Britain promises Rwanda $800m

2006-02-14 12:59

Kigali - Britain has agreed to provide the Rwandan government with nearly $800m for the next 10 years because it has a proven track record in fighting poverty, says an official on Tuesday.

Britain's permanent secretary for the department of international development (DFID), Luxembourg's minister of foreign affairs and top United Nations official heaped praise on the government on Monday after meetings with the top Rwandan officials.

Since the 1994 genocide that left more than 500 000 people dead, Britain and Luxembourg had been leading donors to the Rwandan government.

One gauge of progress in fighting poverty was the UN's Millennium Development Goals for providing clean water, health care and education.

Millennium Development Goals

Sir Suma Chakrabarti, the DFID official, said: "Rwanda has done much better in as far as achieving the Millennium Development Goals as compared to other sub-Saharan African states."

Chakrabarti said similar grants would be given to other countries that had made substantial progress in poverty reduction and hinted that Tanzania and Vietnam might be possible future beneficiaries.

The executive directors of the UN Children's Fund and the UN Programme on HIV/Aids also praised the Rwandan government's policies in combating HIV.

Dr Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAids, said: "Rwanda is now rated highly as regards to the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive people. A mere fact that at least 50% get drugs countrywide shows a very laudable work by the government."

- AP