Local leaders in the Western Province have hailed the budgetary allocation that is earmarked for the implementation of the next and last phase of the Economic and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS). Local government authorities are convinced the phase will accelerate efforts to reduce poverty to significant levels.The phase has received an increased investment in the next financial year that begins on July 1 and leaders at the local level say that it will complement to what was achieved in the first one."We have already rolled out strategies and if everything gets implemented as planned, our people will have embarked on the right path towards sustainable economic and social development,” Paul Jabo, the Executive Secretary of the Western Province, said.Jabo was speaking at a consultative meeting in Rubavu District, where local leaders from the western region gathered to share ideas on how best to utilise funds.He pointed out that each of the seven districts that make up the region had identified areas where sustainable income generating projects can be established.According to next year’s budget framework paper investment in EDPRS has increased by Rwf1.8 bn to Rwf5. 2 billion from Rwf3.4 billion in 2011/12.Sebastian Hakizimana, Karongi District Vice Mayor in charge of economic affairs, said his district aims at boosting rural development by investing in agricultural development and a productive population."Agriculture is one of our major sources of income and most of our residents depend on it. Local farmers should therefore be enabled to adopt better farming methods,” he said.At the national level, some of the target areas include infrastructural development, especially energy generation, scaling-up market access by doubling investment in feeder road network and creating off-farm employment focusing mainly on SMEs development.The funds will be invested in areas that lag behind in poverty eradication as indicated in the recently concluded Income and Household Living Conditions Survey.The survey indicated that poverty levels in the country dropped by 11.8 percent, an estimate of 200,000 households (about one million people) having emerged from poverty since 2006.