On a cloudy morning, dozens of young men and women dig radical terraces in Kibangu to protect steep land from erosion in this distant sector of Muhanga District, Southern Province.

Their work is part of Ecobrigade Programme, an initiative consisting of a group of youth cooperatives working for environmental ecosystem protection.

It is one of the Government’s initiatives that targets environmental conservation as well as creating green job opportunities for the youth.

Rwanda’s hilly landscape has been resulting in the flooding of its lowland or valleys, at the same time erosion, and landslides that claim lives of residents in case of heavy rains.

According to the Rwanda Natural Capital Accounts for Ecosystems published by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda in 2019, approximately 158 million tonnes of soil were eroded (that is moved down slopes and/or onto wetlands), while soil loss (or sediment export to rivers) was 14 million tonnes in 2015.

The implications of the soil erosion are a threat to food security, due to declining soil fertility, increasing fertiliser costs (and imports) and related food price increases, the report indicated.

It is this problem that the eco-friendly works under the support of the Ecobrigade Programme are tackling.

The pilot phase has been successfully implemented in 10 sectors of three districts namely Muhanga (of Southern Province), Ngororero and Karongi (in Western Province).

Under the Rwf2.3 billion ecological undertaking, thousands of youth work to conserve the environment by digging radical and progressive terraces, planting bamboos along Nyabarongo catchments and tree planting in farms as means to control erosion. Additionally, they are trained in financial literacy.

It is implemented through the support of partners including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Rwanda Green Fund-FONERWA, LODA and Reserve Force among others.

Current achievements

So far, over 4,200 youths from 55 cooperatives have been employed in this initiative in one year, according to information from the Ministry of Youth and Culture, the institution spearheading the initiative.

And, those young people were able to save about Rwf12 million from their employment earnings.

With their efforts, radical terraces were constructed on over 200 hectares, while over 160 hectares were protected through the construction of progressive terraces, and bamboo plantation was made on an area covering over 110 hectares.

Josiane Byukusenge is one of 363 young people in Kibangu who have worked with the programme since its launch in 2019. Unemployed since 2017 when she graduated from high school, Byukusenge described Ecobrigade Programme as ‘godsend’.

"I lived with my older siblings orphaned. We struggled even to afford mutuelle de santé (community-based health insurance) but when I got this job, things changed for the better,” she narrates.

"It was me who sustained the family until other siblings got jobs too,” she adds.

For Albert Habyarimana, 26, who resides in Gatumba sector of one of the most mountainous districts of Rwanda, Ngororero, terraces have helped prevent erosion and eventually related hazards.

"These holes (pointing at progressive terraces) catch and hold running water. When they are full, water can then run but slowly, without washing away soil or crops or destroying people’s houses like it did before,” he explained.

Marie Bonne Ingabire, a young woman from Ngororero District credited the project for responding to the needs of the youths in rural areas, who were unemployed and desperately looking for jobs in urban areas, by providing them with job opportunities to protect the Nyabarongo River catchment, and degraded land.

"I have bought four pigs from the money I got from the Ecobrigade initiative,” she said, adding that the youths embraced the savings culture in order to sustain gains from the initiative through running profitable projects including agriculture and crafts.

The Minister of Youth and Culture, Rosemary Mbabazi said that besides protecting and conserving the environment, they were focusing on working with the young people to create jobs.

"We were anticipating to have 3,000 jobs created, but we were happy to surpass the target and have 4,200 jobs created,” she said.

Maxwell Gomera, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme said that the project is worth financing as it is addressing climate change, while creating jobs for youths.

"By investing in the environment, we are creating jobs [for the youth]. This place is prone to landslides. And by planting trees we are ensuring that we protect people from landslides,” he said adding that the majority of people in Rwanda are youth.

Supporting youth Ecobrigade cooperatives with Rwf100 million

On Friday, December 4, 2020, the Ministry of Youth and Culture in partnership with UNDP, KOICA and other partners provided Rwf100 million in seed capital to the first 20 Cooperatives of Youth who work in Ecobrigade Programme to help them start their promising projects.

Each youth cooperative received Rwf5 million to support in the creation of its own business with an aim to improve the socio-economic status of members.

Minister Mbabazi said that they are looking at further supporting the income-generating projects by young people who have organised themselves in cooperatives and made savings in line with thinking beyond the programme.

"Conserving the environment is a stepping stone. Where they conserve, the project has a timeline. When it ends, [we want that] they don’t go back into poverty, instead they progress further. So, we are looking at more opportunities, more jobs, more savings, more resources, more investments for the young people,” she said.

Extending the project

Based on the success of the pilot programme, the Minister said that they plan to expand it to all sectors of the three districts where it has been operating, and other provinces of the country so that more young people benefit from eco-friendly employment.

By scaling up the project to other parts of the country, it is expected to create jobs for 50,000 young people over the next three years, including 26,000 jobs for skilled people.

About 7 in 10 Rwandans is a youth and 77 per cent of them live in rural areas.

According to the Labour Force Survey 2020 by the National Institute of Statics of Rwanda, 20.6 per cent of the youth were unemployed as of August 2020.

Tackling youth unemployment is one of the government’s top priorities, with a commitment to creating 2140,000 new jobs annually under the first phase of the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) which started in 2017 and runs through 2024.

KOICA Country Director, CHON Gyong Shik and Alphonse Munyantwali, Governor of Western Province plant an avocado tree during an event to award Ecobrigade youth cooperatives in Ngororero District.

Members of Urumuri Ecobrigade youth cooperative in Ngororero District, Western Province, The programme has served double purpose by creating jobs for the youth and protecting the environment.

Minister of Youth and Culture, Rosemary Mbabazi and Maxwell Gomera, UNDP Resident Representative, plant an avocado tree during an event to award Ecobrigade youth cooperatives in Ngororero District.

People, mostly youth, engage in constructing terraces in Kibangu Sector of Muhanga District, Southern Province. The Ecobrigade programme addresses unemployment among the youth through environmental protection.