The Government of Rwanda is set to lift 315,000 households out of poverty and extreme poverty in two years starting from the 2023/2024 fiscal year.

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The plan is part of the National Strategy for Sustainable Graduation (NSSG) implementation which was approved by Cabinet in November 2022 to accelerate the reduction of poverty and extreme poverty in Rwanda.

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The strategy aims to help all households in extreme poverty develop a sustainable livelihood that is resilient to moderate shocks, and ultimately, lift them out of poverty.

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Claudine Nyinawagaga, Director General of the Local Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA), said in general, there is a need to lift 900,000 vulnerable households out of poverty.

"However, this fiscal year, we are going to start with lifting 315,000 vulnerable households out of poverty. These households will become self-reliant. After two years, we will support other households out of 900,000 households we want to lift out of poverty,” she said.

She said the needy families get jobs and loans at a low interest rate under the Vision Umurenge Programme (VUP)—an integrated local development programme to accelerate poverty eradication, livestock, and TVET education to be able to create jobs and more.

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"The families’ life was not changing as they were always expecting support without having their commitment to graduate out of poverty,” she added.

With the new strategy, the official said, the families will sign a commitment to graduate out of poverty within two years.

"We have changed the way we were doing in supporting needy families. This means that the families will sign performance contracts to graduate out of poverty and we have to set up a monitoring mechanism to assess the progress and success. We have to show them what we bring to them and they have to commit to what they will do by signing an agreement to achieve poverty reduction goals,” she noted.

Over Rwf130 billion to be invested

Nyinawagaga said that within two years, the government must allocate more than Rwf130 billion in addition to funding from non-government organisations, faith-based organisations, civil society organisations, and others who are required to embrace the graduation out-of-poverty approach.

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Through the strategy, graduation out of poverty is a two-year programme for households in poverty to receive financial assistance, a productive asset, training in livelihood skills and life skills, savings support, coaching and mentoring, access to complementary, essential services such as education, healthcare, and clean water—all of which would be supported by well-trained staff who understand the poverty dynamics.

Additionally, beneficiaries would have access to a wider enabling environment for sustainable graduation including access to markets, jobs, and infrastructure.

To optimise effectiveness, the programme will be closely monitored and evaluated to ensure continuous improvement, and there will be strong coordination and alignment with the strategy among all involved organisations, according to officials.

The strategy incorporates shock responsiveness after the completion of the graduation programme. Common shocks include economic shocks and those caused by climate change, which prevent people from escaping poverty.

In the first year of the programme, participants are identified along with their needs, and prepared for the programme. Participants will be assigned to para social workers (PSWs) and provided access to shock-responsive social protection, a cash transfer, direct income support, a productive asset, and skills training to support livelihood development, finance management, and savings.

Théophile Niragire, the Vice Mayor in charge of Economic Development in Karongi district, said the district has 36,000 households in need of graduation out of poverty.

However, he noted that the support will start with 9,184 households.

He said 5,000 households need cows, 900 households need small livestock, and 643 households need TVET education while 294 households have TVET skills but need tool kits to create jobs.

Household profiling and social registry

The 2020 social protection policy indicates that changes in the welfare and socio-economic status of beneficiaries will be monitored through a ‘dynamic household profiling and social registry’.

Ariane Mugisha, Chief Digital Officer at the Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC), said the Dynamic Social Registry with data on the socio-economic status of families to benefit from social protection programmes will be launched by the end of January 2024.

The registry replaces the current Ubudehe categories and will guide partners who want to support the country in lifting 900,000 households out of poverty.

According to the National Strategy for Sustainable Graduation (NSSG), there are key elements that are essential for graduation to achieve sustainable, long-term impact.

These include effective cash transfers, productive asset transfers, tailored planning, coaching, and mentoring, technical and life skills training, savings groups and specific support services.

There are also services outside of social transfers and livelihood support, which help households overcome barriers to graduating.

These services include but are not limited to information, health, agriculture, nutrition, education, water and sanitation, electricity, business development, shock response, and others as required.

Access to effective and functional markets and affordable prices, along with stable employment and infrastructure, such as roads, hospitals/health centres and schools, land tenure, good governance and protection from shocks which may be economic and social are also key elements.