| 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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