This document, the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper is the first step to developing a strategy to reduce poverty and aims to do the following: outline the challenges and policy questions confronting Rwanda in the fight against poverty; outline the current view of the government on the overall strategy and the main actions that need to be undertaken; provide a framework for how best to utilise existing domestic and aid resources; set out the analytical work and participatory process, which will be undertaken over the next year. The Poverty Reduction Strategy is prepared in the context of Rwanda’s long-term vision, articulated in the Vision 2020 document which encompasses the following elements: (i) Good governance, democratization, national reconciliation, national political stability, and security (grassroots participation in development and decision-making; and an all-inclusive economic system that allows effective empowerment of all social and economic groups in the population and creates an economy of stakeholders); (ii) macroeconomic stability (creation of an enabling environment for private sector development and reduction of the role of the public sector in economic activity while increasing the effectiveness of the state and the efficiency of government); (iii)elimination of human misery and poverty by raising productivity and employment of resources that the poor own and depend on, i.e. labour and land; (iv) human resource development, improving access and quality at all levels of education, capacity building, non formal education, improving health standards, preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and the rebuilding of social capital; (v)promotion of a service based economy and knowledge based production founded on ICT; (vi) progressive reduction of Rwanda’s dependence on external resources and promotion of exports; (vii)and promotion of regional economic integration and reduction in the costs of access to ocean ports. Deteriorating food security remains a major challenge facing Rwanda, which continues to import large quantities of basic foodstuffs.The repeated incidences of famine and cyclical drought has contributed to periods of heightened crisis and loss of life and human as well as economic capital, economic decline and undermined efforts to reduce poverty. The government in partnership with communities is making every effort to address this issue. In concrete, the document identifies as an overriding challenge the increase of exports, which are dominated by coffee and tea crops. The objective is to modernise these sectors along with measures to promote other potential sources, such as horticultural and food crops. With respect to cereals in general and maize in particular, the document encourages an investment in silos for storage for production to be increased in order to meet the identified cyclical shortages in the sub-region. Other measures included in the document in order to address food security are: to promote agricultural revitalisation and rural recapitalization both farm and off-farm household incomes through policies so as to increase the purchasing power of households, including extension services, provision of rural credit, and support to micro and small-scale enterprises; and promote the use of traditional storage systems at household level, the use of improved storage facilities at either prefecture or zonal level, and encourage communal storage through farmers’ associations,co-operatives, etc. In the immediate short term the priorities identified by the document are the following: policies to increase incomes, employment, labour productivity and rural recapitalization in all its components, including extension services, provision of rural credit and financial services, and support to micro and small-scale enterprises; and creation of training and employment opportunities for the unskilled young and empowerment of the skilled youth to engage in income generating activities. The policy specifically aims to improve the quality of life of the poor and stabilise lives of the populations in the new settlements (imidugudu) by ensuring access to primary health care, primary education, water and sanitation, energy and housing; and to address the problems of vulnerable groups in rural and urban areas on a sustainable basis, replacing transfers with sustainable livelihoods and establishing safety nets. This includes actions to improve the skills of the unemployed youth include their integration into formal and non formal employment through artisanal skills development, and the setting up and equipping community service centres. Finally, in conjunction with the above mentioned targets, the document states that for progress in poverty reduction to be made, the issues of land, demography and environmental degradation must be immediately dealt with. According to the Paper, a clear plan for the management of fragile ecosystems like the marshlands will be developed, incorporating both the necessary technical inputs and efforts to resolve the land tenure issues and sustainable use of marshlands. The policy on planting and harvesting of trees by individuals will be reviewed. The improvement of water management and conservation is also identified as a need under the document.
卢旺达 · 2000-11-01