The 2024
Sustainable Development Reflection Tour

Building Bridges for Rwanda (BBR) is planning to embark on a unique, collaborative, and transnational Sustainable Development Reflection Tour in Rwanda in order to showcase and highlight 4 innovative and transformational projects that will lead to greatly improving the lives, environment, and communities in rural Rwanda.

Project Lead

Led By

Lama Mugabo

Objectives

Provide

Provide Canadians with the first-hand experience of witnessing the success stories of sustainable development projects in Rwanda.

Lead

Lead a Sustainable Development reflection tour to visit the four community projects in Rwanda and to stimulate Canadian and Rwandan partnerships and investments for these projects.

Host

Host a 2025 bi-annual conference at Simon Fraser University, to share and illuminate the success stories of Rwanda as a model country of sustainable development.

From left to right: June, Sheriff, Jean-Claude, Lama. We are in the Nyungwe National Forest

The participants of the reflection tour will also visit a series of successful community organizations and their projects that are leaders in community development to gain awareness and knowledge of how Rwanda has become a global leader in sustainable development. The intention of this tour is to provide Canadians with opportunities to invest funding and resources in community projects developed in Rwanda and to create reciprocal trade partnerships between Canada and Rwanda.

Misty morning over the land of a thousand hills

The primary goal of the 2024 Sustainable Development Reflection Tour to Rwanda is to enlighten and educate Canadians on the Rwandan Development Model and how Rwanda is “the little country with big changes” as Rwanda has been recognized as an African and global leader in sustainable development, agriculture, technology and digital communications, gender equality and education. As a model for other nations, Rwanda has become a beacon of hope of how a country can lift itself up after the tragic 1994 genocide and pave a way forward by re-imagining a new, vibrant, inclusive and equitable Rwanda.

Royal Palace demonstration of how to prepare millet wine for the King

Africa's image has been unfairly tarnished, often portrayed as a continent needing constant external assistance through a colonized lens. BBR is shedding light upon this image by initiating a campaign to showcase pan-African transformation with a focus on Rwanda to challenge this misconception. We intend to greatly shift this narrative by promoting excellent experiential learning through the reflection tour and how Canadians can take back lessons learned from African countries, such as Rwanda.

June Francis shopping in a souvenir shop

Our project appeals to diverse audiences; it includes Africans in the diaspora, progressive organizations and institutions dedicated to social, environmental, and economic justice, and various individuals focusing on college/university students, researchers, and policymakers in the field of international development. Our audience will benefit from receiving evidence-based, engaging, and informative content that will assist and support them in better understanding the realities of sustainable development in Rwanda.

Kigali Business and Financial District

The reflection tour will take the participants through Rwanda's established successful development hotspots where they will have the opportunity to meet Rwandan change-makers who have significantly contributed to the nation's progress in a myriad of ways. Participants will visit key established development projects shaping Rwanda's future such as exploring the Museum of Homegrown Solutions to understand how tradition and innovation are key drivers of sustainable development in Rwanda.The reflection tour will take the participants through Rwanda's established successful development hotspots where they will have the opportunity to meet Rwandan change-makers who have significantly contributed to the nation's progress in a myriad of ways. Participants will visit key established development projects shaping Rwanda's future such as exploring the Museum of Homegrown Solutions to understand how tradition and innovation are key drivers of sustainable development in Rwanda. The reflection tour will take the participants through Rwanda's established successful development hotspots where they will have the opportunity to meet Rwandan change-makers who have significantly contributed to the nation's progress in a myriad of ways. Participants will visit key established development projects shaping Rwanda's future such as exploring the Museum of Homegrown Solutions to understand how tradition and innovation are key drivers of sustainable development in Rwanda.

Prof. June Francis, Prof. Stephen Rulisa, and BBR Chair Lama Mugabo