Recently, cabinet approved a new 5-year policy to root out child labor in the country. While the situation is certainly not alarming in Rwanda, this initiative is to be applauded. Every child which spends its time working instead of going to school, is one too many.
The best option is to remove the mandatory ‘waiting period’ altogether.
As we report elsewhere, some local leaders think they can play it smart when it comes to the evaluation of their performance contracts (imihigo). One leader in Western Province told our reporter that they carefully select the families to be visited by the assessors, and make sure to leave out those who might not yet have benefitted from certain programs.
Considering that even Barack Obama, the President of the world’s biggest economy, can currently only dream of getting American unemployment below 5%, the Mifotra figure is obviously nonsense.
It can only hoped that this first-ever debate on Global Criminal Justice at the General Assembly will prove to be more than a talking shop with some nice speeches
Even if the Genocide was a horrific event that has defined the state of the country today, it is normal that those youth don’t have the same natural emotional attachment to it as their parents. They cannot be blamed for that.
Recently, the government changed its policy concerning student loans for tertiary education. In the past, everyone who wanted to follow higher education could obtain a loan, which was then supposed to be paid back once the student graduated and found a job.
We can only hope that future cases of overzealous local leaders destroying crops will be avoided. As Local Government Minister James Musoni says, such behavior is contrary to the principles of good governance. And with the conflicts delaying the implementation of the crop intensification program, everybody loses.
Therefore, while the sensitization campaign for public officials is a welcome initiative, the Minister should go beyond words. As he apparently does, since the ministry is in talks with telecom operators so that people can obtain affordable devices like smartphones with access to internet and social media.
As long as rural women accept that on all occasions the man is the ultimate decider, and men take that position for granted, they have not yet achieved full dignity. And neither have their families.
