The Ministry of Finance allocated a budget of Rwf170 billion for social protection, in the fiscal year 2022-2023 which will see 420,000 families alleviated from extreme poverty. The allocated budget is nearly twice the previous funding. According to the Deputy Director General of Local Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA), Saidi Sibomana, the budget was increased to accommodate a large social protection coverage but importantly, to reduce one-third of the current poverty level by 2024 He said that new programmes are being implemented across the country to help over 420,000 families come out of extreme poverty levels. “We realized that we needed to increase the number of beneficiaries, direct support, microcredit scheme, and geographical coverage of our project, through programmes that will help people come out of poverty, hence facilitating us to reach to our targets,” Sibinamana said. Programmes such as Social Protection Transformation (SPTP) are not only aimed at giving financial support but transforming lives into better living through creating long-lasting solutions have been implemented as well. “We have provided job creation to people living in extreme poverty, through public works, such as building infrastructure like road maintenance, radical terracing and many more. We have also increased the income rate of the public jobs, to continue building a more meaningful life,” Sibomana said. Through Classic Public Works (CPW) programme, those who have been earning Rwf1,000 have been increased to Rwf1,500 and Rwf2,000, whereas others have been raised from Rfw10,000 to Rwf15,000, depending on the service provided, according to Sibomana. He further said that programmes that provide health and income support to expectant mothers and infants below two at risk of malnutrition, to motivate them to get vaccines and fight malnutrition through Nutrition Sensitive Direct Support (NSDS) have been initiated. The NSDS programme targets over 80,000 families in 20 districts across the country. One Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre based in every one of the cells in districts across the country are also provided with healthy foods, such as milk, porridge and more and school kits materials to improve the quality education of kids in the ECDs. Sibomana went on saying that part of the budget has been spent in IT programmes and that they have upgraded the Monitoring Evaluation Information System (MEIS) to improve in targets and monitoring of the programmes set for beneficiaries. According to the Chairperson of Rwanda Civil Society Platform, Joseph Ryarasa Nkurunziza, a lot has been put in place that facilitates and quickens poverty eradication “With the vision 2020, there is at least what has been put in place, such as infrastructure, internet connectivity, electricity, human development, universities have been set up, and people have shifted their mind-set, they own, contribute and participate in the government policies, to help them eradicate poverty,” he said. He added that, “A lot has been done in terms of healthcare provision but we still need to make sure that all citizens are healthy, empowered, self-sufficient in food and if we have a large number of literate people, so that what the government creates is a catalyst for development.”
