Rwanda from Goma to Davos, an example of development for Africa

Available on Amazon by clicking here

The introduction of the book "Aiutiamoli a casa loro Il modello Rwanda" From Goma to Davos, from the chasm of a civil war to an example of development for Africa, thanks to aid and good governance.  

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.