Today, President Kagame officiated the annual Imihigo (performance contracts) signing ceremony for the 2017-2018 Financial Year. During the same event, a report on district performance for the Fiscal Year 2016/2017 was presented and three of the best performing districts were awarded.
President Kagame begun his address by thanking all public servants for their hard work to deliver services to citizens and then proceeded to reminding the leaders present about the real meaning of the Imihigo process: “Imihigo is about evaluating our performance, learning from our mistakes and moving forward together. What Imihigo shows us is that we still have areas where we need to improve, that we need to do what it takes to improve and reach our goals. Imihigo is not just a ceremony: it is about achieving our goal of transforming the lives of every citizen; the pledges have to translate into action and tangible results for every citizen.”
President Kagame also called for improved collaboration among different institutions: “We need to improve the way we work together; there must be consequences for any failure to coordinate among each other. Providing services to every citizen is your responsibility; it is not about who or when you choose to serve. “
The Imihigo concept was introduced in 2006 by the Government of Rwanda as a grown home solution to monitor and evaluate plans, programs and investments that are to be delivered for citizens at different levels of leadership.