Rwanda

Global Communities has been working in Rwanda since 2005 to build the resilience of families and reduce vulnerability to health and economic shocks. In the past 15 years, Rwanda has greatly improved the health and stability of its population. Despite these gains, challenges remain to ensure the poorest and most vulnerable groups have access to economic security and health and social services.  

Agriculture continues to be a dominant industry in Rwanda, employing 70 percent of the workforce. However, agricultural productivity is low — meaning the labor, land and other inputs needed to grow crops remains high compared to the value of the final product. Agricultural productivity is important to food security because increases in productivity lead to decreased food prices, increased income for farmers and a more stable food supply. We work with farmers experiencing poverty to promote agricultural growth by building capacity through training programs and increasing their productivity through improved techniques and access to finance and markets.

Agricultural success leads in turn to improved nutritional food consumption for people experiencing poverty in Rwanda — a critical component to improving the country’s drastically high levels of chronic malnutrition among children under five. 

While HIV prevalence for the general population has been stable for more than a decade, prevalence among the most at-risk populations is estimated to be as high as 50 percent. Global Communities has taken a targeted approach to decrease rates of new HIV infection by focusing on these most at-risk groups, including orphans and vulnerable children, adolescent girls and young women, out-of-school youth, female sex workers and households experiencing extreme poverty. We focus on increasing access to care while also building the resilience of families through economic strengthening, food security and education.