Several programmes aimed at improving people’s welfare have registered significant progress in lifting many from poverty, but a lot more needs to be done in regard to sustainability and innovation.

The programmes dubbed, ‘home-grown initiatives include Ubudehe (classification levels), Community Works (Umuganda), Performance Contracts (Imihigo) and One Cow per Poor Family (Girinka) among others.

The initiatives helped lift over one million people out of poverty under the first Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS I).

However, to register more progress in the second phase of EDPRS, Rwanda Governance Board initiated a study to review the initiatives and assess the impact they have on people’s lives.

Speaking at a validation meeting to review the findings, RDB’s Deputy CEO, Dr Félicien Usengumukiza, said the study aimed at indentifying areas of improvement and what can be changed in the initiatives.

Presenting the tentative findings of an impact assessment study, Laurent Ndiyamiye a consultant with SN Solutions Ltd said since the initiation of Ubudehe, a poverty classification programme, many Rwandans were listed as beneficiaries of government’s free initiatives which improved their lives.

"People enrolled for the Universal Health Insurance (Mutuelle de Sante) increased from 61.8 per cent to 95.1 per cent,” Ndiyamiye said.

According to the findings, prior to joining Ubudehe programme support, 51.1 per cent  of households sampled indicated not having the capacity to support their neighbours activities, festive events or times of sorrow when requested to.

The rate at which Ubudehe beneficiary households were invited to participate in their neighbours events before and after benefiting from Ubudehe programme projects also increased significantly.

"These social relationships resulted into an increased friendship which is testified by frequent visits to neighbours,” Ndiyamiye said.

He, however, said Ubudehe programme runs with insufficient funds for the projects meant for the needy.