Further Reading: This policy Brief is drawn from the Final Report of FY 2014-2015
Imihigo Evaluation conducted by the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR-Rwanda). This can be accessed from IPAR’s websit

Bizoza, Alfred R.

English

IDS OpenDocs

Policy Brief on “2014/15 Imihigo Evaluation     www.ipar-rwanda.org
© Institute of Policy Analysis and Research - Rwanda, 2015
POLICY BRIEF 2015 NO. 1
Policy Brief on “2014/15 Imihigo 
Evaluation - January 2016
Introduction 
Rwanda has made remarkable progress towards achieving 
the goal of becoming a middle income country as reflected by 
Vision 2020. This is evident through significant socio-economic 
transformation observed in the last decade as a result of the 
implementation of programs under the Economic Development 
and Poverty Reduction Strategy, EDPRS 1&2. 
Rwanda’s progress is mainly attributed to implementation of 
Performance contracts (Imihigo). These performance contracts 
have proved to be a planning and monitoring tool to deliver the 
EDPRS targets and to sustain the momentum towards delivering 
the sustainable development goals.  
Imihigo approach has been operational since 2006. Every year 
both central and local government sign Imihigo/ Performance 
Contracts with His Excellence the President of the Republic, Paul 
Kagame. Though IMIHIGO was an ancestral approach/ home 
grown, its modernization and use to setting objectives is one of the 
innovative approaches to development planning and evaluation. 
It is increasingly becoming one of home grown initiatives that are 
changing the face of Rwanda as an invaluable tool for planning 
and effective implementation of the development policies. 
Since then IMIHIGO is used in Rwanda to design performance 
management contracts signed at the level of all public institutions 
including Ministries, embassies and Districts with the President 
of the Republic. At the end of every fiscal year, a performance 
evaluation is also conducted by independent evaluators with 
the coordination of the Prime Minister’s Office to assess the 
performance achieved against Imihigo targets and identify gaps 
to inform potential improvements in the following year’s Imihigo 
planning and implementation process. The public engagement 
is recorded publicly in a written contract that presents a set of 
development targets backed by specific performance indicators 
over a period of one year. 
The purpose of this policy brief is to present key highlights from 
the 2014/2015 Imihigo evaluation and lessons learnt for the next 
generation of Imihigo evaluation process. The intention is also to 
shed more light on the extent to which Imihigo are producing 
transformative outcomes in response to development targets set 
in the national development frameworks namely the Vision 2020, 
EDPRS, and the Sector Strategic Plans.
The approach 
This policy brief draws from the overall 2014/15 Imihigo 
evaluation commissioned by the Prime Minister’ Office to the 
Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR-Rwanda). Various 
techniques were used to collect information needed to respond 
to the evaluation questions. Evaluators audited all pledged 
targets through a verification of support evidences of reported 
achievements. 
During the audit, particular attention was paid to the extent 
to which: Central government institutions and District targets 
are aligned to Sector Strategic Plans and District development 
priorities, respectively; if planned outputs are achieved or 
wetherthe outputs have the potential for social and economic 
transformation; the solutions are innovative towards the 
outcomes; availability of supporting documents and the quality 
and accuracy of information provided, and the role of various 
partners.  About 865 outputs were audited at District level with 
52.6% from the economic cluster, 24.5% of the social development, 
and 22.8 % for the Governance and Justice cluster. At Ministerial 
level 392 outputs representing, 50% of the total outputs were 
also assessed (see Table 1). These were complemented by key 
informants’ interviews at Ministry level (2 high officials at Ministry 
level). In addition, about 60 focus group discussions with citizens 
were held in all 30 districts (  2 per District) as well as an active 
observation of Imihigo implementation through spot checking 
of sampled Imihigo.  This helped to learn more on how Imihigo 
are contributing to the transformative development and how 
challenging issues are being addressed at community level.
The findings from the districts evaluation show an overall 
average performance of 74.3% compared to 73.5% achieved 
last year (FY2013-2014). Significant improvement is observed 
in the economic cluster that scored 81.4% compared to last 
year’s performance of 75.7%. This is mainly explained by the 
improvement in target setting especially in areas of the economic 
cluster. The observed performance in the social cluster is 75.5% 
compared to 72% of last year. However, a decline was noted in the 
performance of the Governance and Justice Sector which scored 
66.2% performance level when compared to 73% previously 
achieved (see Figure 2). Some of the explanations for this decline 
include the change of District leadership in the course of Imihigo 
implementation due to accountability issues, inability of the top 
leaders to engage peer officials, development partners,  and 
citizens; leading to some breaks in the chain of collaboration and 
moderate to lower performance in Citizen’s satisfaction. 
Fig 2. Average Performance per Cluster (2013/14 and 2014-2015) 
Table 1. Estimates of Imihigo outputs and targets per province
Outputs Per Cluster Targets Per Cluster
Province/ 
City
Economic Social Dev Governance 
& Justice
 Total Economic Social Dev Governance 
& Justice
Total
Kigali 41 40 38 119 95 75 51 221
Southern 132 49 43 224 326 97 111 534
Northern 92 49 36 177 223 75 56 354
Eastern 118 51 51 220 305 94 76 475
Western 72 23 30 125 283 63 78 424
Total 455 212 198 865 1232 404 372 2008
% weight 52.60 24.5 22.9 100 61.4 20.1 18.5 100
Source:  Imihigo Performance Contracts (FY 2014-2015)
Furthermore, the districts performances were obtained using 
a “Balanced Score Card” that takes into account the relevance 
of the set targets, the level of efforts required to deliver on 
the targets and the quality of the information supporting the 
reported level of achievement. This was further informed by the 
findings from the audit, the satisfaction survey with members of 
District Council and Joint Development Action Forum (JDAF) and 
the results from the Citizen Report Card (CRC 2015) produced 
annually by the Rwanda Governance Board.
Key Results
Results obtained from the 2014/15 Imihigo evaluation reveal 
overall positive performance at both Central and Local 
Government. For the Ministries, the overall average performance 
of Ministries is estimated at 74.8% compared to 66.5% of the 
last year’s Imihigo performance.  The economic cluster scored 
high 74.4% compared to 64.9% of last year; while the social 
and governance and justice cluster  scored less than last year’s 
performance with 73.3% compared to 76.9%, respepectively (see 
Figure 1). 
 Fig 1. Average performance per development cluster
	
58	
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66	
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74	
76	
78	
Economic	Cluster	 Social	Sector	
Cluster	
Governance	and	
Justice	Cluster	
Average	Cluster	Score	(%)	
2013/14	
Average	Cluster	Score	(%)	
2014/15	 	
0	
10	
20	
30	
40	
50	
60	
70	
80	
90	
Econimic	
cluster	
Social	Cluster	 Governance	
Cluster	
Average	cluster	Performance	
(%)	2013/14	
Average	cluster	Performance	
(%)	2014/15	
Kimihurura, KG 627St | P. O. Box 6005 Kigali - Rwanda | Email: info@ipar-rwanda.org  twitter: twitter@iparrwanda | Website: www.ipar-rwanda.org
Overall, the performance observed is explained by a 
commendable improvement in setting Imihigo targets; Imihigo 
that are more transformative, converted into tangible benefits, 
services, and outputs meant to address the needs of citizens. 
Furthermore, the results show an increased engagement of 
different partners through Public Private Partnership (PPP), 
increased citizen’s involvement in implementation, and improved 
levels of citizen satisfaction in terms of service delivery.
The following are some of the key development benefits from 
this year’s Imihigo performance. More than 150,000 short term 
off-farm jobs were created (compared to 126815 planned) 
, more than 690,000 people have been provided with clean 
water within a range of 500m (43.1% of the planned) , about 
45,000 households accessed  electricity ( 71.5%), , about 161 km 
of newly constructed roads and 1253km of roads rehabilitated 
(91.5% of achievement). In the agriculture sector, there has been 
land consolidation of about 809573Ha (season A) and 571350 Ha 
(season B) which led to increased agricultural production. More 
than 26,000 cows were distributed (i.e. 101.9% achievement) 
through Girinka Program and this helps to address issue of 
nutrition and people to graduate out of poverty,  among others. 
Implemented Imihigo have also contributed to the access of 
education and health  health facilities ( 57 health facilities newly 
constructed  compared to 47 planned),   and financial inclusion 
through support of women and youth cooperatives in accessing 
small loans for their businesses. About 291 (87.1%) Women 
and Youth cooperatives have been supported financially and 
provision of other materials)out of 334 planned through Imihigo 
performance contracts during FY2014-2015. These cooperatives 
allow to bulking up the economies of scale and constitute greater 
channels of support from development partners such as credits 
facilities.. Although the overall credit to the private sector /GDP is 
still low (about 16.8% - 2014), credits obtained from their small-
scale saving schemes and SACCOs Cooperatives lead them to be 
financially included. 
Major lessons for the next generation 
of Imihigo 
Currently there is an on-going discussion at the government 
level about the next generation of Imihigo bringing a new notion 
or approach of  “ Joint Imihigo”. This implies “Imihigo” that involve 
more than one institution/actor in the planning, implementation, 
and evaluation of a particular activity, output, and outcome. 
Therefore, from the previous evaluation (2014/15), three major 
lessons can be drawn to inform the next generation of Imihigo 
planning and implementation:  
The first lesson is linked to Imihigo targeting as part of the 
planning process. Ministries and Districts that performed well 
are those that set their targets ( Guhiga) in alignment with goals 
in the Sector Strategic Plans and District priorities as set in the 
District Development Plans (DDPs). 
Secondly, successful implementation of Imihigo was driven 
by the increased role of partners, the ability of the District to 
mobilize resources needed to perform pledged targets among 
partners and citizens. 
The third lesson is linked to citizen’s participation and engagement 
in all process of Imihigo implementation. It was revealed that 
level of engagement of citizens and their satisfaction on the 
service delivery by local entities obtained through the Citizen 
Report Card by Rwanda Governance Board is a major driver of 
better performance. 
However, the evaluation revealed also some drawbacks that 
restrained some ministries and Districts to better perform in 
certain areas of their performance targets. These include the 
setting of some targets that are not in line with the Sector and 
District priorities with limited spillover effects, soft targets that are 
not challenging and transformative in some areas of targeting, 
the change of leadership and staff turnover for some districts in 
the course of Imihigo implementation, some emergence issues 
such as natural hazards, and delays of some partners in fulfilling 
their development commitments whilst these have been 
considered as part of the performance contracts. 
Conclusions and Key Policy 
Recommendations 
The aim of this policy brief is to highlight some of key findings 
from the FY2014-15 Imihigo evaluation that aimed at assessing 
the performance made against the targets set for both the 
central and local government. It is clear that Imihigo play a 
major role in fast-tracking different commitments made by the 
central and local government concerning different development 
programmes and projects meant to accelerate socio-economic 
transformation of Rwandans. 
It is well noted that most of planned activities under Imihigo 
reflect national and sub-national development priorities as 
stipulated in Vision 2020, the 7Years Government Program and 
the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy 
(EDPRS2). 
© Institute of Policy Analysis and Research - Rwanda, 2015
The 2014/15 Imihigo evaluation covered the economic, social 
development, governance and justice pillars. The evaluation 
has revealed how Imihigo targets were translated into expected 
economic, social, and governance outcomes. 
One of the policy questions that remain important is to know 
the extent to which the achieved impacts are sustained beyond 
the Imihigo period which is often a year. In order to sustain 
the positive changes resulting from Imihigo a number of 
considerations are needed.  Apart from linking Imihigo and the 
national development priorities as embedded in Vision 20120, 
7YGP and EDPRS2 during the preparation phase, a thorough 
prediction of possible spill over effects is needed to ensure that 
they are taken into account in a next generation of mid-term or 
long term District Development Plans. 
Another determinant factor of sustainability of Imihigo already 
achieved is the level of involvement and participation of citizens 
who are the beneficiaries of all the projects during the period of 
planning and implementation of Imihigo. This helps to capitalize 
on their needs and hence their willingness to contribute to 
their own development.  Moreover, technical expertise that is 
available needs to be optimized especially for Imihigo projects 
in the infrastructure and agriculture sectors for quality assurance 
to avoid costly rehabilitations before the expected span of life for 
some investments made.   
Despite the positive progress observed, there are some areas 
that need further consideration in the next generation of Imihigo 
planning and implementation process. 
1. More efforts to be made in terms of consultations during 
the preparation of Imihigo especially at community level 
to ensure that Imihigo customize the needs of citizens
in order to produce more and sustainable impacts.
2. Strengthen the feedback mechanisms to allow citizen
learn more on Imihigo priorities therein the approved
performance contracts. 
3. Define clearly the roles  and responsibilities of
partners  with respect to  joint Imihigo -implemented
by more than one partner or entity- to ensure proper
accountability, responsibility, and attribution of the
performance 
4. Focus more on Imihigo with  larger spill-over effects, that 
are more challenging, innovative, and transformative
to avoid setting soft Imihigo targets (have a clear
demarcation between Umuhigo and routine activities
in the Annual action plan). 
5. Strengthen the planning and M&E framework for Imihigo 
performance contract to drive the implementation of
the National development priorities as stated in the
Vision 2020, 7 YGP, EDPRS2, Sector Strategic Plans, and
District Development Plans.
6. Ensure strong follow up and execution of other
planned activities within the annual action plan and
unimplemented activities as per Imihigo performance
contracts. 
7. Ensure that Ministry targets are linked to targets at
District level to enforce the bridge between the DDPs,
Sector strategic plans and EDPRS2.
8. Ensure that Ministry targets are implemented within
the timeframe set in the performance contract to avoid
delays in the implementation of joint Imihigo at local
government level.
Kimihurura, KG 627St | P. O. Box 6005 Kigali - Rwanda | Email: info@ipar-rwanda.org  twitter: twitter@iparrwanda | Website: www.ipar-rwanda.org
Further Reading: This policy Brief is drawn 
from the Final Report of FY 2014-2015 
Imihigo Evaluation conducted by the 
Institute of Policy Analysis and Research 
(IPAR-Rwanda). This can be accessed from 
IPAR’s website
www.ipar-rwanda.org / Publications
Contact Author: Alfred R. Bizoza
E-mail: a.bizoza@ipar-rwanda.org
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 
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Policy brief on “2014/15 Imihigo evaluation

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Policy brief on “2014/15 Imihigo evaluation

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