| Kagame Advisory
Council
On Wednesday 26 Sep
tember 2007, President Paul Kagame officially launched the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) – a special team of Rwandans and friends of Rwanda whose mission is to advise the President on Rwanda’s strategic development choices and initiatives, using their considerable combined and wide-ranging knowledge, experience and contacts, in a concerted effort to contribute to the country’s socio-economic development.
The inaugural PAC meeting took place in New
York, where President Kagame took part in the
annual United Nations General Assembly and the
Clinton Global Initiative. Attending this
first discussion were PAC members:
(Prof. Michael Porter is also a member of PAC
but was unable to attend)
Also at the PAC meeting were high-ranking
Rwandan government officials including James
Musoni, Minister of Finance and Economic
Planning; Stanislas Kamanzi, Minister of
Infrastructure; Rosemary Museminari, Minister
of State for Cooperation; and Francis Gatare,
Director General of Rwanda Investment and
Export Promotion Agency.
Participants at the meeting co-chaired by
President Kagame and Joe Ritchie discussed
from their unique perspectives, various ides
to boost key areas of Rwanda’s economy based
on the country’s national development policy
Vision 2020. At the conclusion of the vibrant
dialogue that lasted several hours, PAC
members formed focal groups that will delve
deeper into innovative strategies for targeted
sectors and work with the relevant Rwandan
institutions on proposed solutions, supported
by RIEPA, which was identified as a
coordinating agency for PAC activities
The next PAC meeting will be held in April
2008.
The bestselling author of “All the Shah’s Men”
profiles one of the most successful
revolutionaries of the modern era, tells the
dramatic story of how he seized power in
Rwanda, and travels through the Rwandan
countryside to witness this shattered
country's astonishing recovery.
"A Thousand Hills" tells Kagame's tumultuous
life story, including his early fascination
with Che Guevara and James Bond, his years as
an intelligence agent, his training in Cuba
and the United States, the dazzlingly original
way he built his secret rebel army, his bloody
rebellion, and his outsized ambitions for
Rwanda. It is the adventure-filled tale of a
visionary who won a war, stopped a genocide,
and then set out to turn his country into the
star of Africa. President Kagame is obsessed
with a single outlandish dream: to make Rwanda
the first middle-income country in Africa, and
to do it in the space of a single generation.
The book will be published in June by John
Wiley & Sons in New York, according to Rick
Christian, president of the Colorado
Springs-based literary agency Alive
Communications, who negotiated the deal.
Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign
correspondent who has worked in more than 50
countries on five continents. He has been New
York Times bureau chief in Istanbul, Berlin,
and Managua, Nicaragua. His other books
include the bestsellers "All the Shah’s Men:
An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East
Terror" and "Overthrow: America’s Century of
Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq."
Click here to view books.
GlaxoSmithKline, under the leadership of Clet
Niyikiza, Vice President of Strategic Asset
Management and Biomarker Research Program, is
in the process of establishing a National
Center for Clinical Research (NCCR) based in
Rwanda. GSK, the second largest pharmaceutical
company in the world, is renowned for its
research and development of drugs to combat
viruses such as HIV/AIDS and malaria in the
developing world. The NCCR in Rwanda will be
an internationally acclaimed research center,
focusing on the study of diseases prevalent
throughout the developing world and at home.
With the help of a Presidential Task Force,
Clet Niyikiza along with the Minister of
Health of Rwanda, are working towards
establishing Rwanda as a medical research
center of the highest caliber.
As they started looking for places that might
be suitable for a research center of this
kind, Clet said that Rwanda easily stood out
among the rest for its strong governance, the
integrity of the medical research field, and
the quality of the Rwandan people. With the
creation of the NCCR, Rwanda will become the
epicenter of clinical and biomedical research
in the developing world, as well as
significantly expanding the healthcare
infrastructure and capacity across the
country. The NCCR will also offer strong
financial incentives to participating
individuals and health centers.
Over the past three years, Rick Warren and Kay
Warren, along with hundreds of members of
Saddleback Church, have invested their time in
Rwanda with the goals of empowering local
church leaders and supporting a variety of
development initiatives. The P.E.A.C.E. plan
is a coalition of local churches working
alongside public and private institutions to
address the problems facing Rwanda today. The
Western Rwanda HIV/AIDS Healthcare Initiative,
a part of P.E.A.C.E., aims to “dramatically
increase access to quality healthcare in
Western Rwanda…promoting healthier lives,
preserving families, protecting children, and
building stronger communities.” Based near the
town of Kibuye, the western region was chosen
because of its high occurrence HIV/AIDS and
the lack of healthcare professionals and
treatments to effectively combat the epidemic.
This initiative will train churches to be
distributors of basic health services, as well
as equip fifty churches to act as satellite
health centers; the church of Rwanda will be
fully empowered to behave as a secondary
healthcare provider. Relationships and
planning is in place to expand and scale this
initiative across the entire country of
Rwanda, and eventually into the bordering
countries of Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and
Burundi. This critical grassroots program,
along with the ever-increasing amount of
positive publicity surrounding Rwanda,
promises to bring life-enhancing changes to
the people of Rwanda. During the fall of 2007,
Rick Warren and team are also implementing the
“40 Days of Purpose Nationwide Campaign”
throughout Rwanda, using Purpose Driven Life,
written in Kinyarwanda.
Jack Hanna
Jack Hanna, a world-renowned wildlife expert
and enthusiast, recently participated in a
rare gorilla naming ceremony in the Ruhengheri
province of Rwanda. With over 15,000 Rwandans
in attendance, as well as celebrities like
Natalie Portman, John Stanton (President of
Animal Planet) and President Paul Kagame, the
afternoon ceremony named the newest of the
silverback gorilla members and brought
worldwide attention to Rwanda. On October 26th
at 9:00pm EST, a special, “Saving a Species:
Gorillas on the Brink,” aired on Animal Planet
showcasing the ceremony and Rwanda’s unique
wildlife. Jack Hanna has also spent
significant time working with the Mountain
Gorilla Veterinary Project and Partners in
Conservation, both of whom work to support and
protect the gorilla community in northwest
Rwanda. Jack has long been one of Rwanda’s
biggest and most popular advocates. Hanna
continues to work with Colin Bell to establish
one the most prestigious resorts in Africa,
located next to the Rwandan National Mountain
Gorilla Reserve. Mr. Bell’s new venture will
put Rwanda on the map as one of the premier
destinations in the world. To learn more about
Jack’s time in Rwanda
Click here
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