“Planning Path”

Vision 2020 EDPRS

Sector Strategy / District Development Plan

EDPRS Anual Progress Report

Central government Imihigo

Annual Action Plan

MTEF

(incl. Annual Budget)

Budget Execution Report Joint Sectors Reviews, PERs

Report on Implementation of Annual Action Plan

“Reporting Path” Source: GOR 2007 Figure 2: Planning and reporting pathways for key national development policies

Unit Level Work Plans

Individual Work Plans

Individual Imihigo

the effectiveness of planning, regular reporting is required to gauge if efforts are yielding the desired results. These plan- ning tools are thus matched to a reporting path. This plan- ning and reporting pathway is visualized in Figure 2.

Another reporting mechanism that is gaining currency is the annual District Performance Contract (Imihigo). Imihigo is a contractual performance approach between service providers and local governments or national policy-makers. It serves as an implementation device for the District Development Plan (DDP). Each contract is signed by a district mayor and the President of Rwanda. To facilitate reporting, line ministries offer districts a choice of performance indicators for inclu- sion in the Imihigo. Work is currently underway to achieve a closer alignment of DDP indicators with the pattern of lo-

cal spending, so as to improve the monitoring of the EDPRS across different indicators (GOR 2007).

The array of indicators required for reporting at the differ- ent levels, coupled with different reporting deadlines and the disparate avenues for data collection combine to complicate what should be a relatively simple process of reporting. For instance, the reporting requirement for current implementa- tion modalities such as the Joint Sector Reviews (JSR) and the district performance-based approach (Imihigo) are every three and six months, respectively. At the same time, there are additional reporting obligations that may come up from time to time such as those that are required by regional or international conventions.

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