Working together to Eradicate Poverty in Rwanda

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is celebrated globally on the 17th day of October every year since its adoption by the international community in 1993. It offers an important opportunity for reflection on the progress made by mankind towards the eradication of extreme poverty and renewing efforts at its realization. Since their adoption in 2000, progress towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has constituted an important gauge for sustained poverty reduction.The MDGs have succeeded in creating a common agenda which unites countries and people throughout the world around the agenda of poverty eradication and social and political stability. Their time-bound, clear, and measurable targets have focused action on the most basic indicators of sustainable human development, which is an essential condition for durable stability.The most recent (2012) global MDG progress report prepared by the United Nations indicates that the global target of cutting in half the proportion of people living under $1.25 per day was met in 2010. Since 1990, hundreds of millions of people are no longer living in extreme poverty and have the opportunity to live better lives. However, this overall favourable picture masks significant disparities in the progress made in the different regions of the world as well as towards individual MDGs. There is consensus that, although African countries as a whole have made notable progress towards many of the goals, the continent is lagging behind the rest of the world in most of the areas.More effort is, therefore, required on the continent in order to close the gap between Africa and the other regions during the period remaining through to 2015 as well as to reach those still untouched by the progress registered so far. Even in the continent, disparities within and between countries remain striking. Overburdened and ill-equipped institutions, lack of sufficiently inclusive growth in a significant number of countries, neglected agricultural sectors, missing sanitation and energy services, chronic malnutrition, and discrimination against women and girls, ethnic minorities, and other groups, as well as high youth unemployment rates, remain barriers to progress in many countries. It is for this reason that Rwanda’s very positive overall record is highly encouraging. At the current pace, the country is among the very few African countries that are on track to meet almost all the MDGs. Rwanda’s experience provides vital illustration of how to accelerate progress towards the MDGs and even sustain this beyond their 2015 target date. From the countries record, we know that committed, dynamic and competent leadership as clearly demonstrated by President Kagame and his government, strong national ownership, and broad mobilization of the population, combined with judicious utilisation of external assistance are critical for success. We know that inclusive and direct poverty reducing growth in a significant manner is possible when appropriate policies are deployed, especially those that aim to impact simultaneously on inequality and empower the poor. We know that gender equality, health improvements, and access to renewable energy can accelerate progress across the Goals. And we know that in our increasingly interdependent and volatile world, development will only succeed and endure if it is pursued in the context of transformational initiatives.The theme for this year’s day is “Working together out of poverty” .This reflects the fact that Partnership is key as the magnitude and complexity of tackling poverty requires strong systems and policies in place, but above all, a shared vision of the development path of a country. In a recent visit to Gicumbi district in August 2012, the President of the Republic, Paul Kagame shared the following sentiment with the residents: “We should all work hard and eradicate — not reduce — poverty,” this is possible if we work together.”In Rwanda, over a period of the last five years, the number of poor lifted out of poverty has surpassed the one million mark. The impressive gains of the past 5 years also call for additional efforts to address obstacles to growth -widely acknowledged by the Government: removing further the barriers of a productive rural sector, unleashing the potential offered by the East African Community but also proposing innovative solutions for skills development and transformational growth. In Rwanda, we have every reason to celebrate the progress made to eradicate extreme poverty, but we must also continue to work together on its eradication. We hope that the global development agenda beyond 2015 will reflect this level of ambition.Designing programs to better target the poorPoverty is not only complex and multidimensional: it requires judicious targeting for the benefit of the most vulnerable, constant attention and monitoring. The results from the recent EICV3 demonstrate that concerted and continued efforts to reduce poverty are bearing fruits: more Rwandans have access to energy, three out of four Rwandans have access to safe drinking water and more than 90% of children are enrolled in primary school.Improvements in education, health care, maternal education, safe water and sanitation are associated with lower rates of poverty. At the country level, it is clear that lower rates of literacy are closely correlated with lower poverty rates. This suggests that although education has an independent and direct impact on poverty reduction, its effects via interaction with other factors such as employment and empowerment may be even more significant. Importantly, this lays the foundation for future plans in favour of the youth of Rwanda. Working together against poverty compels us to re-direct our efforts towards the youth employment challenges in Rwanda. Looking at the futureIn his message for the international day of eradication of poverty, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon points to the importance of developing an adequate post - 2015 framework “to build on the MDGs while confronting persistent inequalities and new challenges facing people and the planet-the aim is to produce a bold and ambitious framework that can foster transformational change benefiting people now and for generations to come”The UN in Rwanda is determined to continue to support the Government in its efforts not only to eradicate extreme poverty on different fronts: health, education, social protection, disaster risk reduction and environment sustainability but also to achieve truly transformational changes in the country’s economy and society, all with strengthened governance institutions and even stronger social cohesion. Let us reinforce our partnership to make poverty an issue of the past. I believe that the new strategic and planning frameworks that are being put in place in the form of the Government’s Second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS II) and the United Nations Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP), that aims to strengthen the UN’s Delivery As One in the country, provides us with a unique opportunity for realizing that important inspiration.Lamin Manneh is the UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative to Rwanda