Kigali 26th October, 2017 – The Ministry of Infrastructure has organized a two-day retreat that took place at Gorilla Hotel Kigali from 25th to 26th  October 2017 with the aim of sharing and developing a better understanding of Urbanisation and Rural Settlement Sector and the role of each partner institutions in advancing the sector to achieve a common goal. This planning event brought together more than 60 key players and actors in the Urbanisation and Rural Settlement Sector from both Local and Central Government.

Participants got the opportunity to identify, harmonise and have a consensus among all players on the key priorities, policy actions and interventions required to deliver the intended targets and objectives for the next year period.

The retreat came at a time when the new 7-year Sector Strategic Plan (SSP) for Urbanisation and Rural Settlements for the year 2017/18-2023/24 is being elaborated and hence other players’ contributions will be considered.

Ever since its establishment at the start of EDPRS 2 in 2012, the Urbanisation and Rural Settlement Sector has registered remarkable achievements. During the past five years, the Sector has established a reliable policy and legal framework initiated and improved cross-sectoral and intra-governance level coordination, established a framework for private sector led housing development, defined and improved land use-based planning and development, among a few others.

Highlighting the importance of the retreat, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Mr. Christian Rwakunda noted that “not only the retreat has discussed on sector priorities but also on required capacities and coordination mechanisms to implement the Sector Strategic Plan”.  He added that “the retreat adopted different strategic recommendations to be implemented by each partner institution”.

The Permanent Secretary urged all institutions concerned to jointly implement the agreed recommendations in order to implement Urbanization and human settlement national agenda.

The Urbanisation and Rural Settlement Strategic Plan for the year 2017/18-2023/24 under elaboration is much aligned with national policy documents particularly with the National Urbanisation Policy adopted in December 2015.