“The main conclusion is that Rwanda has the policies and programmes in place to achieve poverty reduction and human development but that it will not achieve all the MDG Targets by 2015. Good progress is being made for many, but the accelerated rate of progress required for achieving some Targets looks to be too challenging, taking account of the rate of progress to date. However, it is important to maintain a wider perspective. There is a danger of becoming narrowly focused on achieving Targets and Indicators and losing sight of the Goals. The Indicators and Targets are a useful way of monitoring process to achieving the ultimate Goal but achieving the Goal must remain the primary objective. It is also essential to keep in mind that all the Goals are interrelated and aimed at supporting human development, building the capability of everyone to be able to make real choices over their lives. In the spirit of the MDGs we should also be concerned about access to services and their quality. In Rwanda
services may be available but the ability of everyone to access them needs to be given attention as does their quality. The inequalities analysis suggests that there are three groups in the population. One group mainly live in urban areas, have employment that pays a living wage, have secondary or tertiary education and have
access to good services including schools, health water and sanitation and ICT. This is the group that has benefited the most from recent growth, and this group grew in size between 2001 and 2006. The second group is mainly rural but includes those who earn wages that are on or just above the poverty
line and live in urban areas. They are predominantly engaged in agricutural production but gain a significant amount of their household income from non-agricutural activities. This is the group that is set
to take advantage of many of the policies in the EDPR to build human capital, invest in improved methods of farming and move into non-farm employment that pays a decent wage. The last of these may involve setting up a household enterprise, for example.”
