BY GODFREY NTAGUNGIRA

Today more than ever before, employment sectors present one of the real challenges to the international community. This is also felt in Rwanda, which faces many developmental challenges due to the socio-economic crisis caused by the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis. 

To respond to these challenges Rwanda set recovery goals embedded in Vision 2020.

The national development vision and strategies foresee the need for competent and able human resources in order to meet the requirements for a knowledge-based economy.

Based on EDPRS, the Government of Rwanda has undertaken an ambitious and comprehensive capacity development programme to re-establish and strengthen governance institutions where a number of key reforms have also been undertaken to streamline and strengthen these institutions.

Reforms have been carried out in sector of public service, realizing that development will best be achieved through investment in the people which is the Rwanda’s most important and abundant resource, the government has embarked on an extensive programme of human resources development.

The ministry of public service and labour has a mission to reinforce the national labor standards in order to promote job creation and institutionalize an efficient and modern public service management framework that will enable private and public sector organizations to perform at their best and effectively contribute towards improving the lives of the Rwandan population.

Through the ministry’s vision it also commits Rwanda to have an effective and result oriented public administration, delivering prompt services which are responsive to the basic needs and problems of the population, within the framework of good governance and to create a socio-economic environment promoting the generation of decent jobs that fight against poverty, and develop a national competitive labor force which is open to both regional and international markets. 

Policy Initiatives developed to bridge labour sector gaps
 
The government of Rwanda has since 1998 carried out national consultations aimed at facilitating long term sustainable development for its economy.

Within the framework of its Road Map dubbed the Vision 2020 Human resource development has been identified as one of the key pillars of this Road Map.
 
The Government has acknowledged the fact that Rwanda’s labor market is characterized by significant under-employment and surplus rural labor, exacerbated by high population growth.

This keeps wages in rural and unskilled urban sectors low. In an attempt to increase off-farm employment, the government has promoted labor-intensive public works (HIMO) for rural infrastructure.

However, at the same time, significant skill shortages remain in sectors employing scarce specialist skills. As a result, salaries in these sectors are relatively high.
 
This underlines the importance of linking the education system to skills required by the public and private sectors. Human infrastructural development has been identified as one of the key priorities in the EDPRS framework, although government is still working out a detailed strategy to achieve this objective.

Based upon the EDPRS framework a human resources infrastructure is set to be improved, so that Rwanda can become a knowledge-based economy as it’s widely known the country’s principal asset is its people.
 
The way forward
ICT Driven Economy

In particular, today Rwanda is actively encouraging science and technology education and ICT skills, which will also help to enhance human infrastructural development.

Efforts have been made to widen access to ICT among the population and to promote ICT for e-Governance, education and capacity building, and use by the private sector.

ICT infrastructure and networks are being extended throughout the country, including pilot telecenter and public kiosks projects, development of an IT park, and increased band-width connectivity.

A national coordinating body, the Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA) has been set up to support the development and implementation of the Information and Communication Infrastructure plan – NICI Plan. RITA coordinates all national ICT initiatives and projects, facilitates the work of IT divisions and departments in government institutions and provides advisory services and technical support services.

It is responsible for developing standards and guidelines, promoting public awareness and education on the role of ICT to the general public.

Realizing that development will best be achieved through investment in the people, Rwanda’s most important and abundant resource, the government has embarked on an extensive programme of human resources development.

The capacity building and employment sector is on track to achieve most of the policy actions. District capacity building plans needs assessment has been carried out and corresponding capacity building plans have been developed.
 
Basket Fund

Government and donors signed a Memorandum of understanding towards the establishment of a basket fund for capacity building.

The policy action to implement a programme to take at least 300 youth from universities on internship is on-watch, to date 120 youth have been trained, 4 from each district of the country.

A pilot project is being carried out where interns are being absorbed within public service. Reports indicate that the project is successful as the project started with 10 interns.

Majority have got jobs before they complete their internships. This is in line with giving capacity to fresh graduates from universities.
 
Addressing challenges while crafting opportunities
 
The 2006 economic indicators show that 199,000 persons got formal employment against 27, 9000 within the informal sector. Rwanda targets to reduce number of persons employed by informal sector by 5% in 2008-9 and by 25% by 2012 while increasing by 30% jobs in the formal sector.
 
In the EDPRS framework, the ministry of labour addresses challenges and opportunities facing young people.

Empowering of the youth segment through funding mechanism is well underway. The strengthening of youth savings and credit institutions by the Ministry of Youth, National Youth Council and National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) to enhance employment of youths through cooperatives is one such form of enhancement.  Two such cooperatives have been set up in the districts of Bugesera and Kicukiro.
 
On the reform Path

Vision 2020 seeks to fundamentally transform Rwanda into a middle-income country by 2020. This will require achieving annual per capita income of US$ 900 (US$ 290 today), a poverty rate of 30% (64% today) and an average life expectance of 55 years (49 years today).

The government initiated a range of public sector reforms to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of public sector institutions and achieve higher levels of service delivery.

As part of the reforms, the missions and objectives of public sector institutions were reviewed and strategic plans were developed in accordance with the development objectives as articulated in Vision 2020 and EDPRS.
 
The ministry is building the human, institutional and organizational capacity of public service institutions. The sector is working in partnership with those involved in capacity building and employment to ensure capacity building is responsible to needs at all levels of governance.

In a bid to support identification of needs and ensure professional development in key areas, a national skills audit is being carried out and the results will be used to develop a skills development policy and strategic plan.

Support will be given to all public institutions to carry out a training needs assessment, the results of which will be used to develop a national master plan of public service training based on priority needs.

All public sector training will be funded through a centralized skills enhancement fund which will be establishment and managed by MIFOTRA
 
Action Plans and Programs
National Employment Agency
 
In order to ensure increased levels of economically productive employment, the sector will implement two complementary initiatives.

One is the establishment of a national employment agency with district branches which will provide information and advice to job seekers and provide contact with potential employers.

Rwanda Work Force Development Authority

The second initiative will provide access to priority high quality vocational training through a specialized agency known as the Rwandan workforce development authority which will also have a devolved structure at the provincial and district levels.

This is aimed at increasing the number of off-farm jobs in Rwanda. More efforts will be given to employment of youth, women and people living with disability and the elimination of child labor.
 
The new employment promotion interventions will require considerable capital costs in establishing the national employment agency and 30 district branches and the Rwanda workforce development authority with five provincial workforce centres and upgrading the current vocational centres targeting all Rwandans for employment.

This will require construction, rehabilitation and provision of all equipment as well as a full complement of staff that will be trained appropriately.
 
A strategic plan will be developed which be developed to elaborate the orientation, higher level objective and programs of these organizations.
 
Revision of statutes and promotion of a conducive environment

MIFOTRA plans to revise labour laws which is expected redress issues which have been hampering progress aimed at actualizing the ministry’s plans and programs.
 
The ministry will also seek to improve coordination of activities and collaboration with partners across public and private sectors, and to establish effective data collection and reporting processes to support monitoring and evaluation of progress.

This will involve setting up a number of teams to address capacity building and employment promotion priorities, which might include measures to promote young entrepreneurs and increase the number of apprenticeships.
 
The sector will ensure HIV and AIDS sensitization and prevention is provided in both public and private enterprises with at least 60 percent of enterprises providing this by 2012.In addition, the sector will work to ensure that policies and employment laws related to AIDS are developed and implemented.
 
Skills development, micro-credit schemes and other forms on interventions will be promoted specifically to extend finance to self-employed young technicians.

Special emphasis will be given to innovative, small-scale entrepreneurs. To promote efficiency and continuous upgrading of skills, appropriate programs will be launched in the national institutions aimed at on-the-job-training, in-service training and distant learning.
 
Achieving Vision2020 requires linking education policies, with sector development and labor policies. It is crucial to understand that the investment needed for the development of the secondary and tertiary sectors, will not be effective without a skilled labor force.
 
Through RIAM, MIFOTRA is expected to improve the skills and competencies of civil servants while the ministry will itself modernize public service through new management systems and a new organizational culture.

It will also enhance effectiveness/efficiency, accountability, transparency and responsiveness to Rwandans and foreign partners’ needs and aspirations.
 
In relation to human infrastructure development, Rwanda targets to raise off-farm employment by 30% by 2012 as 20% of the population reported non-agriculture as their main occupation.

This will require creation of approximately 600,000 new non-farm jobs by 2012 out of a total out of approximately 1,000,000 new jobs to be created in the economy as a whole over 2008-12.

This development will reduce the share of the population living in poverty from 57% to 46%, while the proportion of those living in extreme poverty will fall from 37% to 24% percent.
 
Rwanda’s integration into the East African Community (EAC) means that it has to by bring its skills level up to that of other community members.

As a first step in the reform process, the government has drawn up an employment policy. This has been accompanied by the establishment of a national labor council, comprising stakeholders from the ministries, women’s organizations, trade associations, NGOs and others, who meet regularly to discuss and make recommendations on issues relating to trade unions and the labor market in general.
   
The private sector is largely under developed and this makes the public sector to be the largest employer compared to the private sector but it also employs less than 1% of the employable population.

The agricultural sector is said to be the largest employer but this sector is largely less productive as the average land holding per person is very small at less than one hectare per person.

This leads to low productivity and incomes to the rural majority of whom are youth and women who would otherwise be employed in other sectors.
 
Rwanda plans to increase fairness in recruitment process through effectiveness and efficiency of public institutions to be enhanced by 2012 which will be able to fully monitor and evaluate the process of recruitment.
 
In general progress towards achieving the 2008 EDPRS policy actions within the labour sector is positive: nearly all policy actions are reported on right track or on-watch. This is a concern both for reasons of domestic accountability as well as for achieving benchmarks agreed with external partners

Ends