Britain has agreed to provide the Rwandan government with nearly $800-million over the next 10 years because it has a proven track record in fighting poverty, a British official said on Tuesday.
Britain’s permanent secretary for the Department for International Development, (DFID) Luxembourg’s minister of foreign affairs and a top United Nations official heaped praise on the government on Monday following meetings with the top Rwandan officials.
Since the 1994 genocide that left more than 500 000 people dead, Britain and Luxembourg have been leading donors to the Rwandan government. One gauge of progress in fighting poverty is the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals for providing clean water, health care and education.
”Rwanda has done much better in as far as achieving the Millennium Development Goals as compared to other sub-Saharan African states,” said Suma Chakrabarti, the DFID official.
Chakrabarti said similar grants will be given to other countries that have made substantial progress in poverty reduction and hinted that Tanzania and Vietnam may be possible future beneficiaries.
The executive directors of Unicef and UNAids also praised the Rwandan government’s policies in combating HIV, the virus that causes Aids.
”Rwanda is now rated highly as regards to the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive people. A mere fact that at least 50% get drugs countrywide shows a very laudable work by the government,” said Dr Peter Piot, the executive director of
UNAids. – Sapa-AP