United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

In the second phase of decentralisation, a sector one of the administrative unit in the local government is the base of service delivery. When the sector does not have accurate information that means that the district will also work with inaccurate information and therefore all activities will not be realistic.

In the sector of Gishari like many other sectors in the country, there was no baseline information related to the welfare and social status of the population. Without a data base, strategic planning or even simple planning was done based on unrealistic statistics. They used to keep data in form of hard copies with all risks involved. Due to the fact that there was no updating of data there was no real statistics and all projects and programs were done on rough estimation of the population.

The intended beneficiaries who are the population some of them would not benefit getting the services intended for them due to lack of statistics and hence not knowing which part of the population has which needs and therefore identification leave alone prioritisation of these needs was difficult.

The executive secretary would not clearly give his sector’s situation in terms of statistics; example he would not tell what number of his population has access to clean water, health centers etc. In addition even the data that was available could not be easily updated. The community in this case would not get adequate services.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Among the key achievements, the sector has been able to contribute to the elaboration of District development plan for five years with accurate data that enabled proper planning. Another important benefit was that it enabled decision makers in the sector and the whole district to make informed decisions based on actual and accurate of the population. The development of software helps them to have and continually update information regarding social, economic situations in the sector. This has greatly improved service delivery to all whole community because now it is clear how many households/ families are in the sector including the different categories of the population. By this initiative we have statistics in many different areas for example: • The population of Gishari sector is now : 20432 • The number of cows in the whole sector is 3940 for 1365 families, • The population with medical insurance (mutuelle de santé) is 19 002 /20432 The poor population in the sector is 258 families /4165 families. The sector’s leadership can now adequately plan and efficiently serve the community since they know their population in terms of numbers how many households are in the sector and their various needs. In addition to this, specific programs/ projects can be designed to address particular concerns for the different categories of the population; for example a project to reduce poverty can be designed since there is data to show the poorest families in the sector. The main objective was to have a clear picture of the sector in order to enable the leadership as well as the community to be able to plan and implement development activities based on data that is realistic.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The leadership of the district proposed the solution in collaboration with the district; the key implementer is the leadership of the sector and the coordinators of all the cells in the sector GTZ and the National Institute of Statistics were the key contributors to the initiative because they helped in the designing of the software, translating it into the local language (kinyarwanda) and trained the users.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
There were a number of strategies including: • Designing a software that would help the sector to have and continually update information • The software was Translated into our local language (Kinyarwanda) so that it would be easy for lower decentralised entities to use this software while entering information and even updating the information as new information is received • All sector officials were trained to use the soft ware in order for them to manage it without external help • The sector leadership sensitised coordinators of all cells in the sector about the importance of gathering and having up to date information, who in turn sensitised the population on the same. • Collecting data and entering it to the computer The main objectives were to have a clear situation and baseline for the whole sector and to be able to make a situation analysis and design developmental programs that are realistic and equitable to the whole sector.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
There were various developments and implementation as indicated in their chronological order; • The sector created a database with data from March 2006 census; • GTZ trained executive secretaries of all sectors of Rwamagana district on how to use and manage the software; • The executive secretaries of the sectors in May 2007 started computing data into the software; • The Executive Secretary of Gishari applied for the software to GTZ; • Then later GTZ installed a software in two computers of the sector; • The executive secretary and the employee in charge of social affairs updated the data into the software.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
There were various obstacles: • After entering the data, the computer got a technical problem so all the data was lost because there was no backup for saving information on other devises. This was overcome by entering data afresh in a new computer and getting DVDs and flash drives to have storage of the same data in different places • In the translation, finding technical terms in our local language was a problem but an equivalent of words was used which serves the exact purpose. • The leaders at the cell level do not know how to use computers leave alone updating information. The intermediary solution is to get hard copies as they plan to teach these leaders to use computer and there after train them to use software. • The lack of enough equipments and means (transport, money). It was over come by mobilising support from GTZ

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The resources used in that initiative are the following: • financial resources : 25 000 000 Frw ( = 45.000 US dollars) • Human resources : 150 people mobilised that initiative for 2 months, • Equipments like: computers, papers, vehicles, stationeries... The resources were mobilised by using the resources of the District and a support given by an NGO named GTZ.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The initiative will be sustainable because data will be updated in weekly reports given by local leaders every week. In terms of financial sustainability, the district is committed to allocate resources for information update and management. In Rwanda ICT is being given priority and for that matter the central government is encouraging all local governments to copy the initiative and some sectors have started though they do not yet have software to ease their endeavours.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
There are various lessons among them are; • Information is the basis of proper and adequate decision making. • With accurate baseline planning of development activities is more realistic and addresses the whole community. • Having a clear picture of the population in terms of statistics enables the leaders to design specific projects to address the communities concern • Adequate service delivery requires accurate information about the population these services are intended for. • The use of technology makes service delivery faster, equitable and smooth


Institution Name:		GISHARI SECTOR
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		EMMANUEL HAVUGIMANA
Title:		EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
Telephone/ Fax:		+250- 0848128
Institution's / Project's Website:
E-mail:		emmahav@yahoo.fr
Address:
Postal Code:		B.P 24
City:		RWAMAGANA
State/Province:		EASTERN PROVINCE
Country:		Rwanda

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information