Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, recently hosted a meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for East African countries. Delegations from Madagascar, Mauritius, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ethiopia, Somalia, Comoros, Seychelles, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Djibouti and Eritrea were present. The financial institution dedicated to the fight against climate change announced at the meeting that it would invest $7 million in Rwanda.
The money will be used primarily for sustainable city projects currently underway in the country. “We plan to use this funding for the Sustainable Cities Programme, which is one of our priorities. Our national development strategy includes actions to promote the development of green cities, in terms of water resource management and wetland protection, where resources must be concentrated. They will focus more on restoring wetlands and supporting the people living in them,” said Coletha Ruhamya, Executive Director of the Rwanda Environmental Management Authority (Rema).
A vision of sustainable development
GEF funds are timely as Rwanda is implementing a programme to develop green secondary cities. The latter will allow the development of six secondary cities, with the objective of relieving congestion in the country’s large cities, which are already suffocating in view of population growth. However, some of the funds could also be allocated to other projects related to combating land degradation, waste management, ecosystem and biodiversity protection, and flood prevention.
The GEF has announced its commitment to further support human development projects in African countries. “We urge countries to plan projects that transform lives such as food security. In Rwanda, we have funded projects in the areas of biodiversity, land degradation, chemicals and waste management, international waters, among others,” said Susan Matindi Waithaka, GEF Country Relations Officer for Africa. The Washington, D.C.-based institution has already invested more than $160 million in 45 projects in Rwanda.
Jean Marie Takouleu