Rwanda Government Hires WDI for School Project
Friday, June 23, 2006
The government of Rwanda, wanting to turn its School of Finance and Banking (SFB) into a regional center of excellence among East African business schools, signed a five-year agreement with the William Davidson Institute to provide capacity building for the school.
The Institute has a solid track record in the areas of higher education development, having been involved for a number of years in capacity building projects for business schools in the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia and Africa.
After years of a bloody civil war, Rwanda now has a forward-looking government dedicated to social investment and economic growth. Two major challenges facing the country are creating a population of managers to build the private sector and creating administrative capacity among civil servants. The Rwanda government invited WDI to the country in fall 2005 to discuss these issues and design programs to address them.
WDI recently completed a three-month assessment of the SFB in Kigali, Rwanda. Gary Waissi, former dean of the School of Management at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, spent three weeks in Rwanda doing detailed interviews and analysis. Brent Chrite, the former Managing Director of WDI, spent two weeks in Kigali working through the assessment and presenting a strategic plan to key ministers.
This field work resulted in a detailed capacity-building program aimed at changing the SFB into an internationally accredited, recognized leader in delivering high quality management education programs. In early June, WDI signed the five-year agreement.
Among the goals and priorities of the project are:
- Improving curricular and programmatic activities.
- Creating local faculty development mechanisms and strengthening the school’s academic staff.
- Identifying degree and non-degree educational needs for both the civil and business sectors in Rwanda and positioning the SFB to serve those needs.
- Creating a leadership and management structure to support the school’s mission.
- Working with SFB management to upgrade the school’s physical facilities and technological infrastructure.
The Institute also reached an agreement with the Rwanda government to train 100 senior ministry officials. The program will launch in fall 2006 and consist of three modules: leadership and executive skills; strategy and marketing; and financial management and budgeting. The program also involves a “train-the-trainers” component so that the program will be handed off to SFB faculty so they can continue to train additional government officials.
Because of the Institute’s relationship with Rwanda government officials, WDI funded a MAP student team to assess the feasibility of producing infant formula locally. U-M students worked with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI), Partners in Health and the Ministries of Health and Agriculture to explore sourcing, manufacturing, distribution and marketing issues. They presented their findings to a group of Ministers in April 2006.
“We have established a very good working relationship with the Government of Rwanda,” Kennedy said. “WDI’s competencies are a good fit with Rwanda’s needs. It’s great to find an engagement with such tangible benefits to both parties. There is a high level of interest among both students and affiliated faculty in this work. We know it will have a high impact on Rwanda development going forward.”
