Rwanda Presentation1

8/10/2019 Rwanda Presentation1

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How can community recovery pave the way to sustainable

development in the Great Lakes Region

RWANDA: HOME GROWN INITIATIVES

TO TACKLE POVERTY and FOSTERRECONCILIATION

Bujumbura, 17 February 2014


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Presentation outline

1. Country profile

2. Home grown initiatives

3. Gacaca

4. Ubudehe

5. Conclusion

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Rwanda: Country profile

Population 10,537,222 (August 2012)

Area (in sq. km) 26,334; Area (in sq. mi)10,168

Poverty rate 44.9% (22.1% urban and 48.7% rural)

Extreme Poverty Rate 24.1% (10.4% urban and 26.4% rural) Per Capita Income USD 644 (2012)

Human Development Index: 0.434 (166 th in 2012)

Consumer Price Index 121.4 (January 2014)

Inflation rate 2.43 (January 2014)

Latest GDP Growth Rate 3.9% (Q3,2013)

Female representation in Parliament since 2013: 64%

Reduction of poverty from 2008 to 2012 : 12% 3


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Recent History

April July 1994: Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda; More than 1 million killed; Most Infrastructures (education, health, justice, etc)

destroyed; Thousands of orphans and widows; Flows of refugees to neighboring countries; Loss in Human capital (Eg: out 758 judges before 1994 only

244 remained after 1994); Social cohesion greatly affected (Mistrust among the

population); Extreme poverty and insecurity.

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The need for Home GrownInitiatives for community

recovery Uniqueness of the Rwandan Tragedy;

Poverty rates have drastically increased as result of thegenocide; In 1994, real GDP fell by 50%.

Need for customised services responding to the needsof the citizens

The classic justice system didnt meet expectations (in5 yrs, only 6,000 out of 120,000 detainees were tried)

Need to promote trust, tolerance, social cohesion

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Home Grown Initiatives inRwanda

Solutions based on Rwanda's history and culture Gacaca jurisdictions Ubudehe

VUP Umurenge (The VUP goal is to contribute to thenational target to reduce extreme income poverty from36.9% in 2005/6 to 24.0% in 2012.)

Umuganda (community work) Girinka (one cow per poor family)

This presentation will focus on: Gacaca: for community recovery Ubudehe: poverty eradication and social cohesion

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1. GACACA JURISDICTIONS

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GACACA, A HOMEGROWN INITIATIVETO SOLVE JUSTICE PROBLEMS

Gacaca Courts were thought out the need to solve justice problems after the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi

Gacaca Courts took their origin from the Rwandan culturewhere people used to sit together in Gacaca (grass) and

settle their disputes; More than one million Rwandans killed during the

Genocide against the Tutsi; 250,000 women were raped

About 120,000 persons were arrested, detained and prosecuted for Genocide crimes (1994-1999);

It would have taken more than a century (+ 100 years) to tryonly the 120,000 detainees - JUSTICE DELAYED IS

JUSTICE DENIED. 8


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GACACA: THE MISSION

o To disclose the truth on the genocide events;

o To speed up Genocide trials;

o To eradicate the culture of impunity;

o To reconcile and strengthen unity among Rwandans;

o To prove the Rwandan Societys capacity to solve its ownproblems.

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GACACA : AN EVOLVINGPROCESS

Gacaca was established by the Organic law n 40/2000 of26/01/2001 and the law was amended twice in 2004 and 2007.

It is a traditional court system based on trust and reconciliation principles

It is managed by village membres persons with high integrity(inyangamugayo) elected by their peers (First Elections in 2001--- 34,3% Women, 65,7% Men);

The sitting bench were composed initially of 19 judges, later

reduced to 7 judges with 2 substitutes; Gacaca sessions were public, local citizens /any interested party

were allowed to give testimonies; Keeping the sessions public helped at reinforcing transparency

and truth around the Gacaca process; 10


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CATEGORISATION OF SUSPECTS

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Category1: Planners, organisers, instigators, supervisors of thegenocide; Leaders at the national, provincial or district level, withinpolitical parties, army, religious denominations or militia who committedgenocide;

Category 2: Authors, co-authors, accomplices of deliberate homicides,or of serious attacks that caused someones death; The person who -with intention of killing - caused injuries or committed other seriousviolences, but who did not attain his objective; The person whocommitted criminal acts or became accomplice of serious attacks, withoutthe intention of causing death.

Category 3: The person having committed only offences againstproperty


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Achievements by Gacaca Courts

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1 st Category 2 nd Category 3 rd Category

Numberof trials

Percentage(%)

Numberof trials

Percentage(%)

Numberof trials

Percentage(%)

Guilty53,426 88.3% 361,590 62.2% 1,266,632 96%

Innocent 7,126 11.7% 215,938 37.4% 54,002 4%

Total Numberof all the casestried

60,552 100% 577,528 100% 1,320,554 100%

GRAND TOTAL 1, 958,634


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CHALLENGES THATGACACA COURTS FACED

a) Refusal to reveal the truth;b) Refusal to confess or to confess only half of offences;c) To threaten, harass and kill survivors of Genocide,

witnesses and some judges;d) Some judges Inyangamugayo who had commited

Genocide crimes and moved to other residentialareas;

e) Some cases of corruption on the side of some judgesand witnesses;f) The persistance of Genocide ideology;g) Trauma cases;h) Electronic documentation of Gacaca Courts trials.

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BENEFITS/ACHIEVEMENTS

a) Fight against impunity and establishment ofindividual liability;

b) Truth telling (distinguish the innocent persons from

the guilty ones)c) Confession and forgivenessd) Trust into community managed systemse) Fast resolution of cases

f) Social cohesiong) Promotion of cultural valuesh) Among the Gacaca penalties is TIG which contributed

to national reconstruction

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2. UBUDEHE: PRO-POOR APPROACH TO TACKLE POVERTY

Ubudehe: traditional system of intra-communitycooperation based on collective and individual actionfor development oriented activities;It is implemented at community and individual levels;It aims at identifying the poorest and find solutionslocally to support him/her to reach the next economic

level;It promotes problem identification and solving atcommunity levelEasy monitoring between peers.

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The main purposes of thisapproach

To help local populations define for themselves:

i) the profile of poverty in their households and communities, through aParticipatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) process;

ii) their main issues of development (causes and effects) and;iii) to have the same understanding of the various categories/levels ofpoverty within their communities.

To define (as a group) the best strategies to fight poverty together,

through the prioritisation of the main related issues and the search foradapted solutions

To set up strategies of mobilisation in order to achieve the required fundsfor each priority action at Cell/Village level, as well as for at least oneproject in favour of a very poor household, however they must have the

capacities to manage a project and to go up in the next economic level. 16


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KEY BENEFITS

Ubudehe initiative promoted: Self governance,

Poverty reduction

Better services responding to the needs of thecitizens Participatory Planning

Entrepreneurship and investment multiplier

Promoting formal economy Trust, tolerance, community spirit

Baseline data

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Effectiveness

At least 1.4 million people (the lowest estimation)

have been direct beneficiaries of Ubudehe, thus leading to

the conclusion that probably at least 20% of the population

of Rwanda has benefited from the programme if including

potential indirect beneficiaries into the scope.

By taking into account the budget spent by the EU forUbudehe (23,338,883 ) the investment would represent

the equivalent of 16 per final recipient (23,298

community projects and 31,759 households projects). 18


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IMPACT OF UBUDEHE

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Area BeforeUbudehe

AfterUbudehe

Capacity to buy clothes 10.53% 50%

Capacity to pay school fees 0% 43,75%

Capacity to pay health services 3,45% 25%(60%:well)

Capacity to nourish the family 3,39% 59,32%

Sustainability 98,21%


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ASSESSMENT OF UBUDEHE

Criteria Appreciation(%) (%)

Relevance Yes 99,10 No 0,90

Efficiency Quite well 65,74 More or less 31,48

Effectiveness Change 88,7 No change 11,3

Sample: 120 community projects; 60 households projects

The impact of Ubudehe has differed as some projects haveseveral impacts, extended impact (health center).


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CHALLENGES

As for most homegrown initiatives:Lack of modern management tools in terms ofaccounting, monitoring and evaluation;Lack of documentation;Transparency and accountability are not guaranteed

Therefore, such home grown initiative needs to bereinforced by modern planning, M&E andmanagement tools to be more efficient.


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Ubudehe Credit Scheme (UCS)

Sub-components under the FS component of the VUP Launched in January 2010 with the first loans disbursed in

March 2010. The average loan amount per beneficiary was RWF 77,480. Eligibility: Households in Ubudehe 1, 2 or 3 can apply for

individual, group or cooperative loans. Households in Ubudehe4, 5 or 6 can apply for group or cooperative loans, providedthere are also group/cooperative members from Ubudehe 1, 2or 3

Open bank account Borrowers can select to repay monthly, quarterly, six-monthly

or annually (max 1 year). Interest rate: 2% of the loan amount. Off-farm income-generating activities are encouraged but

agricultural and livestock development is also eligible. 22


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Conclusion

Ubudehe and Gacaca initiatives have transformed the

nature of citizen engagement and participation in poverty

alleviation and governance. At village level people have the opportunity to express their

preferences and are taking part in the problem solving

process. The living standards and social cohesion in the

communities have considerably improved as a result of HGI

implementation 23


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UNITED NATIONS RWANDAp/a Office of the UN Resident Coordinator

PO Box 445 - Kigali - RwandaTel: (+250) 590 403

Fax: (+250) 578 439E-mail: [email protected]

www.unrwanda.org

Tell me and I will forget.Show me and I may remember.

Involve me and I will understand By Conficius

Thank you

Documents

Rwanda Presentation1