Read President Kagame's full speech here
Watch RCS Director, Danny Sriskandarajah, interview President Kagame:
On Tuesday 9th March, Paul Kagame, President of the Commonwealth's newest member, Rwanda, gave a speech at the RCS. The President highlighted the important role played by youth in his country and expressed his delight that the RCS would be holding its biennial Nkabom Commonwealth Youth Leadership Programme in Rwanda in September 2010.
I am delighted that the RCS will be hosting the Commonwealth Youth Leadership Programme in Rwanda later this year, and hopefully our discussions today will feed into preparations towards that event.
In any country, the youth should be pillars for the future. Rwanda's vision for our youth builds on the one we have set for the country as a whole: prosperity, self-sufficiency, and dignity through innovation, creativity, technology, and values – including traditional ones.
We also want youth that are able to determine their own destiny – through choices and opportunities that their predecessors are working hard to provide.
Young people are an important demographic in Rwanda – 75 percent of the population are under 30 years of age, and 40 percent were born after the genocide.
Although youth were mobilized in large numbers to murder their fellow citizens during the genocide, it was also a predominantly youthful movement that liberated the country and ended the slaughter. And today, young men and women are playing a useful role in Rwanda's reconstruction and ongoing development.
Through-out our re-building process, our youth continue to show immense resilience. Many have had to shoulder heavy responsibilities since the genocide, including providing for their siblings at an age when they needed care themselves. Against incredible odds, they are contributing meaningfully to reconciliation in their villages and across the country.
In a sense, a lot is being asked of Rwandan youth – they have inherited a difficult past, and must also work hard to consolidate and drive forward the gains that have been made over the last 16 years.
Their role in this regard is critical - which is why, for example, there are two youth representatives in Parliament who participate in debates aimed at seeking home-grown solutions to Rwanda's particular challenges. Young people have also formed cooperatives from the grassroots level to empower themselves economically and create better livelihoods.
Rwanda's experience with engaging youth has reinforced the lesson that bad 
governance can corrupt the minds and actions of young people, and that the inverse is also true: if given the support and confidence needed, youth can be a formidable force.