Objective: Self-sufficient Households
The objective of this project is to transform at-risk, rural Rwandan families into self-sufficient households. The end goal is to ensure food security for all family members through increasing and diversifying households’ production and their agricultural and non-agricultural revenue sources.
As a result, each household will become:
- A resilient household thanks to its leading role in the protection of the environment (from which it receives a majority of its income) through intensive agro-ecological conservation and soil fertility improvement practices.
- A household that is connected to its surrounding community whose nutritional security is also assured due to a better understanding of food and health issues, and the actions that result from them.
Context: A low-income country
A low-income country, Rwanda hopes to become a middle-income country by 2020. In order to get there, its long-term development objectives aim at transforming the economy, which is currently oriented towards agriculture, into a knowledge-based service economy. These objectives are based on the remarkable success that the country has enjoyed over the past decade. Since 2005, the country has indeed recorded strong economic success and has also rapidly reduced poverty and inequality levels.
Nevertheless, there are still challenges to address, particularly chronic malnutrition, which affects nearly 44% of children under the age of five. Malnutrition leads to growth delays that unfortunately have long-term consequences.
Target audience: farm owners
The principal beneficiaries of this project are 4,000 at-risk farmers, which includes:
- About 1,120 households with malnourished children, or pregnant or breastfeeding women who will also be supported by the national community-based program (PNBC), and
- About 300 students, who will receive training in small livestock farming.
Six co-ops, which share an irrigation field (about 120 members), and four beekeeping co-ops (about 40 members) will also be included as part of this project.
With the support of the Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid. – DGD
