Paper short abstract:

In the highly governmentalised country of Rwanda, one of the recent governance innovations is called 'imihigo' contracts which every citizen is supposed to sign to contribute to national development. Imihigo hence plays a central role in shaping the meaning of the state and citizenship in Rwanda

Paper long abstract:

Rwanda is often described as a highly 'governmentalised' country where social control is often as tight in the capital of Kigali as it is in rural areas. One of Rwanda's recent governance innovations is called imihigo, or 'results-based performance contracts'. The imihigo structure serves as the public sector's main system for planning, implementation and follow-up of government interventions and was introduced as a key element in the decentralisation reform of the state apparatus.

Drawing on ten months of ethnographic research of the everyday life and operations in one of Kigali's residential areas, this paper addresses the central role of imihigo contracts in shaping the meaning of the state, the nation and the implications of citizenship in the day to day interactions between the state and its subjects in Rwanda. The imihigo structure serves to institutionalise and formalise many existing forms of civic duties which have been formulated by the central government and which have trickled down to the local levels in the name of 'grass-root' participation. Based on centrally formulated imihigo, local committees and individual positions of responsibility are regularly established whereby residents are charged with providing services that would otherwise be carried out by salaried public servants. Hence imihigo contracts serve as a form of co-option of citizens into the state apparatus, which has come to blur the boundaries between the state administration and the citizenry. However, state penetration much depends on each person's socio-economic and cultural capital, as well as his/her ties to the ruling political party and local government officials.