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INTRODUCTION
It was a cold
sunny day in late January and the old priest could never have imagined that one
of those long white trails, left by the jet in the clear Valtellina sky, could
even remotely remind him the same bloody drama wich he witnessed many years
before. Otherwise on one of those jets about to land in the nearby Engadine,
Switzerland, a large Rwandan delegation was traveling ready to take part in the
World Economic Forum in Davos in 2018.
The dramatic
reality he had faced in that summer of 1994 seemed so far to the priest,
who represented the Italian Caritas in those years and had brought aid to the
refugee camp of Goma in Zaire (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
In a sort of
circle of Dante's Inferno, a desperate
humanity of Rwandan refugees lived the last gasps of a ferocious civil war,
framed by a hood of black soot raised by the volcanic earth of the camp.More
than twenty years separate that sparkling trail traced in the blue Valtellina
sky by the dark atmosphere of the Goma camp. Years spent in the desperate
search of a tiring redemption, thanks to the resilience of a courageous people
and the support of an international community anxious to get rid of some guilt
from the past.Since 1994, after the tragic civil war, the Rwandan people live
in peace, a situation not particularly widespread in Africa. This figure would
be enough to appreciate the path taken by Rwanda in this twenty years. It would
be enough to appreciate the path taken by Rwanda in this twenty years.
As a matter of
fact, in addition to this political dividend that the governance expressed by
Rwandan president Paul Kagame has been able to guarantee its governors in a
sort of enhancement of social capital, signed in the aftermath of the Rwandan
tragedy , resulting from the development that the country has made in recent years.
Rwanda, a country
of twelve million inhabitants, is part of those 58 countries of the last
billion at risk of becoming increasingly poor, but through international aid
supported by the commitment of its governance, has been put in condition, at
the end of the bloody conflict that bloodied the country from 1990 to 1994, to
reconstitute its statehood and reborn a solid social situation.Through the
pursuit of a strong national identity, innervated by the rediscovery of the
values of tradition, a surprising openness to
innovation and modern management models, the current Rwandan governance has
succeeded in creating a winning social model.We can say without any fear that
Rwanda has created the conditions for a Rwandan citizen to consider that their
children can proudly live in their own country, not letting themselves be
attracted by the call of improbable adventures in the Westerners
countries, as usually happens to other
inhabitants of the African continent.
On the contrary,
it should be emphasized that the new Rwanda has been able to encourage the
comeback of over three million refugees from Rwanda to neighboring countries,
starting with independence and as a consequence of the civil war end.
Never forget also
the commitment of the Rwandan authorities, through the program "Come and
see, Go and Tell ", to encourage the comeback of the Rwandan diaspora
scattered throughout the world to contribute to the development of the economy
and of the institutions of the country Rwanda's path has begun thanks to international
aid merged into the country after the tragedy of 1994, which found a governance
capable of making good use of it, with an original approach, in which the
agenda of their use was never that of donors, but the one that decided by
Rwandan rulers. International aid and good governance have thus made Rwanda, a
country penalized by the lack of mineral resources of its own, without access
to the sea, exposed to possible regurgitation of inter-ethnic conflicts, one of
the best organized countries on the African continent. As emphasized in its own
report in November 2017 by the World Bank "Rwanda has been able to carry
out important economic and structural reforms and to support its economic
growth rates which, between 2001 and 2015, they recorded an average of real GDP
growth of around 8% per year. Mixing strong economic growth with substantial
improvements in living standards with a two-thirds drop in child mortality and
an almost universal attendance of primary school, as well as the achievement by
the end of 2015, of most of the Millennium Development (MDG). A strong focus on
national policies and initiatives has helped to significantly improve access to
services and human development indicators. The poverty rate fell from 44% in
2011 to 39% in 2014, while the inequality measured by the Gini coefficient fell
from 0.49 to 0.45.
Although
dependence on aid is still significant, there is the commitment of the Rwandan
government to implement policies aimed at mitigating its impact over time.
While the effective management of resources, made available during these years,
was authoritatively recognized by the report on the efficiency of governments
in 2014 drawn up by the World Economic Forum, a special ranking that relates
the results achieved by individual governments with the employed resources,
which gives the government of Rwanda a prestigious seventh place worldwide
(compared to an Italy relegated to the penultimate place). Above all, the low
level of waste in public spending is recognized by the Rwandan government; in
the final analysis it is said that Rwanda has known and is able to make an
excellent use of its own resources and those received from international
donors.
Without forgetting
the efforts made to create the conditions of security and facilitation of doing
business to attract international investors to create new businesses in the
country. Thanks also to the contribution, in a subsidiary to the civil
authorities, of the Catholic Church and other Christian confessions present in
the country (Catholics and Protestants represent about 90% of the population,
one of the highest on the continent) in education and health, with hundreds of
schools of all levels, with health centers, basic assistance and hospitals,
have achieved the objectives of the millennium in the aforementioned sectors.
Over time, with difficulty and despite a thousand contradictions, in which the
path in the conquest of civil liberties is still long and bumpy and the path
that divides the level of life between city and countryside is likely to
increase, they are still creating in Rwanda the conditions because the right to
remain is not an empty slogan, but a real alternative, and the temptation to
migrate does not breach the young Rwandans who, in fact, are not among the
migrants who disembark from the boats. And this is because someone, in advance
of years on the first boats plowing the Mediterranean, has helped them at home:
from large international institutions to donor countries, from big NGOs to the
smallest of non-profit organizations and to the last of the volunteers.
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