Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
tional, maintenance, information and coordination costs is completed can citizens engage
in a problem solving process. This sustainability test ensures that citizens craft
local problem solving institutions that they truly own. This includes environmental
concerns that can plague the management of common pool resources. There are several
elements that have contributed to the evolving success of the Ubudehe initiative.
• Ensuring inclusive participation: A firm belief in the principle of real participation
and opportunities, and the demonstration of what this participation
looks like in practice, have visually demonstrated and encouraged greater support
from others.
• Starting small and scaling up was a core strategy: Recognizing that any long
term change process takes time, and persisting with long term processes has ensured
that Ubudehe makes small but gradualy inroads into national acceptance;
• Minimizing expenses: Keeping overheads low and ensuring over 80% of resources
are controlled by citizens themselves has been central in ensuring Ubudehe’s
success. The Ubudehe secretariat comprises of a small team of no more
than five people nationally, and there are no intermediaries in ensuring resources
flows between the central government and cellules;
• Buidling awareness about people’s ability to govern themselves: This initiative
helped people to come together to develop a common understanding of a
problem and experience problem solving through direct engagement. People
have developed a sense of how to implement and manage their affairs. In the
process, citizens debate, negotiate and reach an agreement, which contains details
about a commonly agreed purpose, budget and rules of association that will
bind citizens. All of this increases local pools of knowledge. By default this initiative
has increased the accountability and transparency in the management of
their collective action leading to wider calls for accountability and transparency.
And this approach now provides for the next phase of Ubudehe – a basis for planning
longer term and larger scale support to citizens at the district level; and
• Ability of donors to embrace innovative development approaches: The
ability of donors, such as the European Union, to take initial risks and experiment
with the process has given much boost to this type of cooperation and has
also demonstrated that donors need to move beyond traditional development
strategies and try out new approaches that may be more relevant to specific
contexts. Speaking at the award-giving ceremony in Rwanda, President
Kagame said that Ubudehe is “a clear indication of how Rwandan people have
managed to solve their own problems by listing their priorities, needs and making
decisions by themselves”. “Poverty is a mindset and getting out of it is by
making just a simple decision. If we continue with this success record, the
country will develop quickly,” he noted.
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