AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

7 Does the Aid Consensus Shift from Washington to the South? 81
The growth diagnostic and investment climate analysis propose five sets of
policy interventions for the Growth flagship:
(i) develop skills and capacity for productive employment
(ii) mprove the infrastructure especially energy, transport and communications
(iii) promote science, technology and innovation, and
(iv) strengthen the Financial Sector.
(v) The final set of interventions, that is, improve governance to address
the challenges associated with micro risks, pertains to the Governance
Flagship. (ibid.: 50)
Instead of “downsizing the state”, public spending thus plays an important
role in these programmes. Public investment programmes are
believed to spur private investments in the long run. They now focus on
support for small businesses, for instance through Business Development
Services and helping the private sector to innovate. There is a
strong focus on reducing operational costs for business. Policies for improving
technology and innovation come from the Ministry of Science,
Technology and Scientific Research. When it comes to human resource
development, attention is paid to improve secondary education and especially
increase the number of graduates in science and technology, with
the incentive of state funding for students . Productive employment relates
to the long-term development goal of employing less people in the
agricultural sector (GoR 2000).
This can again be found in the second flagship in the EDPRSP, Vision
2020 Umurenge, which is concerned with eradicating extreme poverty
by 2020. As Stewart and Wang (2003) point out, Rwanda is one of
the few countries that actually build a strong causal link between growth
and poverty reduction. After diagnosis of the causes of poverty, Rwanda
has built a program for poverty eradication based on empowerment
through productive capacity, rather than redistribution or social protection.
This is coherent with the Latent South Consensus (Gore op. cit.:
789).
The prioritisation of productive capacity can also be seen in the following
remark on the current account deficit, representing a more
Southern than neoliberal approach:
The export base has traditionally been relatively narrow. Public investment
will increase the imports of machinery and equipment by 15% per year on
average and worsen the current account slightly. Over time, however the