Kigali - Rwanda successfully hosted the 10^th Commonwealth Local Government Conference which brought together more than 500 participants from across Commonwealth member countries. The conference was held at the Kigali Convention Center in Kigali from 14^th to 17^th November 2023 under the theme of “building local resilience across the Commonwealth”.

The Rt Hon. Edouard Ngirente, the Prime Minister who officiated the opening ceremony of the conference expressed that the country is pleased to host the conference a year after hosting successfully the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which took place in Kigali in June 2023.

“Building Local Resilience across the Commonwealth is timely, it is a call to work together and overcome the current challenges, including the negative effects of COVID19 pandemic, global economic crisis, and other shocks.” PM Ngirente

Rwanda demonstrated some milestones achieved after genocide in building a stable, united and prosperous nation focusing on citizen centered governance, quality service delivery, sectoral decentralization, and enforcing the principles of inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability.

In four days, participants attended tens of plenary sessions and group discussion to deliberate on common and regional matters. They had an opportunity different sites in Kigali (Kigali Genocide memorial, Nyandungu eco-park, Karama IDP Model Village, Masaka Creamery) to witness Rwanda’s resilience story.

At closing ceremony of the conference, Hon. Musabyimana Jean Claude, the Minister of Local Government thank all the participants for their active participation.

“With the knowledge and experience shared during this conference, local government leaders and councilors are better prepared to anticipate what should be done before, during and after the shocks happen.” Minister Musabyimana

The conference mainly aimed at peer learning; sharing resilience experiences and exploring how local government can be better prepared for current and future shocks.

For more pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB39qq