VISION2020 UMURENGE PROGRAMME (VUP) A TOOL TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY AMONG POOR FEMALE HEADED HOUSEHOLDS IN RWANDA

Francisca MUJAWASE and Didas KAYITARE

Rwanda’s social protection floor is established mainly on non-contributory schemes where the state is responsible for financing programmes that benefit poor and vulnerable households. In Rwanda social protection programmes and other developmental approaches target households as a unit entity. Social security schemes exist for a small elite population that directly contribute for their future income security. Only 10% of the population in Rwanda is covered by social insurance scheme. The biggest share of the contributors is public servants followed by a small portion of the private/individual contributors. In 2018, in an effort to extend social security to the informal economy, the government of Rwanda introduced and piloted a new social security scheme that responds to the needs of the informal sector. The long term saving scheme known as “Ejo Heza” intends to guarantee a smooth income flow for the poor Rwandan population in their old age and improving the quality of life during retirement.

Poverty levels and levels of vulnerability in Rwanda vary by region, age, gender and education background. Data shows that young people under 21 years of age and adults beyond 60 years are prone to poverty than any other population group. Gender differences in poverty levels in Rwanda are significant where by female headed households experience poverty more than male headed households. Factors that contribute to this situation include women’s engagement in unpaid care and domestic work, low levels of education which puts women at risk of being disadvantaged in the labor market, sustained effects of Gender based violence, and limited access to and use of productive resources etc. These factors and many others put women at a risk of experiencing poverty compared to their counterparts. Despite the fact that poverty levels in Rwanda tremendously declined in the last decade, a significant segment of the population remains in poverty where majority are women. However, a positive trend in poverty reduction among female headed households was recorded as significant with 4.4 percentage points within a period of four years attributed from a reduction in poverty from 43.9 percent in 2013/14 to 39.5 percent in 2016/17. Similarly, a decline in extreme poverty among female headed households was recorded from 19.5 percent in 2013/14 to 17.8 percent in 2016/17. On the other hand numbers of female headed households categorized under moderate poor declined from 24.4 percent to 21.7 percent.  

VUP is the vast non-contributory social protection programme launched in 2008 to respond to worrying poverty trends reported in the country at the time. The programme is a means tested and financed through domestic taxation. VUP has three components that target different categories of poor household’s depending on their levels of vulnerability. Component (1) is Direct Support (DS) programme eligible for poor elderly household heads with no capacity to work. Component (2) is a public works programme. This is a short-term programme for identified poor households in Ubudehe category 1 and 2 eligible to the household whose household head has the capacity to work. Component (3) is financial services. The programme provides poor households in Ubudehe category (1, 2 and 3) low interest loans to invest in income generating activities.

Existing data shows that there are more female beneficiaries of VUP than males. The number of beneficiaries increased over the years under component 1 and 2 except for financial services which slightly reported a decline on enrollments. Under VUP direct support, female beneficiaries accounted for 60.4 percent in 2013/14. The programme reported an increase in the number of beneficiaries to 64.4 percent in 2016/17. Under public works programme, female beneficiaries accounted for 54.7 percent of VUP beneficiaries in 2013/14 while the numbers increased slightly to 56.4 percent in 2016/17. However, data shows a slight decreased in the proportion of female participants of VUP financial services from 55.9 percent in 2013/14 to 51.2 percent.

Among other demographic variations in VUP beneficiaries, 65.9 percent of recipients of VUP were female headed households in 2013/14. The number slightly increased to 67.8 percent in 2016/17. However, disparities in enrollment under public works remain unpleasant. The percentage of female household head participating in VUP public works was reported as low as 24.7 percent in 2013/14. In 2016/17 however, the number of female headed households participating in VUP public works almost doubled to 45.4 percent as a result of the newly adopted gender inclusion guidelines on VUP programme. Further, data shows gender disparities in VUP financial services. Only 16.6 percent of participants of VUP financial services were females. The numbers were reported as constant in the 2016/17.

In Rwanda, VUP has proved to have positive impact on household material well-being in the short term. According to Integrated Households Conditions Survey 2017 (EICV5), VUP beneficiaries reported that cash transfer enables them to acquire basic household needs such as food, caters for household affiliation to health insurance and financing education for their children. Social protection programmes also advance women’s empowerment in managing resources directly given to them. The programme has also contributed significantly to household asset accumulation such as livestock specifically among VUP direct support beneficiaries. Studies shows that provision of basic social assistance transfer to poor households with young children and a modest pension to the elderly population could reduce poverty incidence by 40%, and the programme was reported as a major contributor towards achievement of the first round of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The EICV5 VUP report shows the breakdown changes in the VUP status on household conditions and poverty transition. 38.9 percent of VUP participants enrolled on (DS) VUP in 2014 were poor. By 2017, only 20.6 percent of (DS) beneficiaries maintained their poverty status after enrolling on the programme for fours years. The results shows that 18.3 percent of (DS) beneficiaries dropped out of poverty within the period of four years. The reported number of beneficiaries who graduated out of poverty is not dis-aggregated by gender but the important aspect in the equation is that 64.4 percent of beneficiaries under VUP direct support programmes are females which mean that female beneficiaries of VUP direct support benefited significantly from the programme. Further analysis reveals change in household consumption expenditure among (DS) beneficiaries. In 2014, 46.5 percent of beneficiaries recorded an increase in welfare in 2014. The number had increased to 55.9 percent by 2017 for all those beneficiaries who enrolled on the programme until 2017.

Among other livelihood indicators reported include acquisition of basic economic necessities such as asset accumulation. 20.8 percent of beneficiaries of VUP direct support owned a mobile phone, 30.8 percent owned a radio, 0.7 percent owned a TV set, while 79.2 percent engaged in poultry farming and livestock keeping and more than 90 percent owned a saving account. Through the multi-sector integrated programmes, the EICV 5 reported that 36.6 percent of female headed households received additional public income support excluding (VUP).  Given the description of (DS) beneficiaries old and unable to work, only 0.8 percent engaged in productive work while 0.1 percent engaged in off-farm jobs. Another appealing statistics is that 57 percent of (DS) supported households maintained the number of their household size between 2014 and 2017 which reduces the burden of spending on family. In the previous section we saw that 18.3 percent of DS beneficiaries dropped out of poverty. The EICV5 VUP report present reasons that justify dropout of beneficiaries from the VUP programme. 43.2 percent of VUP beneficiaries reported to have moved to another  (Upper level of Ubudehe group) as the leading cause. Meaning that the beneficiaries of the programme are no longer poor or they graduated out of poverty.

VUP program presents sound evidence not only for smoothing household income during economic shocks but also presents future investments that tackles inter-generational poverty and inequalities. However, the programme has several challenges among which sustaining poor households from falling back into poverty remains a complex puzzle. In addition, immediate results achieved and reported could be weighed as short term benefits and not sustained solutions to eradicate poverty. However the short term results achieved are so important to the extreme poor households because they gain minimum level of resources to meet their basic needs. In the long run however livelihood support programmes such as education and health may positively contribute to the graduation of poor households from poverty.  The good news is that eradicating poverty in Rwanda is a government priority set out in the current national strategy for transformation and the long term Vision2020 development programme. A minimum package programme under VUP has also been piloted to test a defined package of assistance which is need to end poverty among the extreme poor households.