Emigration, Education, Economic (small business stimulation), and Brain Gain. Additional keywords surfaced in the literature related to these ones, namely healthcare and brain drain (emigrating academics and scholars). Research limitations/implications The results of this study should generalize to government and capacity building policy administrators in Africa as well as to other researchers and practitioners in this field. The use of a novel modified Delphi technique should also be of interest to other researchers. Originality/value The modified Delphi technique commenced with a knowledge sharing conference where pre-selected subject matter experts collaborated to define the initial scope of questions. Another novel aspect of the customized Delphi technique was that the subject matter experts were required to conduct a literature review to substantiate their responses to questions.

Background and context: The use of radiotherapy in developing countries is slowly gaining momentum but the gains are accompanied by some pitfalls. The breakdown of a teletherapy (cobalt 60) machine in Uganda is an example of the challenges to be considered while expanding access to treatment. It was a major test for the country and the Uganda Cancer Institute the agency of government responsible for provision of cancer services. It attracted a national and international outcry. This unprecedented response was based on the importance a seemingly old equipment in Kampala was playing in the entire region (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Sudan). However, the manner in which the crisis was handled demonstrated clearly how to turn a misfortune into an opportunity given the many lessons learnt. Aim: In this paper we aim to highlight how the breakdown of the equipment triggered a major crisis and the response to the crisis resulting in the restoration of services within a reasonable time frame. We also want to show the long-term service modernization and expansion drive this has triggered within Uganda and the entire region. Strategy/Tactics: The restoration process comprised planning, decommissioning, renovation, security and safety systems, procurement of new machine, installation and commissioning. As this was ongoing there was the need for care provision for patient in need. Concurrently undertaken was public reassurance through building confidence and trust in the capacity for speedy restoration of services. Program/Policy process: All these steps were taken collaboratively within country, region and internationally. In the region there was support from the Aga Khan University Hospital Nairobi and internationally, technical support from the IAEA. Outcomes: Service has been fully restored, a new teletherapy cobalt machines installed and commissioned. The machine has modern capabilities compared with the previous. So far more than 200 patients have been treated. The numbers of patients are steadily increasing hence the government has embarked on modernization and expansion of the radiotherapy services in the country. What was learned: The breakdown of Uganda's radiotherapy machines has provided lessons that are important for handling health system operational crisis which may occur as we try to build complex delivery systems. It provided lessons that are important in the drive for expansion of radiotherapy services in developing countries. In particular that benefit of investments in modern equipment transcends national boundaries. Secondly how to limit potential impact of major crisis through regional and international collaboration. Further that the needs of patients is central in crisis management. Finally need to consider pooling infrastructure investments in tackling NCD's such as the East Africa's centre of excellence for skills and tertiary education project of the East African community.

Abstract This article shows that the intensity of violence in Rwanda’s recent past can be traced back to the initial establishment of its pre-colonial state. Villages that were brought under centralized rule one century earlier experienced a doubling of violence during the state-organized 1994 genocide. Instrumental variable estimates exploiting differences in the proximity to Nyanza—an early capital—suggest that these effects are causal. Before the genocide, when the state faced rebel attacks, with longer state presence, violence is lower. Using data from several sources, including a lab-in-the-field experiment across an abandoned historical boundary, I show that the effect of the historical state is primarily sustained by culturally transmitted norms of obedience. The persistent effect of the pre-colonial state interacts with government policy: where the state developed earlier, there is more violence when the Rwandan government mobilized for mass killing and less violence when the government pursued peace.

Abstract Background Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a health and legal issue of international concern. In 2006, the Rwandan Government passed new laws to address this issue. However, Rwanda still has a high prevalence of gender based violence in communities at a rate of around 35%. This poster explores the economic cost of Gender-Based Violence in Rwanda. It seeks to: (1) define and describe GBV in Rwanda and comment on the state of the economy; (2) examine the literature on existing studies of the cost of GBV with a focus on common methodologies used; and (3) calculate the minimum costs associated with GBV in Rwanda. Methods Existing data was reviewed to look at the definition of GBV with regard to law and policy. This included identifying the common causes of GBV in Rwanda as well as looking at the nature and prevalence. An examination of the current state of the Rwandan Economy was undertaken in order to identify the areas whereupon GBV could cause disruption. Subsequently, a narrative literature review was conducted which examined the common methodologies used in cost analyses of GBV across the globe. Lastly a basic costing exercise was performed which determined the minimum costs associated with GBV in Rwanda using government data and NGO reports. Results The results showed that GBV makes up a small percentage of GDP in Rwanda at 0.003%. Victim costs were measured at $10,355,812.97, whilst government costs were found to be $13,082,542.07 and civil society costs incurred amounted to $4,684,428.00. Conclusions Overall this study reveals that just taking basic costs into consideration, GBV imposes a significant financial burden on the country. In particular, it highlighted the burden felt by the government providing public services such as healthcare and legal services. Therefore it is likely there is an overconsumption of scarce resources by GBV cases, which will likely lead to economic strain at both a local and national level. Key messages Gender-based violence costs make up a small but recognisable percentage of GDP in Rwanda. More investment in preventative strategy is needed to reduce both the prevalence of GBV and the cost to the local and national economy.

Abstract Background Rwanda has markedly increased the nation’s contraceptive use in a short period of time, tripling contraceptive prevalence in just 5 years between 2005 and 2010. An integral aspect of family planning programs is the interactions between family planning providers and clients. This study aims to understand the client-provider relationship in the Rwandan family planning program and to also examine barriers to those relationships. Methods This qualitative study in Rwanda utilized convenience sampling to include eight focus group discussions with family planning providers, both family planning nurses and community health workers, as well as in-depth interviews with 32 experienced modern contraceptive users. Study participants were drawn from the two districts in Rwanda with the highest and lowest modern contraceptive rates, Musanze and Nyamasheke, respectively Data analysis was guided by the thematic content approach, Atlas.ti 8 was utilized for coding the transcripts and collating the coding results, and Microsoft Excel for analyzing the data within code. Results Data analysis revealed that, despite workplace related challenges – including inadequate staffing, training, and resources, relationships between providers and clients are strong. Family planning providers work hard to understand, learn from, and support clients in their initiation and sustained use of contraceptives. Conclusion Given the existing context of purposeful efforts on the part of family planning providers to build relationships with their clients, if the current level of government support for family planning service provision is enhanced, Rwanda will likely sustain many current users of contraception and engage even more Rwandans in contraceptive services in the future.

The dairy sector in Rwanda plays a key role in improving nutrition and generating income mostly for rural households. Despite the Rwandan 1994 genocide that left around 80% of dairy cows decimated, the dairy sector has experienced significant growth in the past two decades through government, development organisations, and donor programs, and through the nascent vibrant public–private partnership. In this paper, we reviewed and documented the evolution of the dairy policies, programs, and regulations in Rwanda and how they have contributed to the development of the dairy sector. The policy change has impacted the provision and use of inputs and services that have shaped the sector's milk production and productivity, milk quality, and demand. The results suggest that various policy- and program-level interventions have positively contributed to the growth of the dairy sector and improved the livelihoods of low-income households. This has been achieved through increased access to inputs and services, enhanced capacities of the public and private sector to deliver services, strengthened dairy cooperatives' governance, and increased value proposition to members of various farmer groups and promotion of milk consumption. We find that some of the implemented policies and programs, such as the “Girinka” (one cow per poor family) program, Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program II, and Rwanda Dairy Development Project, have resulted in improved farmer access to improved cow breeds and improved milk quality and cow productivity through enhanced health inputs and other services. While the dairy policies, programs, and regulations in Rwanda have paved the way for the development of the dairy sector and contributed to the provision and use of inputs and services, there are still challenges that need to be addressed. Accessibility and use of veterinary and artificial insemination services are limited by the quality of veterinary products, while the inadequate quality of feeds leads to low productivity of improved cow breeds. Consequently, farmers' uptake and use of inputs and services can be enhanced through a strengthened capacity of milk collection centres and health and animal feed policies that guide and control the quality of veterinary products and feeds sold in the markets.

COVID-19 is an infectious disease and can be transmitted from humans to humans through infected air droplets during coughing and sneezing or though contact with contaminated hands or surfaces. By March 01st 2021, World Health Organization (WHO) reported 113,820,168 confirmed cases globally, among them 2,851,062 are from the continent of Africa. Rwanda reported 18,850 confirmed cases, and 261 deaths. Healthcare systems have been burdened by the huge number of COVID-19 cases. Home-Based Care (HBC) was introduced as an alternative option to control the pandemic specifically in poor resource countries. Since December 2020, the number of COVID-19 case and death continued to rise in Rwanda. To handle this issue, the government of Rwanda started promoting the home-based care for asymptomatic people or patients with mild symptoms and they would be followed up by trained Community Health Workers (CHW). The increased number of positive cases is attributed to inadequate compliance to COVID-19 Infectious Prevention and Control (IPC) measures, low socio-economic status, inability to self-isolate due to having small and shared living rooms, food insecurity, lack of familiarity to disinfection procedures for home sanitation, inadequate access to water, weak policy regulating HBC, insufficient PPEs for CHWs, CHW fear of getting infected through HBC, low level of community awareness and perception, comorbidities, poor communication during follow up of HBC patients. Overall, we concluded that HBC has been very crucial in management of COVID-19 as it relieved the burden on health facilities, but more improvement on HBC is needed to be properly applicable in poor resource settings.

Abstract The absence of a viable flood early warning system for the Sebeya River catchment continues to impede government efforts toward improving community preparedness, the reduction of flood impacts and relief. This paper reports on a recent study that used satellite data, quantitative precipitation forecasts and the rainfall–runoff model for short-term flood forecasting in the Sebeya catchment. The global precipitation measurement product was used as a satellite rainfall product for model calibration and validation and forecasted European Centre Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) rainfall products were evaluated to forecast flood. Model performance was evaluated by the visual examination of simulated hydrographs, observed hydrographs and a number of performance indicators. The real-time flow forecast assessment was conducted with respect to three different flood warning threshold levels for a 3–24-h lead time. The result for a 3-h lead time showed 72% of hits, 7.5% of false alarms and 9.5% of missed forecasts. The number of hits decreased, as the lead time increased. This study did not consider the uncertainties in observed data, and this can influence the model performance. This work provides a base for future studies to establish a viable flood early warning system in the study area and beyond.

Rwanda’s Vision 2030 puts healthcare as one of its integral pillars. HIV/AIDS is one of the biggest challenges in the health sector and Rwanda’s economy at large since the disease led to reduction of labour supply and productivity as well as increased government expenditure on importation of expensive healthcare goods. Total quality management is one of the key factors that affect the success of projects and has gained popularity among project managers overtime. This study sought to investigate total quality management practices and performance of HIV/AIDS projects in Rwanda. Specifically, the study analyzed the effects of top management commitment, employee involvement and staff training on the performance of HIV/AIDS control projects. The study is helpful to project managers in policy formulation and rational decision making. It is also helpful to the Rwandan government in making informed decisions towards achieving health care provision objectives. The donors’ confidence in funding health projects may also be boosted by the findings of this research. The study adopted descriptive and correlational research designs. A sample of 98 respondents was drawn from a population of 130 consisting of the staff and project managers of Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Rwanda. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample size in this study. Data used was of primary nature collected using questionnaires. Quantitative and qualitative data collected were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 22 and the findings presented in tables and figures. Regression and correlation analysis were used to establish an interaction between the dependent and independent variables. Descriptive findings indicated that over 75%, 85% and 90% of respondents did agree that at top management commitment, employee involvement and training practices respectively are practiced at AHF Rwanda. Correlation findings did indicate a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.780, 0.630 and 0.690 for top management commitment, employee involvement and training practices respectively with significance values of 0.01 for all. Lastly the betta coefficients for top management training, employee involvement and training practices were 0.163, 0.235 and 0.126 respectively with corresponding probability values of 0.011, 0.002 and 0.036 and R squared value was found to be 71.5%. The study concluded that TQM including top management commitment, employee involvement and training are practiced largely at Aids Healthcare Foundation. Hence, a strong positive significant relationship between TQM practices and performance of HIV/AIDS projects in Rwanda. The study recommends AHF project managers to focus more on TQM practices, particularly management commitment on project activities, involvement of other employees in decision making and creating an enabling working environment and lastly, they should consider enhancing human resource training as a way to enhance project performance. Additionally, the government and the donors should ensure that TQM practices are implemented in the healthcare projects in order to realize positive results from such projects. JEL: I10; I18; J21 <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0770/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Democracy is cherished because of the opportunities it offers people to contribute to issues affecting their lives. This reasoning accounts for the celebration when this form of government was restored in Nigeria in 1999 after protracted military dictatorships. In 2019 there were further jubilations over 20 unbroken years of democracy, the first since independence in 1960; issues of inclusion and exclusion were not mentioned. Yet, there are widespread exclusion of ethnic minorities and women through which their participation in running for office is circumscribed by circumstances of birth. Experiences in Plateau and Benue States are used as illustrations. It is here contended that until more deliberate efforts are made to include everyone, Nigeria’s brand of democracy will continue to exclude ethnic minorities and women. The dominant mantra of ‘majority carries the vote’ only aggravates the problem, a deliberate policy to resolve exclusion is necessary. Rwanda has led the way in gender inclusion, just as the USA had also shown that through policy reforms such as universal suffrage and affirmative action, African Americans and other minorities can become part of the mainstream, even producing a President and recently, 2021, the Vice President.

The environmental damage that plastic waste is causing has catalyzed government action against plastic bags around the world. Despite anti-plastic bag policies gaining traction globally, there has been limited investigation of why the implementation of bans has varied. The variation in implementing bans is particularly stark in East Africa, a region that has been at the forefront of plastic bag legislation. Rwanda’s implementation of a ban on plastic bags in 2008 has attracted widespread praise for its environmental leadership. Kenya adopted a plastic bag ban before Rwanda but implementation was consistently delayed until a stringent ban was finally imposed in 2018. In Uganda, despite bans being announced on four separate occasions, implementation continues to be delayed. This paper explains why some governments adopt and effectively enforce plastic bag bans while others reverse course or delay implementation. Existing literature has cited the comparative strength of plastic industries as the salient factor in explaining varied adoption of plastic bag bans. This paper argues that though the comparative business power of plastic industries explains whether bans are obstructed, it does not satisfactorily explain varied implementation. Instead, countries that pursue services-based development strategies, which prioritise externally dependent sectors like tourism, are more likely to implement plastic bag bans, which can help bolster their green credentials. For the Rwandan and Kenyan governments, presenting their countries as environmental leaders contributed to their goals of becoming a regional economic hub, reliant on services like tourism. The Kenyan government’s decision to eventually implement the ban was driven by a perceived need to compete with Rwanda for regional environmental leadership while supporting Kenya’s services-based economic development strategy. In contrast, Uganda’s comparatively larger discovery of oil and limited emphasis on services-based development explained the government’s lack of commitment to implementing a plastic bag ban.

Due to the lack of sediment load monitoring system, erosion model calibration is challenging in Rwanda. Based on the reports of parcels boundaries corrections from Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority, there are quite consistent losses of land due to gullies development in Mpazi River watershed. This study analysed the possibility of integrating cadastral information, erosion and hydrological modelling data for identifying potential gullies development in hilly urban area of Mpazi catchment. The orthophoto of 2008 coupled with ancillary data were used to delineate the shifts of parcel boundaries from 2012 to 2016. Hydrological modelling based on DEM was also applied to investigate geo-physical characteristics and potential gullies. The differential GPS was used to locate the potential gullies that were then uploaded into GIS. Gullies intersecting with rectified parcels boundary were measured with tape meter. The gully length was measured using hydrological modelling tools and GPS coordinates captured during the field verification. The results showed that gully system expanded from 7.5 to 20 meters while neighboring parcels shift was between 3 and 12.5 meters. The highest average rate of soil loss ranged between 100 and 150 tons/ha/year. The research findings from this study are salient for policy- and decision-makers who need to review the current land and environment policies and laws so that gully erosion can be assigned appropriate mitigation measures for ecologically sustainable management of hilly urban landscapes within Kigali City. More periodic data are required to feed the model and validating this approach brings the government institutions’ responsibility. The developed methodology has the potential to quantify the gully systems in urban context with scarce hydrological, soil and geomorphological data availability and where urban planning and environmental protection are constrained by limited financial and human resources. Keywords: Cadastral Maintenance Data, Erosion Modelling, Gully, Urban Areas

Conflict recurrence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) provides a litmus test to the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC’s) capacity to sustainably resolve the conflict and build peace. The surrender of the March 23 (M23) rebels, followed by overtures to incorporate the same into the Congolese military and political institutions, seem not to have made much significant impact on the security stability in the eastern part of the country. Armed activities by militia groups such as the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR), the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and various Mayi Mayi groups are likely to cause a recurrence of a fully fledged armed conflict in eastern Congo. Whilst the UN Mission for the Stabilisation of Congo (MONUSCO), along with its Intervention Brigade continue to make efforts to support the Congolese government to address the security situation in the country, this article presents a critical analysis on the prospects and constraints of SADC to sustainably resolve the conflict and build peace in the context of conflict recurrence. For purposes of conflict resolution and peacebuilding, the DRC falls within SADC’s area of sub-regional responsibility, which overlaps that of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). The paper looks at the political/diplomatic and military/ security initiatives that SADC can take to complement the current efforts of critical role players such as MONUSCO and ICGLR in sustainably resolving the recurring conflict and building peace.It also analyses the prospects of such sub-regional initiatives. Considering the conflict matrix of the eastern Congo conflict with specific reference to its recurrence, an examination of the likely constraints that SADC could encounter in trying to resolve the eastern Congo conflict will be presented. Policy suggestions will be proffered on what can be done to encounter such constraints.The research adopted a qualitative approach premised on interviews. Secondary sources, including key policy documents and statements of the SADC, AU, ICGLR and UN, were utilised. To complement the primary sources, structured opportunity interviews were conducted at seminars and workshops with academics and senior political and security analysts conversant with the SADC conflict and peace dynamics.

History is not over and that includes media history. Jay Rosen (Zelizer & Allan 33) The media in their reporting on terrorism tend to be judgmental, inflammatory, and sensationalistic. — Susan D. Moeller (169) In short, we are directed in time, and our relation to the future is different than our relation to the past. All our questions are conditioned by this asymmetry, and all our answers to these questions are equally conditioned by it. Norbert Wiener (44) The Clash of Geopolitical Pundits America’s geo-strategic engagement with the world underwent a dramatic shift in the decade after the Cold War ended. United States military forces undertook a series of humanitarian interventions from northern Iraq (1991) and Somalia (1992) to NATO’s bombing campaign on Kosovo (1999). Wall Street financial speculators embraced market-oriented globalization and technology-based industries (Friedman 1999). Meanwhile the geo-strategic pundits debated several different scenarios at deeper layers of epistemology and macrohistory including the breakdown of nation-states (Kaplan), the ‘clash of civilizations’ along religiopolitical fault-lines (Huntington) and the fashionable ‘end of history’ thesis (Fukuyama). Media theorists expressed this geo-strategic shift in reference to the ‘CNN Effect’: the power of real-time media ‘to provoke major responses from domestic audiences and political elites to both global and national events’ (Robinson 2). This media ecology is often contrasted with ‘Gateholder’ and ‘Manufacturing Consent’ models. The ‘CNN Effect’ privileges humanitarian and non-government organisations whereas the latter models focus upon the conformist mind-sets and shared worldviews of government and policy decision-makers. The September 11 attacks generated an uncertain interdependency between the terrorists, government officials, and favourable media coverage. It provided a test case, as had the humanitarian interventions (Robinson 37) before it, to test the claim by proponents that the ‘CNN Effect’ had policy leverage during critical stress points. The attacks also revived a long-running debate in media circles about the risk factors of global media. McLuhan (1964) and Ballard (1990) had prophesied that the global media would pose a real-time challenge to decision-making processes and that its visual imagery would have unforeseen psychological effects on viewers. Wark (1994) noted that journalists who covered real-time events including the Wall Street crash (1987) and collapse of the Berlin Wall (1989) were traumatised by their ‘virtual’ geographies. The ‘War on Terror’ as 21st Century Myth Three recent books explore how the 1990s humanitarian interventions and the September 11 attacks have remapped this ‘virtual’ territory with all too real consequences. Piers Robinson’s The CNN Effect (2002) critiques the theory and proposes the policy-media interaction model. Barbie Zelizer and Stuart Allan’s anthology Journalism After September 11 (2002) examines how September 11 affected the journalists who covered it and the implications for news values. Sandra Silberstein’s War of Words (2002) uncovers how strategic language framed the U.S. response to September 11. Robinson provides the contextual background; Silberstein contributes the specifics; and Zelizer and Allan surface broader perspectives. These books offer insights into the social construction of the nebulous War on Terror and why certain images and trajectories were chosen at the expense of other possibilities. Silberstein locates this world-historical moment in the three-week transition between September 11’s aftermath and the U.S. bombings of Afghanistan’s Taliban regime. Descriptions like the ‘War on Terror’ and ‘Axis of Evil’ framed the U.S. military response, provided a conceptual justification for the bombings, and also brought into being the geo-strategic context for other nations. The crucial element in this process was when U.S. President George W. Bush adopted a pedagogical style for his public speeches, underpinned by the illusions of communal symbols and shared meanings (Silberstein 6-8). Bush’s initial address to the nation on September 11 invoked the ambiguous pronoun ‘we’ to recreate ‘a unified nation, under God’ (Silberstein 4). The 1990s humanitarian interventions had frequently been debated in Daniel Hallin’s sphere of ‘legitimate controversy’; however the grammar used by Bush and his political advisers located the debate in the sphere of ‘consensus’. This brief period of enforced consensus was reinforced by the structural limitations of North American media outlets. September 11 combined ‘tragedy, public danger and a grave threat to national security’, Michael Schudson observed, and in the aftermath North American journalism shifted ‘toward a prose of solidarity rather than a prose of information’ (Zelizer & Allan 41). Debate about why America was hated did not go much beyond Bush’s explanation that ‘they hated our freedoms’ (Silberstein 14). Robert W. McChesney noted that alternatives to the ‘war’ paradigm were rarely mentioned in the mainstream media (Zelizer & Allan 93). A new myth for the 21st century had been unleashed. The Cycle of Integration Propaganda Journalistic prose masked the propaganda of social integration that atomised the individual within a larger collective (Ellul). The War on Terror was constructed by geopolitical pundits as a Manichean battle between ‘an “evil” them and a national us’ (Silberstein 47). But the national crisis made ‘us’ suddenly problematic. Resurgent patriotism focused on the American flag instead of Constitutional rights. Debates about military tribunals and the USA Patriot Act resurrected the dystopian fears of a surveillance society. New York City mayor Rudy Guiliani suddenly became a leadership icon and Time magazine awarded him Person of the Year (Silberstein 92). Guiliani suggested at the Concert for New York on 20 October 2001 that ‘New Yorkers and Americans have been united as never before’ (Silberstein 104). Even the series of Public Service Announcements created by the Ad Council and U.S. advertising agencies succeeded in blurring the lines between cultural tolerance, social inclusion, and social integration (Silberstein 108-16). In this climate the in-depth discussion of alternate options and informed dissent became thought-crimes. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni’s report Defending Civilization: How Our Universities are Failing America (2002), which singled out “blame America first” academics, ignited a firestorm of debate about educational curriculums, interpreting history, and the limits of academic freedom. Silberstein’s perceptive analysis surfaces how ACTA assumed moral authority and collective misunderstandings as justification for its interrogation of internal enemies. The errors she notes included presumed conclusions, hasty generalisations, bifurcated worldviews, and false analogies (Silberstein 133, 135, 139, 141). Op-ed columnists soon exposed ACTA’s gambit as a pre-packaged witch-hunt. But newscasters then channel-skipped into military metaphors as the Afghanistan campaign began. The weeks after the attacks New York City sidewalk traders moved incense and tourist photos to make way for World Trade Center memorabilia and anti-Osama shirts. Chevy and Ford morphed September 11 catchphrases (notably Todd Beamer’s last words “Let’s Roll” on Flight 93) and imagery into car advertising campaigns (Silberstein 124-5). American self-identity was finally reasserted in the face of a domestic recession through this wave of vulgar commercialism. The ‘Simulated’ Fall of Elite Journalism For Columbia University professor James Carey the ‘failure of journalism on September 11’ signaled the ‘collapse of the elites of American journalism’ (Zelizer & Allan 77). Carey traces the rise-and-fall of adversarial and investigative journalism from the Pentagon Papers and Watergate through the intermediation of the press to the myopic self-interest of the 1988 and 1992 Presidential campaigns. Carey’s framing echoes the earlier criticisms of Carl Bernstein and Hunter S. Thompson. However this critique overlooks several complexities. Piers Robinson cites Alison Preston’s insight that diplomacy, geopolitics and elite reportage defines itself through the sense of distance from its subjects. Robinson distinguished between two reportage types: distance framing ‘creates emotional distance’ between the viewers and victims whilst support framing accepts the ‘official policy’ (28). The upsurge in patriotism, the vulgar commercialism, and the mini-cycle of memorabilia and publishing all combined to enhance the support framing of the U.S. federal government. Empathy generated for September 11’s victims was tied to support of military intervention. However this closeness rapidly became the distance framing of the Afghanistan campaign. News coverage recycled the familiar visuals of in-progress bombings and Taliban barbarians. The alternative press, peace movements, and social activists then retaliated against this coverage by reinstating the support framing that revealed structural violence and gave voice to silenced minorities and victims. What really unfolded after September 11 was not the demise of journalism’s elite but rather the renegotiation of reportage boundaries and shared meanings. Journalists scoured the Internet for eyewitness accounts and to interview survivors (Zelizer & Allan 129). The same medium was used by others to spread conspiracy theories and viral rumors that numerology predicted the date September 11 or that the “face of Satan” could be seen in photographs of the World Trade Center (Zelizer & Allan 133). Karim H. Karim notes that the Jihad frame of an “Islamic Peril” was socially constructed by media outlets but then challenged by individual journalists who had learnt ‘to question the essentialist bases of her own socialization and placing herself in the Other’s shoes’ (Zelizer & Allan 112). Other journalists forgot that Jihad and McWorld were not separate but two intertwined worldviews that fed upon each other. The September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center also had deep symbolic resonances for American sociopolitical ideals that some journalists explored through analysis of myths and metaphors. The Rise of Strategic Geography However these renegotiated boundariesof new media, multiperspectival frames, and ‘layered’ depth approaches to issues analysiswere essentially minority reports. The rationalist mode of journalism was soon reasserted through normative appeals to strategic geography. The U.S. networks framed their documentaries on Islam and the Middle East in bluntly realpolitik terms. The documentary “Minefield: The United States and the Muslim World” (ABC, 11 October 2001) made explicit strategic assumptions of ‘the U.S. as “managing” the region’ and ‘a definite tinge of superiority’ (Silberstein 153). ABC and CNN stressed the similarities between the world’s major monotheistic religions and their scriptural doctrines. Both networks limited their coverage of critiques and dissent to internecine schisms within these traditions (Silberstein 158). CNN also created different coverage for its North American and international audiences. The BBC was more cautious in its September 11 coverage and more global in outlook. Three United Kingdom specials – Panorama (Clash of Cultures, BBC1, 21 October 2001), Question Time (Question Time Special, BBC1, 13 September 2001), and “War Without End” (War on Trial, Channel 4, 27 October 2001) – drew upon the British traditions of parliamentary assembly, expert panels, and legal trials as ways to explore the multiple dimensions of the ‘War on Terror’ (Zelizer & Allan 180). These latter debates weren’t value free: the programs sanctioned ‘a tightly controlled and hierarchical agora’ through different containment strategies (Zelizer & Allan 183). Program formats, selected experts and presenters, and editorial/on-screen graphics were factors that pre-empted the viewer’s experience and conclusions. The traditional emphasis of news values on the expert was renewed. These subtle forms of thought-control enabled policy-makers to inform the public whilst inoculating them against terrorist propaganda. However the ‘CNN Effect’ also had counter-offensive capabilities. Osama bin Laden’s videotaped sermons and the al-Jazeera network’s broadcasts undermined the psychological operations maxim that enemies must not gain access to the mindshare of domestic audiences. Ingrid Volkmer recounts how the Los Angeles based National Iranian Television Network used satellite broadcasts to criticize the Iranian leadership and spark public riots (Zelizer & Allan 242). These incidents hint at why the ‘War on Terror’ myth, now unleashed upon the world, may become far more destabilizing to the world system than previous conflicts. Risk Reportage and Mediated Trauma When media analysts were considering the ‘CNN Effect’ a group of social contract theorists including Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, and Ulrich Beck were debating, simultaneously, the status of modernity and the ‘unbounded contours’ of globalization. Beck termed this new environment of escalating uncertainties and uninsurable dangers the ‘world risk society’ (Beck). Although they drew upon constructivist and realist traditions Beck and Giddens ‘did not place risk perception at the center of their analysis’ (Zelizer & Allan 203). Instead this was the role of journalist as ‘witness’ to Ballard-style ‘institutionalized disaster areas’. The terrorist attacks on September 11 materialized this risk and obliterated the journalistic norms of detachment and objectivity. The trauma ‘destabilizes a sense of self’ within individuals (Zelizer & Allan 205) and disrupts the image-generating capacity of collective societies. Barbie Zelizer found that the press selection of September 11 photos and witnesses re-enacted the ‘Holocaust aesthetic’ created when Allied Forces freed the Nazi internment camps in 1945 (Zelizer & Allan 55-7). The visceral nature of September 11 imagery inverted the trend, from the Gulf War to NATO’s Kosovo bombings, for news outlets to depict war in detached video-game imagery (Zelizer & Allan 253). Coverage of the September 11 attacks and the subsequent Bali bombings (on 12 October 2002) followed a four-part pattern news cycle of assassinations and terrorism (Moeller 164-7). Moeller found that coverage moved from the initial event to a hunt for the perpetrators, public mourning, and finally, a sense of closure ‘when the media reassert the supremacy of the established political and social order’ (167). In both events the shock of the initial devastation was rapidly followed by the arrest of al Qaeda and Jamaah Islamiyah members, the creation and copying of the New York Times ‘Portraits of Grief’ template, and the mediation of trauma by a re-established moral order. News pundits had clearly studied the literature on bereavement and grief cycles (Kubler-Ross). However the neo-noir work culture of some outlets also fueled bitter disputes about how post-traumatic stress affected journalists themselves (Zelizer & Allan 253). Reconfiguring the Future After September 11 the geopolitical pundits, a reactive cycle of integration propaganda, pecking order shifts within journalism elites, strategic language, and mediated trauma all combined to bring a specific future into being. This outcome reflected the ‘media-state relationship’ in which coverage ‘still reflected policy preferences of parts of the U.S. elite foreign-policy-making community’ (Robinson 129). Although Internet media and non-elite analysts embraced Hallin’s ‘sphere of deviance’ there is no clear evidence yet that they have altered the opinions of policy-makers. The geopolitical segue from September 11 into the U.S.-led campaign against Iraq also has disturbing implications for the ‘CNN Effect’. Robinson found that its mythic reputation was overstated and tied to issues of policy certainty that the theory’s proponents often failed to examine. Media coverage molded a ‘domestic constituency ... for policy-makers to take action in Somalia’ (Robinson 62). He found greater support in ‘anecdotal evidence’ that the United Nations Security Council’s ‘safe area’ for Iraqi Kurds was driven by Turkey’s geo-strategic fears of ‘unwanted Kurdish refugees’ (Robinson 71). Media coverage did impact upon policy-makers to create Bosnian ‘safe areas’, however, ‘the Kosovo, Rwanda, and Iraq case studies’ showed that the ‘CNN Effect’ was unlikely as a key factor ‘when policy certainty exists’ (Robinson 118). The clear implication from Robinson’s studies is that empathy framing, humanitarian values, and searing visual imagery won’t be enough to challenge policy-makers. What remains to be done? Fortunately there are some possibilities that straddle the pragmatic, realpolitik and emancipatory approaches. Today’s activists and analysts are also aware of the dangers of ‘unfreedom’ and un-reflective dissent (Fromm). Peter Gabriel’s organisation Witness, which documents human rights abuses, is one benchmark of how to use real-time media and the video camera in an effective way. The domains of anthropology, negotiation studies, neuro-linguistics, and social psychology offer valuable lessons on techniques of non-coercive influence. The emancipatory tradition of futures studies offers a rich tradition of self-awareness exercises, institution rebuilding, and social imaging, offsets the pragmatic lure of normative scenarios. The final lesson from these books is that activists and analysts must co-adapt as the ‘War on Terror’ mutates into new and terrifying forms. Works Cited Amis, Martin. “Fear and Loathing.” The Guardian (18 Sep. 2001). 1 March 2001 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4259170,00.php>. Ballard, J.G. The Atrocity Exhibition (rev. ed.). Los Angeles: V/Search Publications, 1990. Beck, Ulrich. World Risk Society. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 1999. Ellul, Jacques. Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. New York: Vintage Books, 1973. Friedman, Thomas. The Lexus and the Olive Tree. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999. Fromm, Erich. Escape from Freedom. New York: Farrar & Rhinehart, 1941. Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Free Press, 1992. Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Kaplan, Robert. The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War. New York: Random House, 2000. Kubler-Ross, Elizabeth. On Death and Dying. London: Tavistock, 1969. McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964. Moeller, Susan D. Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War, and Death. New York: Routledge, 1999. Robinson, Piers. The CNN Effect: The Myth of News, Foreign Policy and Intervention. New York: Routledge, 2002. Silberstein, Sandra. War of Words: Language, Politics and 9/11. New York: Routledge, 2002. Wark, McKenzie. Virtual Geography: Living with Global Media Events. Bloomington IN: Indiana UP, 1994. Wiener, Norbert. Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1948. Zelizer, Barbie, and Stuart Allan (eds.). Journalism after September 11. New York: Routledge, 2002. Links http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0 Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Burns, Alex. "The Worldflash of a Coming Future" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0304/08-worldflash.php>. APA Style Burns, A. (2003, Apr 23). The Worldflash of a Coming Future. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0304/08-worldflash.php>