Official Statement
Rwanda
Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction Geneva May 19-23 ,2013
Esteemed delegates
It is with great pleasure that Rwanda, for the first time, is a participant to what has now
become ‘the world's foremost gathering of stakeholders committed to reducing disaster
risk and building the resilience of communities and nations’ – the Fourth Session of the
Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. This is one of the most humbling experiences
to be amongst this crowd of experts, specialists, gurus and dedicated women and men
working to make this world - our world a safer haven for all.
While we had not been active in this Global Platform during its first three sessions, we
remain steadfastly committed to contributing our share to achieve the goals and priorities
of the Hyogo Framework for Action for the benefit of the peoples of Rwanda, the region
and the world. In this brief, we would like to highlight to you the significant achievements
Rwanda had brought about during the past years.
Our country, in the past two decades, as you may very well knowis undergoing a period of
socio-economic, political and cultural healing and rebuilding after the very tragic 1994
Genocide.As a vehicle towards this process of transformation, we embarked on Vision
2020. It is a collective vision seeking to fundamentally transform Rwanda into a middleincome country by year 2020.
Committed to achieving this dream we collectively set for us, our children and our
children’s children, it is our pleasure to share the key gains we have reaped thus far. During
the last ten years, our Country has experienced one of the most exciting and fastest periods
of growth and socio-economic progress in its history. It was tenth fastest growing economy
in the world during the decade from 2000. At the same time more than a million people
have been lifted out of poverty. Population growth is stabilising and the country is making
great strides towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and middle income
status. These important gains have paved the road towards Vision 2020 thus the current
priority of Rwanda is to sustain this development momentum as laid down in its Second
Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) 2013-2018.
While we have this development vision, we are well aware of challenges and potential
obstacles which would likely impede achievement of these goals due to increasing disaster
risks and climate change impacts. Trends show that over the last decade, the frequency
and intensity of natural hazard-induced disasters, particularly floods, landslides and
droughts, have significantly increased, resulting in high human casualties as well as
economic and environmental losses. The hilly topography, high annual precipitation rates,
environmental degradation due to deforestation and inappropriate farming methods
combined with climate change effects have accelerated disaster risks in Rwanda.
Key to sustaining and preserving these development gains is ensuring that disasters and
climate change impacts do not wipe away these hard-earned development dividends. Thus
integral to this development roadmap is the twin-strategy of disaster risk reductionand
climate change adaptation and mitigation. DRR and CCA are mainstreamed in the Second
EDPRS as cross-cutting concern. Under this current economic development roadmap of
Rwanda, DRR and Disaster Management will touch all priority areas and is mainstreamed in
all priority sectors. The most important are: agriculture, infrastructure, education,
environment and natural resources, private sector development, energy, urbanisation,
information communication technology, health, youth and social protection.
Disaster risk reduction is at the forefront of Rwanda’s development priority. Even as we
consider ourselves a neophyte in this area, we had by now achieved important strides in
disaster risk reduction and management. These achievements underpin Rwanda’s
commitment to deliver on its HFA targets.
While the rest of the countries in the region (i.e. Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya to name
a few), still have the mandate for disaster risk management lodged within Defence
ministries, or under the Office of the President or Prime Minister’s Office, Rwanda has
established in 2010 the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs, the nodal
ministry for disaster management. Rwandais paying more attention to the establishment
of appropriate policy and institutional arrangements for dealing with disaster risks more
effectively.
Since 2009, a National Disaster Management Policy served as a key guidepost for dealing
and managing disasters. Just last year, this Policy has been revised to reflect new
approaches to disaster risk management and put emphasis to DRR mainstreaming. The DM
Policy is a reiteration of Rwanda’s priority placed on DRRM. The policy also mandated the
creation of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) ---- the national
coordination mechanism for disaster risk reduction in the country.
Rwanda also has developed its National Disaster Management Plan last year which framed
key strategies and activities for preparedness, response, mitigation and recovery and
rehabilitation. It streamlined and delegated roles and responsibilities across sectors and
ministries.
We also have developed the Ministry’s 5-year Strategic Plan (2012-2017). This 5 year
strategic plan is built around the priorities of the HFA. The Disaster Management (DM) Law
has also been drafted, approved by the Cabinet and is awaiting Parliament’s deliberation
for subsequent adoption into a prime statute on DRRM in the country. It is expected that
the passage of this law will further strengthen the government’s resolve, focus and priority
on DRRM. A key feature of the proposed DM Law is regular state budget allocation for
disaster risk reduction.
Efforts are underway to establish comprehensive end-to-end early warning systems. We
had started with enhancing our capacities for forecasting, prediction and detection of
rainfall, the primary cause of floods and landslidesby upgrading the national data collection
network with automatic weather stations. The institutional mechanism for early warning is
currently being finalized including initiatives for raising public awareness and knowledgebuilding.
A comprehensive risk assessment of the Country which will culminate with the formulation
of the first ever Rwanda Risk Atlas is also expected to complete within the year.
We are also pleased to share that Rwanda had initiated as follows: (a) support local
governments to develop capacities for disaster risk reduction and disaster risk
management; (b) establishment of local disaster management committees (at Districts and
Sectors); (c) establishing communication systems for disaster monitoring and reporting; (d)
mainstreaming disaster risk reduction and promoting disaster preparedness in schools; (e)
sensitizing of media on DRR/DM; (f) raising public awareness on disaster risks, risk
reduction and early warning, among others.
In closing, while we acknowledge with thanks the support of the “friends of Rwanda”, the
UN, the governments and other international organizations in assisting our country in a
range of disaster risk reduction and development issues, we reiterate that we most
welcome the continued technical and financial assistance from you - the international
community, to mitigate disasters, reduce disaster risks and reduce vulnerability of Rwanda
to disasters and the impacts of climate change.
Thank you.