Rwamagana, Eastern Province - Today on 22nd August 2019 at DEREVA HOTEL there was launched a two day training for District Project Management Committees (DPMCs) on “Planning, Designing, Implementation & Monitoring of LED infrastructure projects”. Organized by the Local Administrative Entities development Agency (LODA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC) (through Rural Development Support Programme (RDSP) and funded by Enabel-Rwanda), this refresher training gathers District staff members including Vice Mayors in charge of Economic Development, District Executive Secretaries, Directors of Planning, Directors of Infrastructure & One Stop Center, Directors of BDEUs, Directors of Agriculture, JADF Officers, Environment Management Officers & Legal Advisors.

The objective of the training is three-fold: (a) to enable DPMCs to accomplish their roles and responsibilities by rethinking about all aspects of infrastructure project planning, designing, implementation, review, evaluation and monitoring (b) to discuss how to improve the quality of the implementation and delivery of LED infrastructure projects and (c) to inform senior leaders in districts about infrastructure project management so that they can better support technical staff in the execution of their duties.  

The Executive Secretary of the Eastern Province, Mr. HABIMANA Kizito, in his welcome note, lauded LODA for organizing this capacity building session to enable DPMCs to effectively and efficiently play their role in the management of public funds invested into LED infrastructure projects. He reiterated and emphasized on the envisaged Districts’ financial sustainability; and he acknowledged that this training constitutes an opportunity to debate and find out solutions to encountered challenges regarding feasibility studies, public procurement procedures, contract management, and planning per se. “Development projects are planned, managed and measured”, he recalled. 

In his opening remarks, the Division Manager of Local Economic Development (LED) at LODA, Mr. NGENDAHIMANA Pascal stated that this capacity building session is the first kind since the establishment of DPMCs. “This session is delivered to DPMCs to share information and experience, to get technical knowledge from LODA & MINALOC technicians in terms of impact driven management of LED projects since the inception to operation and maintenance phases, and in respect of laws, political orientation, and citizen priorities”, he said.

Facilitated by experienced staff from LODA, MINALOC and Enabel-Rwanda, the discussions making the gist of the training turned around the following topics: (1) Project management cycle (2) Feasibility studies (3) Budget planning (4) Contract management (5) Monitoring, evaluation and controlling (6) Project risk management and problem solving (7) Operation and maintenance (8) (9) Leadership and management in the context of LED (10) Public Private Partnership (PPP) guidelines and law – PPP Dialogues (11) Leadership and management in context of LED and (12) PPP guidelines and law – PPP Dialogues. Similar training sessions are to be conducted soon across all the three remaining provinces and the City of Kigali.