On Friday 18th of December, H.E. Ambassador Johanna Teague handed over her letter of credence to HE Mr Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, during a ceremony at Urugwiro Village. Below, Ambassador Teague reflects on her upcoming tenure in Rwanda.
Development cooperation is at the core of our partnership with Rwanda
Sweden has a longstanding partnership with Rwanda in the area of development cooperation. In the beginning of 2020, the Swedish Government decided on a new strategy for development cooperation with Rwanda, increasing the volume of development cooperation by 40%. Swedish development cooperation focuses on four areas:
Gender equality is integrated throughout. Building on long-standing experience and relations within development cooperation in Rwanda, Ambassador Teague recognises the need to work strategically and effectively together with our Rwandan partners, with the EU family as well as with the UN in strong and broad-based partnerships. This will include the use of the embassy as a convener and meeting place, leveraging digitalization and making use of innovative financial instruments to catalyse resources for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Increased focus on trade and sustainable investment
Another area that Ambassador Teague is excited about is expanding trade- and investment relations between Sweden and Rwanda. In particular, there are four areas of interest, namely, green solutions, ICT and digitalization, education and creative industries.
-There is a lot of bubbling interest both here and back home. I am excited to see how I can support these ideas and contribute to sustainable solutions, says Ambassador Teague.
Ambassador Teague emphasizes that promoting trade and sustainable investments is one of her core mandates and that she wishes to see greater attention on these issues, given the interest from Swedish actors and the exciting initiatives going on in Rwanda.
Learning, innovation and creativity close at heart
On a personal level, Ambassador Teague has a special interest in learning and innovation, how to strengthen collective intelligence and foster creativity. She has previously worked on effectiveness, and underscored the importance of ownership, mutual accountability and adaptive management.
She highlighted that her role and the role of the embassy is to broker and facilitate partnerships, to find solutions and to work together.
-I am here to serve, says Ambassador Teague. I look forward to continue strengthening the all ready strong ties between Rwanda and Sweden, and to work together for sustainable development.
