Boris Johnson, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary has described as a ‘tragedy’ the ouster of former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

Johnson during the week became the first top western diplomat to visit the war ravaged north African nation. He told theBBC that western powers ‘were way over-optimistic’ about Libya’s future post-Gaddafi.

Whiles stressing that Libya was more divided than into two main blocs that is currently being projected, he said the country was technically lawless in most parts.

There’s been a complete breakdown of government authority – Libya is not in a state of civil war – it would be more accurate to describe it as in a state of anarchy.

“There’s been a complete breakdown of government authority – Libya is not in a state of civil war – it would be more accurate to describe it as in a state of anarchy.

“There is no government authority who runs the country and there are large parts of it where there is no government at all,” he is quoted to have said.

He met the major factions in the current political and security crisis and tasked them to put the interest of the Libyan people first. He first met Tripoli-based United Nations-backed government led by Fayez Al-Sarraj before holding talks with Benghazi based Halifa Haftar.

Boris underscored the importance of Libya in the fight against irregular migration. There has been a surge in the phenomenon since the 2011 overthrow of Gaddafi. He also pledged £9m to help tackle people trafficking and terrorism.
Key time lines in the Libya crisis

1969 – Muammar Gaddafi rose to power
Feb 2011 – An armed uprising started in the country
March 2011 – NATO forces entered Libya enforcing a no-fly zone
June 2011 – The ICC issues an arrest warrant for Gaddafi and his son
August 2011 – Gaddafi reportedly quit Tripoli as rebels advanced
October 2011 – He is captured and killed in his hometown of Sirte along with a son
November 2011 – Saif al-Islam is captured by a militia and held in town of Zintan
July 2015 – Tripoli court hands death sentence to Saif al-Islam in absentia
July 2016 – His lawyer announces Saif’s release but it is ‘rubbished’ by his captors
June 2017 – Second release announced but his whereabouts are unknown
June 2017 – ICC prosecutor issues ‘arrest and surrender’ order for Saif al-Islam

How Libya descended into the present chaos

The North African oil producer was plunged into an armed conflict in 2011 following an uprising that led to the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) joined rebels groups as part of efforts to oust Gaddafi.

NATO primarily enforced a no-fly zone over Libya. After seven months, the UN Security Council voted to end NATO’s mandate on 31 October following the death of Gaddafi. The former leader was captured in his hometown of Sirte and killed by his captors.

Libya is currently split with rival governments holding different parts. Islamic State insurgents also held parts of Sirte until they were recently pushed out.

Libya has become the biggest security threat in the region whiles Europe continues to suffer floods of illegal immigration which was largely controlled during the Gaddafi regime.

It is increasingly becoming evident that if we are serious about saving planet earth, the young leaders and journalists, worldwide should start working together to shape a better future for humankind.

This is a clear signal that UNESCO made this month in the one of the world’s iconic cities, Paris; where young leaders and journalists attended the UNESCO ESD Conference with the theme “Youth Saves the Planet”.
Selected on meritorious grounds to participate at the Conference and shape a new hope for a world in which our current leaders are facing increasing challenges in their quest to achieve sustainable development, the young leaders and journalists’ the enthusiasm and commitment towards achievement of sustainable development is a breath of fresh air.
Some of the work that the young leaders and journalists from different parts of the world pledged to start actively and continuously get involved in include the to promote mindsets and lifestyle changes, using an approach called Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). They are also going to create networks and start working on community and national projects that promote the wellbeing of both the people and the environment, with the view to ensuring that future generations’ need to enjoy the same wellbeing is not compromised. For this to be achieved, the young leaders and journalists appealed to UNESCO to continue making resources available for skills development to run successful projects that promote both human and environmental wellbeing and to ensure that the media is used regularly as a platform to promote sustainable development.
The young journalists and leaders from different parts of the world acknowledged the challenges that are limiting worldwide progress towards achieving sustainable development and have come up with refreshingly new and practical approaches towards changing mindsets and lifestyles in ways that promote both human and environmental wellbeing.

“The Youth Saves the Planet Conference was a success that brought together youth leaders all over the world in an effort to connect and learn from each other,” said Vinh Le from Canada. “This conference has given us the tools and skills to create social initiatives and be a better ESD leader. The next steps for my partner and I at Level Studio Inc. is to create an upscale social challenge to get more youth in our country to learn about the SDGs and have them implemented into their lifestyle.”
The young journalists and leaders have adopted a renewed perspective on the concept of development itself. They believe that sustainability does not simply mean conserving the present or the past with a distant goal in mind. For individuals, it boils down to adapting themselves to a constantly changing world, starting at an individual level and then spread it to all levels of societies. The young journalists and leaders identified lack of broader awareness and education on the need to change mindsets and lifestyles as one of the key challenges that the media can address through increase public education on sustainable development.

“As champions of sustainable development the young leaders and journalists need to lead by example,” said a Zimbabwean broadcast journalist, Ms Elizabeth Gandah. “We need to start living lifestyles that show that we are promoting the achievement of sustainable development goals.”
Most countries worldwide are members of the Global Action Plan (GAP) for sustainable development. In their April 2018 draft education for sustainable development position paper that is yet to be ratified, the world governments acknowledge that when promoting sustainable development, there is urgent pay attention to individuals’ life choices and convictions as much as to the social, cultural, political, and economical contexts they are set in.
“The fundamental changes required for a sustainable future start with individuals and their change of behaviour, attitude and life style, while the institutional supports are equally important and needed to support the individual contributions,” says the GAP draft report.

Call for win-win partnerships for sustainable development

Meanwhile most of the young leaders and journalists, particularly those from Africa and the island Africa and the island states said at the Paris Youth Saves the Planet Conference that although international cooperation is ideal towards achieving sustainable development, there was no need for other countries to dictate without consultation, what other countries needed to do to achieve sustainable development. They said win-win consultative partnerships hold the key to the success of achieving sustainable development worldwide.
In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 agenda for sustain development that includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that need to be achieved worldwide by 2030. The SDGs are built on the principle of “leaving no one behind” so that there is an achievement of sustainable development for all. They include the need to achieve zero hunger and poverty, good health and wellbeing, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, achieving equality, embracing people with disabilities, upholding human rights, accessible human settlement and peace, among others. They can be summarized as focusing on people, planet and prosperity.

The Paris Youth Saves the Planet Conference also discussed issues related to global, regional and community partnerships for sustainable development with the media as the key platform that needs to be used to promote sustainable development through sending out messages calling for the need to change mindsets and lifestyles. During plenary session discussions it was proposed that there is need to start a ESD for SDGs News Sources and News Writers Network in order to further promote sustainable development in the media – an initiative that UNESCO has already started piloting as a post-Conference activity for both young leaders and journalists worldwide.
Speaking at the Conference, the Director for UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development, Mr Alaxandra said that he was happy to learn that the young leaders and journalists had agreed to continue working together as a network.
“UNESCO will continue to promote education and sustainable development,” said Mr Alexandra. “Young people will remain a clear cornerstone of our work.”

Expose those who work against sustainable development
The Conference facilitators drawn from Africa, Middle East and Europe informed the young leaders and journalists that sustainable development could not be achieved without exposing and shaming those who work against achieving it, whether they are in public and private sector. This means that research and stories need to be written without fear or favour, calling for and end to all forms of corruption and exploitation and violation of human rights and those who work against achieving peace in the would.
For example, a delegate from Kenya who spoke on conditions of anonymity was anxious to get help to expose the human rights violations in his country involving human wildlife conflicts in which animals are being accorded more rights than humans.
“What is happening is Kenya is that when animals attack communities settled next to national parks and game reserves, the victims do not get compensated,” said the disappointed delegate. “Worse still, these communities do not get any benefits from wildlife and are gunned down by the Government if they are caught poaching wildlife or even harvesting resources from the game reserves.”
The Conference facilitators reminded the young journalists and leaders that they should not forget that they are working together with a UN agency that promotes and protects freedom of expression. Therefore, if ever they get victimized for telling the truth, they would need to appeal to UNESCO for protection.

By Emmanuel Koro – Paris
About the writer: Emmanuel Koro is a Johannesburg-based international award-winning environmental journalist who has written extensively on environment and development issues in Africa.

Rwanda’s external debt distress is not yet high and Rwanda is taking every possible action to constrain the high risk of external debt distress.

Rwanda’s external debts have had considerable increase since 2014 as it increased from $ 1.8 billion in 2014 to $ 2.9 billion in 2016. The IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA)show no increase in figures have been recorded in 2017 according to the IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) July 2017.

However, Minister GateteClaver, for MINECOFIN, has told the press conference that Rwanda is categorized as low debt distress country where its external debt against GDP currently stands at 36.6%. Gatete said this amid fears of possibly increased external debt that could affect economy growth.
IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis shows a total debt including guarantees stood at $ 1.8 billion in 2014 ,$ 2.2 billion in 2015 and 2.9 in 2016.

The same report shows that the government is expected to take on around US$37 million in external debt over 2017–19 to carry out its projects.
The minister has said that country engages in taking external debts not oblivious of the risks external debt may bring about especially to the economy of the country.
From three categories notably low risk of external debt distress, moderate risk external debt distress and High risk external debt distress that the IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis classify countries Rwanda counts the average of 10 percent for internal and 36 percent for external debts.
Mega projects that have made Rwanda to take debts include RwandAir’s continued expansion that took US$171 million in loans for two new aircraft and leases for two other aircraft. There are other projectssuch as the Rwanda-Tanzania joint railway projects from Isaka-Kigali slated to officially kick off by October 2018, that will require the country a staggering investment that would no matter how prompt the country to opt taking debts.

Pity today’s clothes. Like unloved toys, they’re being worn less often than ever. The rise of fast fashion retailers has meant that consumers can buy trendy clothes almost the second they’re designed – and just as quickly move on to the next fad.

Most of us try to lessen the guilt of our fashion fickleness by dropping those barely worn clothes off at a charity shop.
Oxfam says donations to its stores increased by 2% in the 2016-2017 period
In many ways it’s a virtuous cycle. But only 10% to 20% of donated clothes are actually sold through charity shops like Oxfam’s.
The rest are sold to distributors who then sort the clothes and send them on to countries like Pakistan or Malaysia where they are sold in second-hand clothes markets or recycled to make products like fleece.
There’s just one problem: those countries increasingly no longer want our used clothes. Overall, the global export market for worn and used clothing is estimated to be about $4bn.
But a BBC analysis of data from the United Nations shows that the formerly fast-growing used clothing import/export business has declined over the past few years – both in terms of volume and in terms of value.
Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Burundi recently announced they intended to stop importing used clothes from places like the UK and the US by 2019.
Last June, Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame said: “We have to grow and establish our industries.” The consequences for clothes-selling countries were swift.
The United States – which is the world’s biggest exporter of worn clothing – said over the summer it would review its trade relationship with Rwanda, as well as Uganda and Tanzania, in the wake of the proposed bans.
In a statement, it said the bans “impos[ed] significant economic hardship on the US used clothing industry.”
Whether it’s due to political bickering or simply a lack of demand, the increasingly competitive global market for worn clothing has put pressure on the UK companies that buy all of those unsold charity shop clothes.
‘Not many left’
Ross Barry’s family started and has run LMB Textile Recyclers for the past thirty years. But now, he says, there are “not that many of us left in the UK.”
Ross Barry’s family has been in the clothes recycling business for 30 years. Their factory – in east London – has massive conveyor belts with workers dotted every few feet or so, carefully inspecting all of our unwanted cast-offs into 160 different possible grades of clothing.
The grades range from barely worn to only good for insulation. Each grade is packed up into plastic sacks weighing 45kg that are then sold for anything from £5-150 to foreign buyers. Bras and football kit go for the most, Mr Barry says.
Because of cost pressures, LMB has had to reduce staff from 100 to 20 full-time workers. The sorting is quite a labour intensive process.
“There’s not a machine that will tell you that’s a grade one hoodie,” he tells me, as 10 workers sort through the latest truckload.
He says that over the past five years he’s seen 60 -70 companies stop their sorting business. And LMB hasn’t been immune, he says he had to trim his staff from nearly 100 workers to some 20 today.
“Clothing is an international trade, they can buy from anywhere,” says Mr Barry, who says it’s hard to remain competitive when labour costs in the UK are quite high.
A massive conveyor belt transports half a million tons of clothes to workers each day
Part of what is hurting Mr Barry’s business is the fact that most of the clothing we buy today is increasingly being sorted into the lower “junk” category.
Things fall apart
Manufacturers know that customers are more interested in low prices than durability, because they increasingly expect to wear their clothes just a few times and throw them away.
“So the quality’s not as good, so when our customers get [an item] they’re not getting two or three hundred wears out of it – they know it’s only going to be a couple of uses,” he says.
That means, according to Fee Gilfeather, head of marketing for Oxfam’s trading division, “more [clothing] is getting incinerated than there used to be.”
The future will involve figuring out how to turn these unwanted clothes into new fabrics say industry experts
Which is why both Oxfam and LMB say the future of clothes recycling might be “closing the clothing loop”: figuring out a way to fully recycle these clothes into fabrics we might use.
Oxfam recently joined Marks & Spencer to manufacture a suit from the high-quality used cashmere that gets donated to its stores.
And fast fashion behemoth Hennes and Mauritz – better known as H&M – recently linked with the Hong Kong Institute of Textiles and Apparel, to fund research into how to recycle blended textiles (such as cotton-polyester mixes) into new fabrics and yarns.
Only a fraction of donated clothes are sold through charity shops – the rest get sold on to clothes recyclers or incinerated
Yet until technology can catch up with our insatiable need for ever-more fast fashion, one message Oxfam emphasises is that consumers shouldn’t stop donating simply because it is forced to burn more clothes. In fact, some of the energy from those unwanted clothing fires could end up powering homes.
So the next time you’re tempted by a new trend it might be wise to remember the words of Coco Chanel.
“Elegance,” she is reported to have said, “does not necessarily consist in putting on a new dress.”

The City of Kigali, security agencies and National Rehabilitation Services (NRS) have started preparations to facilitate effective reintegration of hundreds of rehabilitated drug addicts, who are set to graduate at Iwawa Rehabilitation and Vocational Skills Development Centre (IRVSDC).

A total of 989 former drug dealers and addicts are set to graduate on February 9, in various vocational fields. According to the vice mayor for the City of Kigali in charge of Social Affairs, Patricia Muhongerwa, the whole plan falls under the national programme to fight the scourge of drug abuse. “Today (Wednesday) a team of officials from the City of Kigali including all vice mayors in charge of social affairs from Nyarugenge, Gasabo and Kicukiro; security agencies and NRS are traveling to Iwawa ahead of the graduation to specifically profile the graduands, categorize them according to their skills and find ways to find them jobs,” Muhongerwa said.

The majority 800 of those graduating were from the City of Kigali. “With majority graduating having sent by the City of Kigali, we need to exactly know their names, their parents or families; if they are residents of City of Kigali or from other parts of the country. These deeper discussions with them will inform the best appropriate action, for example, if some of them have families capable and ready to support them,” she added. Those who don’t have families or whose families have no means, she said, will be supported to utilize the acquired skills.

“Together with security organs, we have partnered with groups and companies like Reserve Force, Utexrwa and business enterprises established by rehabilitated former drug dealers and addicts; we want to ensure that when these youth graduate they find better alternative and a better life,” she said. This, she noted, is meant to lay a solid ground to prevent the young people from going back into abusing drugs.

According to Commissioner of Police (CP) Theos Badege, the Rwanda National Police (RNP) spokesperson, such initiatives supplement efforts to kill the market. “It is not only about fighting the supply chain; it’s also about ensuring that the addicted are rehabilitated and given a better life, which facilitates in killing the consumption market,” said CP Badege. This, he said, is a general concept that also involves parents, schools, different youth groups, faith-based organizations, local leaders as well as owners and managers of hospitality facilities to prevent the young people from abusing drugs and to ensure dealers are arrested and prosecuted. RNP and the ministries of Youth, Local Government and Health started a countrywide awareness campaign in December last year specifically to bring on board various groups reverse the scourge of drug trafficking and abuse in the country.

According to Aime Bosenibamwe, the coordinator of NRS, breaking the chain of supply and killing the local market will also save the government expenses on rehabilitation. Currently, the government spends at least Rwf70 million every month to support and rehabilitate over 3800 drug addicts are Iwawa alone.

The rehabilitation is in two phases; first six months of psychological and health rehabilitation, and six more months for vocational training. “The government is now investing more in rehabilitation and awareness as means to kill the local market and save the youth, the majority victims.

Gitagata is being upgraded to accommodate at least 1000 people up from 400 currently including girls below the age of 18 years, and women aged between 18 and 35 years,” Bosenibamwe said. “Similarly, Nyamagabe rehabilitation centre once completed will accommodate about 2000 people.

All these are government programmes designed to make sure that the young people whose life is ruined, get a better life and to support the joint efforts to combat the scourge of narcotic drugs in our country,” he added. Since 2012, about 12228 addicted youth aged between 18 and 35 year, have been rehabilitated and equipped with vocational skills, with about 90 percent of completely healed and currently engaged in income generating activities.

Pity today’s clothes. Like unloved toys, they’re being worn less often than ever. The rise of fast fashion retailers has meant that consumers can buy trendy clothes almost the second they’re designed – and just as quickly move on to the next fad.

Most of us try to lessen the guilt of our fashion fickleness by dropping those barely worn clothes off at a charity shop.

Oxfam says donations to its stores increased by 2% in the 2016-2017 period
In many ways it’s a virtuous cycle. But only 10% to 20% of donated clothes are actually sold through charity shops like Oxfam’s. The rest are sold to distributors who then sort the clothes and send them on to countries like Pakistan or Malaysia where they are sold in second-hand clothes markets or recycled to make products like fleece.

There’s just one problem: those countries increasingly no longer want our used clothes. Overall, the global export market for worn and used clothing is estimated to be about $4bn.
But a BBC analysis of data from the United Nations shows that the formerly fast-growing used clothing import/export business has declined over the past few years – both in terms of volume and in terms of value.

Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Burundi recently announced they intended to stop importing used clothes from places like the UK and the US by 2019.
Last June, Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame said: “We have to grow and establish our industries.” The consequences for clothes-selling countries were swift.
The United States – which is the world’s biggest exporter of worn clothing – said over the summer it would review its trade relationship with Rwanda, as well as Uganda and Tanzania, in the wake of the proposed bans.

In a statement, it said the bans “impos[ed] significant economic hardship on the US used clothing industry.” Whether it’s due to political bickering or simply a lack of demand, the increasingly competitive global market for worn clothing has put pressure on the UK companies that buy all of those unsold charity shop clothes.

‘Not many left’

Ross Barry’s family started and has run LMB Textile Recyclers for the past thirty years. But now, he says, there are “not that many of us left in the UK.”
Ross Barry’s family has been in the clothes recycling business for 30 years. Their factory – in east London – has massive conveyor belts with workers dotted every few feet or so, carefully inspecting all of our unwanted cast-offs into 160 different possible grades of clothing.

The grades range from barely worn to only good for insulation. Each grade is packed up into plastic sacks weighing 45kg that are then sold for anything from £5-150 to foreign buyers. Bras and football kit go for the most, Mr Barry says.
Because of cost pressures, LMB has had to reduce staff from 100 to 20 full-time workers. The sorting is quite a labour intensive process.

“There’s not a machine that will tell you that’s a grade one hoodie,” he tells me, as 10 workers sort through the latest truckload. He says that over the past five years he’s seen 60 -70 companies stop their sorting business. And LMB hasn’t been immune, he says he had to trim his staff from nearly 100 workers to some 20 today.

“Clothing is an international trade, they can buy from anywhere,” says Mr Barry, who says it’s hard to remain competitive when labour costs in the UK are quite high.
A massive conveyor belt transports half a million tons of clothes to workers each day
Part of what is hurting Mr Barry’s business is the fact that most of the clothing we buy today is increasingly being sorted into the lower “junk” category.

Things fall apart
Manufacturers know that customers are more interested in low prices than durability, because they increasingly expect to wear their clothes just a few times and throw them away.

“So the quality’s not as good, so when our customers get [an item] they’re not getting two or three hundred wears out of it – they know it’s only going to be a couple of uses,” he says.
That means, according to Fee Gilfeather, head of marketing for Oxfam’s trading division, “more [clothing] is getting incinerated than there used to be.”

The future will involve figuring out how to turn these unwanted clothes into new fabrics say industry experts which is why both Oxfam and LMB say the future of clothes recycling might be “closing the clothing loop”: figuring out a way to fully recycle these clothes into fabrics we might use.

Oxfam recently joined Marks & Spencer to manufacture a suit from the high-quality used cashmere that gets donated to its stores.

And fast fashion behemoth Hennes and Mauritz – better known as H&M – recently linked with the Hong Kong Institute of Textiles and Apparel, to fund research into how to recycle blended textiles (such as cotton-polyester mixes) into new fabrics and yarns.
Only a fraction of donated clothes are sold through charity shops – the rest get sold on to clothes recyclers or incinerated

Yet until technology can catch up with our insatiable need for ever-more fast fashion, one message Oxfam emphasises is that consumers shouldn’t stop donating simply because it is forced to burn more clothes. In fact, some of the energy from those unwanted clothing fires could end up powering homes.

So the next time you’re tempted by a new trend it might be wise to remember the words of Coco Chanel. “Elegance,” she is reported to have said, “does not necessarily consist in putting on a new dress.” src:Rwanda-Podium

Rwanda Governance board launched NKUWIKORERA in Civil Society Organisation with the main target to urge the organasitions to take the lead in embracing quality service delivery at every level

Initiation of Nk’uwikorera program in civil service organisation is in target to urge Civil society organisations to have an active role and to be the stakeholders in improving culture of service delivery. Discussions were held, during the launch of Nk’uwikorera campaign in Civil Society organization, on the state of service delivery in CSOs, the Nk’uwikorera approach to Service Delivery and enhancing Rwandan culture& language.

General Secretary of RGB Edward Kalisa took his time to compliment civil society organisations which have already had embraced the “Nk’uwikorera” approach as they have already gone far in good service delivery and added RGB considers the sessions as a vital accountability mechanism that is worth improving and sustaining.
The chairman of Rwanda Civil Society Organisations, delivering his remarks in the launch, reiterated the role of civil society in good service delivery and also pledged partnership to Rwanda Government in ensuring quality service to the public.
“We should, as Civil Society be exemplary in good service delivery and be the partners of RGB in identifying unsatisfactory service. We pledge our collaboration with RGB in raising awareness about service delivery and the service we provide to other organisations”.

With RGB having been newly assigned with the mandate to monitor and assess service delivery in all government institutions and the private sector as well as developing good governance principles. Nkuwikorera campaign which is literally translated as” serve others as you would wish to be served” is also under RGB charge.
Nkuwikorera is intertwined with the commitment of Rwandan Government to enhance quality of service delivery as one of key priorities of the ambitious long -term program of transforming the country into middle income economy.
Nk’uwikorera campaign was launched at national level on March 30, 2017.
The objectives of this campaign are:

– To raise awareness of the general public on quality service delivery imperatives;
– To mobilize service beneficiaries to request for better services and denounce poor services;
– To remind service providers to provide quality services to citizens by providing service, as they would wish to be served themselves.

Kigali, February 2, 2018. During their annual meeting hosted this year by embassy of Sweden in Rwanda, Swedish diplomats working on the African Continent Visited Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cooperation and East African community.

Minister of State Olivier Nduhungirehe who received them ,briefed Swedish Diplomats on the African Union priorities and ongoing institutional reforms and on the African union and European Union (AU-EU) relations.

Minister of State said: “However despite the agenda 2063 and its aspirations, there was an imperative to further strengthen our union. His excellency Paul Kagame President of Rwanda was tasked by his peers during AU summit of July 2016 in Kigali to conduct an institutional reform of The African union. President Kagame proposed Priorities for this reform which would focus on key priorities with continental scope which should realign AU institutions to deliver against those priorities and to manage the AU efficiently at both politically and operational levels.”

MOS Nduhungirehe also gave a briefing on the regional economy where he has said that the integration of regional economic communities like ECASS, NEPAD,UMA etc. would paved away for the continental integration which is also one of the aspiration of the agenda 2063.

He added that Rwandan AU chairmanship will also focus on persistence conflict on our continent which undermine our priority and integration.

Brig. Gen. Francis Mutiganda an officer in Rwanda Defence Force highlighted some security matters in the region and assured Rwanda’ s effort to work on it through this period of leadership of AU.

The visiting delegation had the opportunity to ask questions in order to know more about relations between Rwanda and her neighboring countries and African Countries in general.

The delegation has been in Rwanda since Wednesday,on their first day visited Gisozi memorial site of Genocide against Tutsis where they were explained more about Rwandan history. They have also visited Sustainable development goals Center for Africa.​

Every year Swedish MFA organizes three joint meetings for diplomats posted on the African continent and the Swedish Embassy in Kigali has offered to host this year’s meeting for diplomats working on the African continent.

Two years ago, Government of Sweden adopted a new five-year strategy for the development cooperation with Rwanda. The Swedish focus areas are good governance in broad sense, productive employment, environment and climate change and higher education and research.

Higher Education Council is conducting another assessment that could leave doors closed for other higher learning institutions, as has been the case last year.

Recent Higher learning institution audit carried out in 2016 by HEC have left five institutions closed following a series of assessments that proved to have totally failed to comply with relative requirements including appropriate staff and lack of enough teaching facilities among others.
The last year move to suspend courses or close the institutions affected overall ten institutions and was in the government perspective to insure the quality of education in higher learning institutions.
HEC has said, through its General Director Dr Muvunyi Emmanuel, that a fresh assessment that started end of last year is underway being conducted in 26 higher learning institutions which have showed a report to be free. Other new institutions will in this cause be assessed.
The areas of focus of the audit are qualifications of institutions staffs, contracts of staff (lecturers) members, compliance of institutions curriculum to the quality of education and the efficiency of training materials.
Dr. Muvunyi said according to umuseke.com said that the audit has so far been conducted in 18 institutions since December and is expected to conclude in a month ahead.
“We don’t want suspend course for institutions that is why we have decided to closely assess them, it is not an easy task as it requires some financial means but it now yielding results as almost all of them are trying their best to fulfill the requirements. This have been a lesson for us we will always follow up the compliance of the requirements and urge them to fulfill their requirement so as to avoid any eventual suspension of the course or institution to close”
Among the closed institutions following the 2016 assessment, include Rusizi International University, Nile Source Polytechnic of Applied Arts (NSPA), Jomo Kenyatta University, Singhad Technical Education Society (STES), and Open University of Tanzania
Other institutions in which some of the courses were suspended are Technology and Arts of Byumba (UTAB) in Gicumbi District, University of Gitwe in Ruhango District, Institut Catholique de Kabgayi in Muhanga District, Instut d’Enseignement Superieur de Ruhengeri (INES-Ruhengeri) in Musanze District, and Mahatma Ghandi University (MHU) in Gasabo District.

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (IMELS) signed a cooperation agreement on January 15 to support the Government of Rwanda to implement its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement.
Under the agreement, IMELS contributed EUR 100 thousand to GGGI to provide technical assistance to increase resilience and adaptation to climate change.
GGGI’s Deputy Director & Head of Africa & Middle East, Dexippos Agourides, noted “The agreement is a demonstration of GGGI and the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea’s commitment to support Rwanda’s transition to a model of green growth.”
According to Ms. Coletha Ruhamya, Director General of Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), “The support has come at the right time as Rwanda positions itself to a green growth path. The implementation of Rwanda’s NDC proves the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement.”
Going forward in 2018, the GGGI Rwanda team will continue with green secondary cities development, especially helping the government to create a conducive environment, greening the six secondary cities, greening infrastructure development, strengthening the national green fund and intensive resource mobilization.
About the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
Based in Seoul, GGGI is an intergovernmental organization that supports developing country governments transition to a model of economic growth that is environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive. GGGI delivers programs in 26 partner countries with technical support, capacity building, policy planning & implementation, and by helping to build a pipeline of bankable green investment projects. More on GGGI’s events, projects and publications can be found on www.gggi.org. You can also follow GGGI on Twitter and join us on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. src:Rwanda podium