Exchange about
entrepreneurship and transformational leadership skills.
By Agnes Binagwaho
The
21st May, I met with a delegation of 31 bright students from the
Wharton School of Business of the University of #Pennsylvania. They came in #Rwanda
as part of the #Wharton’s Global Modular Course (GMC) program. This team of
Masters of Business students came in Rwanda to learn about
entrepreneurship and transformational leadership skills in emerging
markets. This MBA course aim to learn “in country” and on the ground, about
these practical subjects.
We had a interesting interactive session in a panel between
them, Honorable Minister of Agriculture;
Agnes Kalibata and the DG RSSB; Angelique
The
students got the approach right, since they met with us after they had visited several
activities at community level; among them was a visit to beneficiaries of the
project one cow, one family, one to a health center and another to a school.
Following these field trips, it became easier for to explain how wealth and
health of each and every citizen is at the center of our sustainable
development plan.
We
debated the Rwandan approach to gender equity, what were the next steps to take
in that area. We discussed how our agriculture had brought food security;
contributed in the fight against malnutrition and in the economic growth. We also
explained how we sustain community health programs and generate economic growth
at village level, with the community health workers cooperatives. These were
examples of the ways in which all sectors contribute to the national journey in
making the country a mid income nation.
We
discussed the principle of the country’s ownership and consensus approach in
regards to the decisions taken after wide consultations and vertical and
horizontal people’s participation
They
asked us how we prepare the next generation to sustain the gains made and how in the future we intend to
maintain the highly positive mood and energy of Rwandan and carry our
development forward. We explained that we still have a long way to go and that
every passing day, we prepare our future, this is part of everything we do, to
create an enabling environment of peace, security and a climate for financial
stability. For example we explained the requirements of the Human resources for
Health since we will educate the doctors and specialists nurses we need as we
use more health services than ever before as our population ages, because of
the reduction in premature deaths, and also because the profile of our
epidemiology and morbidity is changing. We also had exchanges on how we built
the Community Health Insurance, which based on social solidarity, in order to
reduce financial barriers to health services and how solidarity has helped
mental health care recovery, in a country with too few mental health specialists.
More
over we are proud that for the majority today Rwanda is no longer associate only
to 1994 genocide but to quick progress, attaining the MDGs, to promotion of
universal access to basic rights such as education, and health, to home grown
innovative solution, using our culture to find solution for who we want to be
etc.…
The
students asked us what we would like them to take away from their visit in
Rwanda we proposed to them to contribute to our social change to invest or
having projects in Rwanda.
As
they asked why the image in the northern press of our country is bad and don’t
reflect the reality we told them to keep their critical analytic mind and not
always to believe what is the written by press and to develop an evidence based
judgment
Judge
the democratie of a country on what are the outcome a for its people while harming
no one on earth and not on rigid inappropriate scholar definitions.
