Speaking on the opening day of the three-day UN summit at the Qatar National Convention Centre, hosted by Qatar, the Head of State credited Rwanda's transformation to policies that place people at the centre of every decision.
'Social protection, community participation and accountability are firmly embedded in how we govern,' he said. 'Every policy decision by our institutions is concerned with advancing quality of life.'
Thirty years after the landmark Copenhagen Declaration, Kagame acknowledged global gains in reducing extreme poverty and expanding access to education and healthcare, but warned that persistent inequalities demand faster, smarter governance.
'These challenges are not new, but our governance systems have not evolved fast enough to solve them,' he said.
He urged leaders to keep 'the pendulum swinging in the right direction' by prioritising human capital above all else. 'For development to be sustained, it cannot be outsourced,' Kagame declared.
Rwanda's own trajectory exemplifies this approach. Since the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the country has achieved near-universal health coverage through its Community-Based Health Insurance (Mutuelles de Santé), now reaching over 90 percent of the population and helping lift life expectancy from around 26 years in 1993 to 69.9 years today.
In education, the rollout of free basic schooling has driven near-universal primary enrollment, while initiatives like the Vision Umurenge Programme (VUP) provide cash transfers, public works jobs, and financial services to the poorest households, promoting income generation and social cohesion.
These efforts have yielded tangible results. The latest Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey (EICV7), released in April 2025, shows Rwanda's national poverty rate plummeting by 12.4 percentage points over seven years, from 39.8 percent in 2017 to 27.4 percent in 2024, lifting approximately 1.5 million people out of poverty.
Extreme poverty also fell sharply to 3.1 percent, with rural electricity access surging from 34.4 percent to 72 percent and mobile phone ownership rising to 84.6 percent.
President Kagame also called for a reset in global partnerships, criticising imbalanced cooperation that excludes most of the world.
'For multilateral engagement to be effective, [it] will need to be tailored to delivering universal, measurable and timely results, not promises,' he said.
On global finance, Kagame insisted that institutions must become 'more fit for purpose' and create fiscal space for countries to adapt and grow.
'If we are serious about social development, then our solutions must serve the needs of all countries, not just a few.'
Concluding his remarks, President Kagame said Rwanda stands ready to collaborate.
'We should expect more challenges in the near future and prepare to prevent and manage them,' he said. 'Rwanda stands ready to work with all our partners to build a more inclusive and resilient future.'
The summit, running through November 6 and convened under UN General Assembly resolutions 78/261 and 78/318, brings together heads of state, UN officials, including Secretary-General António Guterres and General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock, and civil society to accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development amid global uncertainties such as conflicts and climate volatility.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
