Rwanda's human development progress and persistent poverty challenges

Rwanda: Human Development Report

Rwanda- Brief Overview

Rwanda had suffered major blows to human development effort in 1994 when 1,000,000 or more people were killed in a brutal civil war. Since then, country has been trying to put the past behind but in the face of extreme poverty, debilitating hunger and disease; any progress if made is hardly visible. HIV along with poverty is the main issue facing this extreme poor rural country and United Nations has been actively working on these problems.

Even though the country claims impressive progress, this is not visible in real Rwanda where poverty still hampers most human development effort. "In human development terms, Rwanda's progress remains fragile. While Rwanda has made real progress in health and education since the war…, it will take some time before these efforts translate into substantial improvements in the Human Development Index (HDI)…"

In the year 2000, United States developed Millennium development goals for Rwanda which focused on improvement on social and economic fronts. It has been reported that some of those goals have been made due to strong commitment of Rwanda government. "Rwanda has made impressive efforts at achieving several MDGs, overcoming major setbacks during the genocide in 1994. This progress has been due to political commitment at the highest level, and international support for well designed and executed national scale programs."

In the education sector, Rwanda has shown strong improvement with enrollment rates going up to 97%. Country has been actively seeking women participation in education and politics. And Rwanda has a strong presence of women in the parliament, around 56% in 2008. HIV prevalence has also gone down according to MDG report.

Health has been the main focus of human development effort in Rwanda and it is found that along with HIV, instances of malaria cases have declined significantly with 9.3% fatalities in 2001 to 2.9% in 2006. Access to clean water was another human development goal and so far this has been achieved with moderate success. 71% of the population has access to clean water; the goal is to reach 82% which United Nations plans to accomplish in next five years.

Human development Effort: What is being done?

In order to meet the many challenges facing Rwanda, national and international agencies have been focusing on key sectors of development such as education, health and the legal system. Rwanda cannot depend on natural resources for growth because it is not endowed with much in that area and hence needs to make heavy investment in its people who are its only driver of change and progress.

Since education is so important, Rwanda has made some impressive changes in its educational system to allow greater access to education. Since 2001, net enrollment in education has increased to more than 85% and what is even more impressive is the achievement of gender parity in enrollment. Government spending on education has increased dramatically which accounts for the rapid change in net enrollment. "Government and donors have put more effort and resources into the education sector in recent years than perhaps into any other sector in Rwanda. And these investments have already started bearing fruit…Education is already the single largest budget posted in the national budget, receiving U.S.$125 million in 2006, and expenditures are projected to increase by over 40% this year, to U.S.$169 million."

Even though various problems still exist in education sector, government has shown its commitment to the cause of expanding enrollment which is definitely commendable.

In the health sector too, public spending has been impressive and since 2001, Rwanda has seen some decline in its major problems such as under-five mortality rate, HIV prevalence and malaria cases. "Enormous efforts have been made in recent years to improve service delivery and funding of the health sector in Rwanda, with public spending on health more than doubling over the last few years."

Efforts in this area still have a long way to go before any concrete change can be seen. In the past few years, some positive changes have been noticed in under-five mortality rate which came down to 152% in 2005 from 196% in 2001 but it is still very high by any standard. Similarly there has been decline in maternal mortality rate which declined to 750 per 100,000 live births in 2000 compared to 1075 in 1995. But lack of access to more sophisticated healthcare facilities in rural areas is still hampering most efforts in healthcare. Deliveries are also very costly and most poor people cannot afford it. Insurance is offered but it fails to cover more complicated interventions and hence complications prove fatal for many poor women.

Despite several problems plaguing the healthcare sector, we cannot undermine government's commitment to the cause of improving healthcare facilities. Even though the country has limited resources and its infrastructure was completely torn apart by a vicious war, government is still trying to offer insurance that at least covers common illnesses. Government has also increased spending in healthcare to improve service delivery: "The budget for health has been increasing steadily since 2000 and is predicted to rise further in 2007 by almost 40% to Rwf48,389 billion, which is close to U.S.$10 per capita. While this still falls far short of the average of U.S.$34 for developing countries and U.S.$12 for sub-Saharan Africa, it represents tremendous progress for a country whose health infrastructure was virtually annihilated by the war."

Conclusion:

For a country that was virtually wiped out during an atrocious civil war in 1994, Rwanda's progress has been impressive especially where economy and education are concerned. However the reason this progress has failed to make a major impact on human development indices is because of the absence of trickle down effect. The benefits of progress are concentrated in high income groups and the wealthier families in the country while the rural areas continue to suffer. Dependence on agriculture is still a major issue for the country where low productivity has led to further suppression of poor families and has offered no respite to those suffering from debilitating effects of poverty. Education sector has seen positive change as net enrollment increased but this has been limited to primary education which means that drop out rate is still very high and many children enrolled in grade one leave school before they reach grade 4. Rwanda still has many challenges but with government's strong commitment and a real desire to bring change, it is possible to see some concrete changes in education, healthcare, poverty and other areas in next few years.