Tackling poverty from bottom up
Kabarame couldn’t believe it. For him, fate is decided upon birth. ‘You were born poor and so you will die’, the inner voice had kept reminding him. With no land and no education, he earned his daily bread carrying luggage with his cart at the local trade centre. His daily income was between 200 and 500 Rwandan francs (70 eurocents) depending on luck.
‘Despite being poor, we all know you are a trustworthy and hardworking man. If you get a small loan, you can improve the living standard of your family and we have no doubt that you can pay back’, a member of the village Ubudehe committee told him. For Kabarame, that news was too good to be true. However, that was the turning point for his life.
In 2006, Rwanda has entered the second phase of its decentralization policy, which consists in entrusting local governments with the authority to drive community development with increased citizen participation in poverty reduction initiatives. Thus, the government has tapped into the traditional concept of ubudehe to harness participation in and ownership of development processes by the local administration and the beneficiary population.
Ubudehe is a traditional practice of collective action to solve community problems and was adopted by the Government of Rwanda as an approach to fight poverty. Local community members themselves identify development issues and decide on priority actions to fight poverty in their neighbourhoods. The local government facilitates the process, responds to demands of the communities and provides technical support in the implementation process of selected initiatives.
In support to the Ubudehe program, within the framework of the project to support Gakenke district local development (PADL), the Belgian cooperation has funded small income generating projects of more than 5,000 vulnerable families. This represents eight percent of the district’s households; that is, nine families per village out of over 617 villages of Gakenke district of the Northern Province.
Launched in 2005, the prime objective of PADL is to support institutional capacity building in Gakenke district based on the principles of good governance as well as implementing initiatives to fight poverty and reduce household vulnerability to recurring food insecurity.
For the Belgian cooperation, it is easy to support local communities in the fight against poverty through ubudehe. The programme provides technical assistance to vulnerable members in preparing projects and funding and ensures the follow-up on implementation of selected initiatives.
Vulnerable families such as Kabarame’s, with the help of a village facilitator, introduce small income generating projects in the form of a loan. In return, the beneficiary passes the profit to the next person on the waiting list. The 50,000 Rwandan francs Kabarame received unlocked rays of hope for his family.
'With the first sum of money, I bought a pig which produced 10 piglets the first time. I gave some to the neighbours and sold the rest. I bought a plot of land for 30,000 francs. On the fifth round, I sold piglets and used my savings to buy a cow. Now, I own a small shop, which yields 5,000 francs in profit per day. I have built a family house and my children attend school, I pay the annual family subscription to the community health insurance scheme. In short, life is far better now’, confided Kabarame.
Kabarame’s story is undoubtedly encouraging given the precarious life in rural areas still prone to striking poverty. According to statistics, in 2006, 60% of the rural population were living in poverty (IFAD).
