Over 19 Rwanda government officials benefit from KOICA’ CIAT program training

By The Inspirer Writer.

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the premier grant aid agency of the Korean government, closed a 2 weeks training program ‘Rwanda Software Developer Capacity Building’ which was virtually held at the Rwanda Management Institute (RMI) from May 23 to June 03.

Since 1991, KOICA provides Rwandan government officials with opportunities to gain first-hand knowledge of Korea’s development experience in order to contribute in their individual development as well as their organizations, through its CIAT program (Capacity Improvement and Advancement for Tomorrow).

This is the first of a 3 year training series on Rwanda Software Developer Capacity Building that was designed to share Korea’s development experience in policies, education and technologies. It will continue for the following 2 years with KOICA training approximately 60 Rwandan government officials in this field, and it was implemented in partnership with the RDB (Rwanda Development Board) and MINEDUC (Ministry of Education). This program is partly supporting RCA (Rwanda Coding Academy) by including some officials from Rwanda Coding Academy (RCA) where KOICA’s project of “RCA Capacity Development Project(2021-2025/USD 7.1 Million)” is being implemented.

Speaking at the event, Mr. CHON, Gyong Shik, the country director of KOICA Rwanda office said that beside the challenge of COVID-19, the feasibility of the normal practices of invitational training was not possible, and KOICA had to come up with a different way to continue to support Rwanda with remote learning programs like this.

Mr. CHON said “This program is carefully customized and designed to fit the needs and expectations of Rwandan officials in providing support for fostering the Rwandan ICT industry through sharing knowledge and experience in policies, education, and technologies for the development of Rwanda’s ICT, as well as improving the understanding of policy and technical education on software engineering, embedded systems, and teaching methods”. “I believe that its purpose has been successfully accomplished and what you have learned over the past 10 days, will help you a lot in your daily duties”. “Now the important part awaits you; applying what you learned to your daily work.”

According to one of this training beneficiaries; participants were exposed to Korea’s development experience, policies for promotion of the software engineering sector, understanding of the 4th industrial technologies, governance establishment for ICT-based strategic human development among others. This will help them to contribute in finding the solutions in the software engineering sector that the country needs in order to adapt, and thrive in a fast-changing world.

Since 1991, KOICA has been implementing its grant aid programs in Rwanda, disbursing about USD 150 million through various projects and capacity building programs. KOICA Rwanda Office was officially opened in 2011. KOICA currently has over 10 on-going projects in Rwanda in education, agriculture and ICT sectors. With the outbreak of COVID-19, KOICA has also supported the GoR in response to the pandemic by providing a mobile testing vehicle, walk-through testing booths and personal protective equipment (PPE) worth about USD 1 million.

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