Rwanda

Across Rwanda, Cordaid works with both the government and companies to give business owners access to microfinance, further develop the private sector and improve food security.

Our interventions also integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies to make communities more resilient to disasters.

We work with agricultural players, including smallholder farmers, village loan and savings associations, microfinance institutions, agricultural input suppliers, and government agencies to strengthen an interconnected system that supports sustainable agricultural development.

By working together, these players can address the bottlenecks that hinder access to finance and provide farmers with an entire suite of financial and non-financial services that enable them to improve their productivity.

Watch this video about the Transforming Eastern Province through Adaptation programme:

This content is available after accepting the cookies.

Change cookie-settings

This encourages innovation and the development of new financial products, like green financing. The green financing method enables farmers to transition to nature-positive and low-emission farming practices, which will help improve the environment.

By collaborating with microfinance institutions and other players, farmers can access flexible loans designed for their specific needs, such as inputs, irrigation equipment, and fertiliser.

SOME OF OUR KEY RESULTS

WHAT WE DO IN RWANDA

Transforming Eastern Province through Adaptation (TREPA)
Together with IUCN, Enabel, ICRAF, and World Vision, Cordaid Rwanda is implementing the TREPA project in the Eastern Province of Rwanda. This 6-year project supports 260,000 people with access to climate-resilient investments and restores 60,000 hectares of degraded landscapes.

The project will promote improved clean and efficient cooking energy technologies to more than 100,000 households. It will also develop climate-resilient markets and supply chains to incentivise investments in forests, increase the capacity of communities to renew and sustainably manage forests and agroforestry resources, and support smallholder farmers to adopt climate-resilient agriculture.

Kayonza Irrigation and Integrated Watershed Management Project (KIIWP2)
The goal of KIIWP is to contribute to poverty reduction in the drought-prone Eastern Province of Rwanda. We do this by improving food security and the income of rural households on a sustainable basis and by building the climate resilience of targeted groups.

We develop farming as a business, facilitate market linkages, and enhance access to finance. Cordaid and the International Fund for Agricultural Development are co-financing this five-year project.

Jya Mbere: Access to Finance and Business Development 
The Socio-Economic Inclusion of Refugees and Host Communities in Rwanda Project (Jya Mbere) is a project financed by the World Bank through an agreement with the Republic of Rwanda.  

The project contributes to the ongoing shift from a humanitarian to a long-term, government-led developmental response including refugees and host communities. 

Cordaid is building the capacity of enterprises and cooperatives of refugees to start and grow their business projects. We also enhance the capacity of the existing network of business development advisers who are responsible for the support of local initiatives by linking them with funding from the project and other sources, as well as by providing them assistance with marketing and bookkeeping.

Strengthening Agricultural Resilience through Learning and Innovation (STARLIT) 
We have been implementing the STARLIT project in Rwanda and Kenya since January 2022. STARLIT aims to strengthen the resilience of smallholder farmers in the context of prolonged disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

STARLIT is an 18-month project and targets 2,800 smallholder farmers in the maize value chain in Rwanda and Kenya, of which 45% are women.

To strengthen farmers’ resilience, we focus on four components: access to agricultural mechanisation, access to finance, access to digital services, and South-South knowledge exchange.  

Rwanda Dairy Development Project
The overall goal of the Rwanda Dairy Development Project is to contribute to economic growth and improve the livelihoods of resource-poor rural households focusing on food security, nutrition and the empowerment of women and youth in a sustainable and climate-resilient value chain.

Cordaid is making it more attractive for savings and credit cooperatives and microfinance institutes to finance the dairy value chain. We enable them to develop and deliver adapted financial products (savings, loans, payments) targeting small dairy farmers and small enterprises.

This is a one-year project with possibilities of extension. It is financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development. 

Sustainable Market Alliance and Assets Creation for Resilient Communities and Gender Transformation (SMART)
The World Food Programme and Cordaid have had an ongoing collaboration since 2016 to link financial service providers to producer organisations for finance in the value chain.

The overall goal of the project is to improve smallholder farmers’ access to inputs, markets, and equipment across 75 cooperatives of mainly women.

Under the same collaboration, Plusplus led a crowdfunding initiative to attract more funding for microfinance institutions.  

PRISM 
The Partnership for Resilient and Inclusive Small Livestock Market (PRISM) is a project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources implemented under the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board. 

The three-year partnership supports technical assistance to financial institutions and access to finance for smallholder livestock farmers.

ReGenerate Rwanda
The goal of ReGenerate Rwanda is to sustainably increase the income of 30,000 women, youth, and men in western and southern Rwanda. Using a market systems development approach, this five-year programme aims to identify, catalyse, and scale up systemic solutions to reduce poverty, advance gender equality, regenerate the environment, and increase resilience.

The project is funded by International Fund for Agricultural Developmentand led by TechnoServe in partnership with Cordaid. 

WHERE WE WORK IN RWANDA

In the western and southern provinces, we support financial institutions by developing innovative, efficient and affordable digital credit platforms to support microfinance institutions in implementing an affordable and effective loan management system.

In the eastern part of the country, Cordaid is implementing a climate adaptation programme to promote community-led strategies for building climate-resilient ecosystems.

PARTNERS AND DONORS

In Rwanda, Cordaid works with both national and international partners, including MINAGRI, RAB, MoE, NAEB, RFA, RCCDN, RICEM, AMIR, IUCN, Enabel, World Vision, ICRAF, Evergreen, Ignite, Hollande Greentech, Simbuka, Chomoka, and VIAMO.

Our recent donors include, among others, WFP, IFAD, Mastercard Foundation, Achmea Foundation, Rabo Foundation, Green Climate Fund, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, BRD, TechnoServe, SIDA (Swedish International Development), and the World Bank. 

CONTACT

Address
Golden Plaza, 1st floor,
KG 546 st 1
P.O. Box 5261
Kigali
Rwanda

The Rwanda office is part of our East and South Africa Cluster.

Cluster Director
Heleen van der Beek
Email: [email protected]

Country Manager
Patrick Birasa
Email: [email protected]

Follow Cordaid Rwanda
Twitter

Follow Cordaid East and South Africa
Twitter
LinkedIn