The World Bank has confirmed that Rwanda’s human capital development programme has yielded impressive results.
The East African country is an early adopter of the World Bank’s Human Capital Project, a global network of 82 countries of all income levels that focuses on more and better investments in people for greater equity and growth.
The United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2020 Rwanda Human Development report ranked the country 160th out of 189 countries and territories in human development value – which put the country in the low human development category.
Development Diaries understands that the reform programme is designed to address obstacles to human capital development by improving financing and enhancing families’ access to health, nutrition, education, and social safety net services.
The programme is also designed to provide equitable opportunities for poor and vulnerable households to invest in their human capital, empowering women, and developing strong governance and accountability mechanisms at the decentralised levels.
‘The reform programme is yielding impressive results. For instance, the proportion of regular beneficiary households of the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme enrolled in human capital-focused social safety net interventions has increased from 19 percent as of March 2020 to 41.5 percent as of September 2021’, the bank said in a statement in December 2021.
‘The proportion of young children now receiving a minimum package of integrated early childhood development services in accordance with national standards has gone up from 17 percent in 2020 to 42 percent in November 2021.
‘Health sector financing reforms have ensured that over 85 percent of the target population has been covered by community-based health insurance, up from 69 percent in 2020.
‘These efforts have been critical to ensure that people have access to financially sustainable health insurance schemes in Rwanda’.
To help in advancing the country’s policy and institutional reform programme, the World Bank approved $175 million support in December 2021.
This financing package consists of an $87.5 million International Development Association (IDA) grant and an $87.5 million IDA credit.
‘Human capital development is at the heart of Rwanda’s resilient recovery from the effects of the [Covid-19] pandemic and is the foundation of Rwanda’s longer-term development agenda’, the World Bank Country Manager for Rwanda, Rolande Pryce, said.
‘This comprehensive multisectoral and multi-year programme focuses on accelerating more and better investments in people to deliver key results at various stages of the human lifecycle.
‘Our collaboration with the government and other development partners to strengthen Rwanda’s human capital aims to ensure that all citizens benefit from and also productively contribute to sustainable economic growth in the country’.
The World Bank’s IDA, established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programmes that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives.
Source: World Bank
Photo source: Mugisha Don de Dieu
