This model has the objective to strengthen citizens’ involvement and participation in local government planning processes and in keeping local leaders accountable. 

How does the Community Scorecards (or CSS) Model work?

The process starts at the level of the inteko z’abaturage, the weekly citizens’ assemblies. In that forum, our skilled facilitators, known as GFPs (governance focal persons), facilitate a discussion with the citizens, in order to collect some of the main issues that the community is facing. Such issues vary: they can be related to lack of water in a certain area to poor service delivery in the public health centre, to cases of SGBV in families or lack of quality seeds for agriculture. The different issues mentioned are prioritized and the ones that score the highest are then taken to the attention of the local authorities, to find together a viable solution. Some of them are sorted at a low administrative level (cell level), while others are brought to the attention of the higher level (called sector) and – if budget is required – they are taken up to the district level. GFPs constantly check in with local authorities to follow up on their commitments, to make sure that citizens’ priorities are finally attended to. Some results of the CSC in Rulindo and Bugesera include different things, like the fixing of infrastructures: water pumps, roads, bridges, schools, as well as poor peoples’ homes. In addition to that, advocacy through CSC also pushed the positive intervention of local leaders in cases of family conflicts and SGBV in the communities. Rwandan communities in Rulindo and Bugesera feel they now have a collective voice thanks to PPIMA and that their voice can actually be heard and make a change within their own communities!