"WE REQUIRE a rapid shift in the mindset of our young people towards agriculture as a career choice. With the knowledge and technology available, there has never been a better time for young Africans to get involved in agriculture and agribusiness, and create wealth and well-being, for society as a whole,” President Paul Kagame said at the Green Revolution Forum, 2018.
According to the population census of 2020, about 71% of the total Rwanda’s population is below 30 years. According to National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) annual labour force survey report of 2019 shows that 35.3% youth are actively engaged in market oriented activities and 57.6% participate in subsistence agriculture as the next generation of farmers. Currently, there are 487,416 trained, empowered and well measured youth volunteers spearheading youth volunteerism.
Historically, the critical role of the youth is strongly embedded in Rwanda’s culture and tradition; for example, through self-help mutual aid activities, caring for the weak and rendering community services in nation-building, especially through youth platforms like Itorero. Itorero was a youth platform and a force multiplier in expediting solutions to socio-economic aspirations of the country. However, this situation was disrupted by the advent of colonialism.
Post-colonial governments mismanaged the youth and denied them opportunity and space to participate in creating a better Rwanda. Instead, they misled young people into a genocide ideology which culminated into the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Post-colonial governments divided the youth along ethnic lines and groupings premised on divisive ideology which saw the so-called Tutsi youth completely marginalised, the so-called Hutu youth negatively indoctrinated, while the so-called Twa youth did not even know their fate. The Gregoire Kayibanda and Juvenal Habyalimana regimes fundamentally mismanaged all national programmes. The Theodore Sindikubwabo/Jean Kambanda regime implemented the Genocide against the Tutsi and the diverted youth participated in it.
The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)-led liberation struggle was intended to stop the stated divisive ideology and return the country to her true foundations of national unity as a precondition to national development. The RPF youth actively participated at all levels of Rwanda’s liberation struggle which was characterised by high levels of sacrifice and love of country. It is on the basis of this background of correct thinking that, despite their young age, the youth of the RPF joined the struggle from every corner of the world in large numbers to liberate their country.
The liberation struggle was to save Rwandans from miseries of poverty, bondage of refugee, divisions and abuse of human rights. RPF’s strong liberation leadership and guidance were key determinants of the liberation process and a major ingredient of success. And the RPF has since been consistent in instilling ideological clarity and cause among the youth as exemplified by their active participation across all sectors of the Rwandan society. The youth has been nurtured in values of discipline, diligence, patriotism, sacrifice and using limited resources to achieve more. It is this understanding that has seen Rwanda transition from a failed state in 1994 to a celebrated prosperous country today.
Today, the Rwandan government, through the collective national choices of "thinking big”, "staying united” and "being accountable”, has equipped the youth with skills and right mindset to take charge of the present and future of their country. The youth are effective and well measured to carry forward the intergenerational responsibilities bestowed upon them by the current leaders. The government is nurturing youth who are responsible and accountable to the transformational journey enshrined in the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) and Vision 2050.
The youth in Rwanda have different structures and platforms for information sharing, exchange ideas, innovation, representation and partnership in finding solutions to challenges and leveraging opportunities. The established youth structures include national youth councils which start from the village level to the national level. In the local government administration, the youth leaders are elected to actively participate in the decision making processes. In addition, there are two youth representatives in National Parliament and another youth representative in the East Africa Legislative Assembly. Also, the youth have a national youth council secretariat for their coordination and a ministry at policy level with a mandate to ensure that youth aspirations are well mainstreamed in all government policies and programmes.
Access to finance
Besides the above, there are many other youth platforms like ‘Youth Meet the President’, ‘YouthConnekt’, ‘Youth Hubs’ and ‘Intergenerational Youth Dialogue’, used to share wisdom, experiences, and innovations to agree on actions and solutions to their aspirations. These platforms and structures have contributed to mainstreaming youth policy and legal framework to cater for youth aspirations. One of the key policy achievements is that youth aspirations have been mainstreamed in the wider national vision, policies and strategies for socio-economic transformation.
For instance, the Government of Rwanda initiated homegrown solutions for youth employment and these include; Business Development Fund (BDF), which is designed to boost youth entrepreneurship. BDF provides the youth collateral guarantee at 75% of the total loan and hlps them to access subsidised loans. In addition, there are youth employment mainstreaming projects across sectors; for example, the road mantainence programme. The programme provides road mentainance contracts to the youth to regularly maintain unpaved feeder roads across the country. Up to 153 youth-run companies are implementing the programme in their respective districts and 7760 youth have benefited as casual workers in routine mantainence of unpaved roads, while 467 youths are employed as engineers, technicians and accountants on a permanent job basis.
In addition, the Ministry of Youth and Culture, through BDF, has provided working capital equivalent to Rwf1 million to each participating company with a total of Rwf153 million transferred to BDF and disbursed to the companies. Also, under the national skills development and promotion strategy, part of the national employment programme framework, 101/153 companies have received micro leasing equipment, i.e. small compactor machines and wheelbarrows.
Youth interventions
In addition, there are youth ecological brigades – which are a brand of youth cooperatives working for environmental ecosystem protection, one of the government initiatives seeking preserve environment as well as creating green job opportunities for youth. Currently, the programme employs around 10,000 youths in Karongi, Muhanga and Ngororero districts, and it includes planting trees, terraces, etc.
Some international and local partners have also come forward to compliment these government efforts towards youth empowerment. Some of the international partners include; One UN, Digital Opportunity Trust-Rwanda, MasterCard Foundation, World Vision, and VSO, with local partners including Imbuto Foundation.
In the financial year 2021/2022 alone, Rwanda youth volunteers in community policing (RYVCP) constructed, maintained and rehabilitated 2061 kilometres of unpaved roads across the country, valued at Rwf7 billion. In Northern Province alone, there 28 youth companies with 1000 members maintaining 332.54 kilometers of roads for Rwf655 million.
According to a report by Rwanda youth volunteers in community policing released on July 16, 2021, the activities done by RYVCP in FY 2020/21 were valued at Rwf2.944 billion. These activities included construction of 1,175 housing units for vulnerable families, renovation of 788 houses for the poor, construction of 4,558 toilets, installation of 7,947 hand-washing stations, rehabilitated 20,850m3 of terraces, planted 92,960 fruit trees and provided health insurance to 6,436, provided face masks to 30,397 vulnerable families, among others.
In addition, a report released on June 9, 2022 on kitchen gardens constructed by RYVCP shows that youth volunteers constructed 223,944 kitchen gardens in the year 2022, of which City of Kigali has 18,052; Northern Province 44,305; Southern Province 54,596, Western Province 54,266; and Eastern Province 52,725. In Northern Province, youth volunteers have performance contracts to deliver on FY2022 and these include; soil erosion control on 89 hectares, 89 new houses, and to rehabilitate 178 houses for the vulnerable, construct 1,242 new toilets and to rehabilitate 4140 old ones for the elderly poor and to establish 8229 home based early child development centres to promote good feeding among many other activities. RYVCP are also playing an instrumental role in community mobilisation and sensitisation in the fight against malnutrition, stunting, Covid-19, drug abuse, family planning promotion campaigns, early childhood pregnancies, delinquency and dropouts’ control campaigns.
These achievements are a testimony and a demonstration of what a mobilised youth can do under visionary leadership.
The writer is Executive Secretary, Northern Province.