Rwanda

IFAD Asset Request Portlet

Country

Rwanda

21

Projects Includes planned, ongoing and closed projects

US$ 799.7 million

Total Project Cost

US$ 412.33 million

Total IFAD financing

1,540,517

Households impacted

The Context

Rwanda is a small, landlocked country with limited natural resources and a modest mining industry. The population has grown at a rate of 2.6 per cent over the last 10 years, reaching a total of 10.8 million people in 2012. Rwanda has a population density of 416 persons per square kilometre, the highest in Africa. 

The country is still largely rural (85 per cent) and dependent on agriculture. Rwanda has achieved extraordinary results in the two decades since its 1994 genocide. Thanks to strong economic growth over the last 10 years, poverty has declined from 57 per cent (2005) to 45 per cent (2011) but remains high in rural areas. 

About one in four rural households live in extreme poverty. Poverty is a rural phenomenon in Rwanda, with 49 per cent of rural residents living in poverty compared with 22 per cent in urban areas (2010).

Poverty is highest (76.6 per cent) among households who obtain more than half their income from working on other people’s farms. Chronic malnutrition (stunting) afflicts 43 per cent of children under five.

The country’s long-term development goals are embedded in its Vision 2020, which is focused on good governance, development of human resources, a private-sector led economy, infrastructure development, market-led agriculture and regional economic integration. Vision 2020 seeks to transform Rwanda from a low-income, agriculture-based economy into a service-oriented economy by 2020.

Despite the country’s success in establishing a sound investment climate, foreign direct investment remains low. The main constraints to accelerating growth, investments and exports are lack of economic infrastructure, a limited skills base and increasing vulnerability to climate risks. 

The agriculture sector is hard hit by climatic conditions, especially drought, intense and erratic rainfall, increasing incidence of high winds and seasonal temperature shifts. If not addressed, climate variability will impose significant economic costs – estimated at between US$50 million and US$300 million annually by 2030 – given the country’s dependence on rainfed agriculture.

The Strategy

In Rwanda, IFAD is working to reduce poverty by empowering poor rural men and women to participate in transforming the agriculture sector and in rural development, and by reducing their vulnerability to climate change. 

Our country strategic opportunities programme in Rwanda (2013-2018) is aligned with the government's Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy II and the Strategic Plan for the Transformation of Agriculture III. 

The IFAD country strategic opportunities programme has four main objectives, focused on:

  • sustainably increasing agricultural productivity through management of natural resources and investment in physical and social capital, including scaled-up agricultural intensification;
  • developing climate-resilient export value chains, post-harvesting processes and agribusiness to increase market outlets;
  • adding value to agricultural produce and generating employment in rural areas; and
  • improving the nutritional status of poor rural people and vulnerable groups.

Results-based country strategic opportunities programme (COSOP) Arabic | English | French | Spanish

Country Facts

Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa, with 416 inhabitants per square kilometre.

The poverty rate is highest in rural areas, where 71.2 per cent of the country’s population lives (2015). The percentage of people living in poverty in rural areas is 49 per cent compared with 22 per cent in urban areas.
 
Since 1981, IFAD has supported 16 programmes in the country for a total of US$283.8 million, benefiting 634,300 poor rural households.

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Projects and Programmes

Projects Browser

PLANNED Under design after concept note approval

APPROVED Approved by the Executive Board or IFAD President

SIGNED Financing agreements signed

ONGOING Under implementation

CLOSED Completed/closed projects

No matching projects were found

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IFAD Vice President to meet Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente and ministers in Rwanda

May 2022 - NEWS
The Vice President of IFAD, Dominik Ziller, will meet with Edouard Ngirente, Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda, as well as other high-level government officials during a visit starting 9 May.

Africa’s Key Development Partners Formalize Their Commitment to Work Jointly to Help Address Food and Nutrition Security in Times of Climate Change

August 2019 - NEWS
In partnership with the African Union, leaders of four multilateral agencies – The African Development Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank-- called a high-level meeting with development partners on August 5-6 in Kigali, Rwanda at the first Africa Food Security Leadership Dialogue (AFSLD).

Rwanda and IFAD partner to reduce poverty in drought-prone areas

June 2019 - NEWS
About 7,167 poor and food insecure rural households in Rwanda will benefit from a new US$24.7 million project that aims to improve food and nutrition security, climate resilience and raise incomes by increasing production.

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Here comes the sun: solar-powered irrigation brings crops back to life in Rwanda

December 2022 - STORY
In rural Rwanda, solar-powered irrigation gives women farmers a sustainable alternative to time-consuming and expensive manual and diesel-powered systems.

Grant-based development interventions are worth it. But how – and when?

June 2022 - BLOG
Conventional wisdom has long held that giving grants to small-scale farmers produces temporary gains at best. But recently, our research into a grants-based intervention employed by PRICE, an IFAD-funded initiative in Rwanda, found benefits that have lasted for five years and counting.

Meet some of the women leading sustainable development around the world

March 2022 - STORY
Sustainable development can only be achieved with the contributions of rural women, yet they face many challenges. Let’s meet three women who have transformed their lives with the help of the JP RWEE initiative.

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Building Smallholder Farmers Resilience in Kayonza District: A Case Study of Starlit Project

March 2023
The STARLIT (Strengthening Agricultural Resilience through Learning and Innovation) project is an IFAD-China SSTC Facility funded initiative which aims to strengthen the resilience of farmers in the maize value chain in Kenya and Rwanda.

Stock-taking exercise on Livestock Farmer Field Schools: East and Southern Africa

December 2022
This report reviews and documents lessons learned from livestock farmer field schools in four IFAD-funded projects that applied this approach in Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania (Zanzibar).

Research Series 86: Incorporating the Impact of Climate and Weather Variables into Impact Assessments

November 2022
This paper applies a methodological framework for incorporating current period weather and long-term climate conditions into impact assessments.

Scaling up rural youth access to inclusive financial services for entrepreneurship and employment

February 2022
This document is an overview of the lessons learned from a project on “Scaling up rural youth access to inclusive financial services for entrepreneurship and employment” in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

What can smallholder farmers grow in a warmer world? Climate change and future crop suitability in East and Southern Africa

October 2021
With funding from ASAP2, eight Climate Risk Analysis reports were produced by the University of Cape Town, covering Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Related videos

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Rwanda: Reducing food loss in a changing climate

April 2019 - VIDEO
Farmers in Rwanda can lose around 30 per cent of their harvests before they even reach the market, due to a lack of adequate means to dry, store and transport the crops.

The Real Groundbreakers: Claudine from Rwanda

March 2019 - VIDEO
Through the power of a women’s farming co-operative in Rwanda, Claudine is using new techniques and seeds for better cassava harvests.

Adoption of system of rice intensification (SRI)

June 2016 - VIDEO
This is an introduction to a series of 4 training videos and details how IFAD has promoted the spread of SRI from Madagascar to Rwanda and then Burundi. Malagasy farmers went to Rwanda to share their knowledge and Burundian farmers then visited the same Rwandan farmers to take the knowledge back home. This farmer to farmer teaching and learning has proven to be very effective.