Oxfam's work in Rwanda in depth

In Rwanda, Oxfam's focus is on sustainable livelihoods, good governance, gender equality and HIV and AIDS.

What Oxfam is doing

Oxfam has been working in Rwanda since the 1960s, and was among the first humanitarian organisations to arrive there after the 1994 genocide. Until 2003, our work focused on post-conflict humanitarian interventions. From May 2003 to 2008 we ran a Peace Building and Development Programme designed to directly address the connections between conflict and poverty and provided support to around 276 communities. Projects included help with livestock management, crop production, marketing, sewing, pottery skills, carpentry and grain milling.

Between 2007 and 2008, about 112,600 vulnerable people in four provinces across Rwanda benefited from the Peace Building and Development Programme including widows, wives of prisoners, orphans, people living with HIV and AIDS, demobilised soldiers, and young people out of school. The economic gains that these groups have made due to the programme have enabled members to form co-operatives, pay their children’s school fees, get medical insurance, live in decent shelters, have clean clothes and balanced diets and also start new small profit-making businesses in their respective communities.

After a situation analysis and programme review, Oxfam has now developed a new national strategic plan (2008-2013) focusing on four thematic areas namely good governance, livelihoods, gender equality, and HIV and AIDS issues. The overall objective is to ensure that in areas where we operate, the proportion of women and men living below the poverty line decreases and their participation in local development and governance becomes more effective. The programme targets about 130,000 people (of which 90% are female) from across the country.

Livelihoods

Our current approach to livelihood security is through a markets approach, which means realising the power of markets in terms of access, influencing product prices, and negotiating on quality.

We believe that poor people have the potential, once empowered, to be part of the solution. In this respect, we have decided to work through local partners to develop entrepreneurships among poor Rwandans, allowing them to be self-reliant and help themselves. We no longer directly distribute grants to people; instead we use loan-grant systems through local partners to benefit many people.

Agreements are signed between local partner organisations and Oxfam to establish how best to work with the groups benefiting from Oxfam funds and also to ensure the funds continue to reach the intended target groups. This is monitored by Oxfam staff, partners, local leaders and representatives from the target groups.

To start with, the current market-oriented livelihoods programme focused on two commodities – mushrooms and pineapples. They were chosen taking into account productivity, market situation, and fertile environments in Rwanda.

Also integrated into the programme are gender equality promotion, good governance, conflict sensitivity, HIV and AIDS work, disaster and risk reduction, and climate change adaptation.

To achieve our objectives we work with others including NGOs (Non-Government Organisations), CSOs (Civil Society Organisations), local authorities, government institutions and private sector workers using alliances, lobbying and advocacy. We work closely with other stakeholders to ensure we have a strong and effective civil society in Rwanda that can easily support poor communities to actively engage in economic activities.

Land related issues, access to services, means of production, the role and place of civil society and private sector in pro-poor development, gender equality, HIV and AIDS work, disaster and risk reduction work, and climate change adaptation are the current focus of our policy and advocacy work.

 

Last updated: December 2010