The Country and the poverty context

Government poverty reduction strategy

In 2001, the GOR issued the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The PRSP recognizes that a successful poverty reduction policy must be based on a high rate of growth of the economy. In this respect, following the liberalization measures introduced since 1996, the major challenges in the medium term are increasing export earnings, increasing agricultural production, supporting to non-farming activities in rural areas, and diversifying the economy, the latter comprising development of services, including information and communication technologies related services. A major emphasis is placed on market oriented education, to create a competitive, highly skilled labour force that can exploit fully the advantages of national bilingualism.

Strategic prongs specifically oriented to improving the economy of poor rural people and rural poverty reduction include: securing land tenure, development of micro-finance institutions based on savings mobilization, improved natural resource management and fight against land degradation, investing in rural transport and market infrastructure, participatory agricultural technology generation and transfer, demand driven agricultural research, measures to reduce rural food insecurity, and promotion of off-farm income generating activities and employment. The institutional reform aimed at strengthening the rural community representation in the lower levels of local public administrations, through a democratic election process is designed to increase representation and empowerment of the poor in the development planning and implementation process. The process of reconciliation is encouraged through dialogue and careful weighing of public interventions to avoid conflicts and discrimination.

A public service specifically targeted to women has been created. An innovative new Family Act (Code de la Famille) has been introduced, which recognizes the equal rights of male and female members of a family (with respect to inheritance, for example). A deliberate effort to include women in the staff of the public administration at all levels is of note. All these are signals that an important cultural change is taking place in Rwanda.

With respect to the promotion of off-farm income activities in rural areas, MINECOFIN has recently completed the evaluation of the IFAD PPMER project (Loan 411-RW). According to the report, the project approach is well tailored to national priorities as defined in the PRSP. The review, which is based on the survey of a sample of over 2 000 small rural enterprises supported by the project, and on a complete analysis of the returns of the survey, concludes that the project has achieved satisfactory results, and that its impact on poverty reduction has been significant. It also makes some interesting suggestions about the lessons of the experience, and with respect to improvements that should be taken into account in designing a second phase.