90% of EDPRS targets achieved

The first phase of the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) was implemented by up to 90 percent, according to a household survey dubbed EICV3 and a Demographic Health Survey known as DHS4.The two surveys, whose findings were released yesterday, are used as benchmarks to ascertain the level of implementation of government policies that aim at reducing poverty.EICV3 covers living conditions, income, expenditures, poverty, housing conditions education and employment, while DHS4 covers household health conditions, especially women and children, including fertility rates, access to health facilities, anemia, malaria nutrition and HIV.The surveys conducted in 2010 and 2011, give a full picture of the achievement in reducing poverty and reaching the MDGs and assisting in the identification of where additional efforts are needed.In the health sector, the priority has been on quality services in health centres, hospitals to form a higher proportion of high impact intervention.Some of the challenges to be addressed include access to service across districts, high population growth, and malnutrition.The director General National Institute Statistics of Rwanda, Yusuf Murangwa, said EICV3 was conducted in 2010/2011 and took one year in preparation and one year to implement, adding that its analysis would take six months. According to reports, between 2006 and 2010, Rwanda registered 8.4 percent growth in GDP with services and agriculture contributing the most with industry also growing.Gross Domestic Product per capita increased from US$212 in 2001 to US$540 per capita in 2010. “For those who were here between 2000 and 2005, you can see it was not very impressive, it was about 2.2 percent, on the contrary, between 2005/6 and 2010/11, the improvement is very impressive,” Murangwa noted.The target for 2017 is US$900 per capita.According to poverty distribution, Kigali comes on top as the least poor province with 16.7 percent of people living under the poverty line, reducing by four percent in five years; Northern Province has an 18 percent reduction while Southern Province placed at 56 percent under the poverty level, with a 10 percent reduction.The reports also indicate that after 1994, poverty levels were rated at 78 percent, but it dropped to 59 percent in 2000 and 45 percent five years ago.Access to electricity for lighting, though still very low, improved to 10.8 percent from 4.3 percentage points in the last five years.