In late 2004, UNCDF launched a new programme in Rwanda to promote sustainable local development and improve access to basic infrastructure and services. The $7.25 million programme, called Support to Community Development Project in Byumba, is supported by the Belgian Ministry for Cooperation and Development, the UN Development Programme and the Government of Rwanda.

Thanks to a ministerial decree from Armand De Decker, Minister of Cooperation and Development, the Belgian Survival Fund provided UNCDF with a trust fund of US$3.75 million. UNCDF, UNDP and the Government of Rwanda each contributed $2 million, $900,000 and $600,000 each, respectively. The project will be monitored by the Ministry of Local Administration and its funds will be managed by the new 'Common Development Fund', an agency created to channel financial resources to local governments within the context of democratic decentralization.

The five-year project will benefit a population of about 700,000 people in the eight rural districts and urban municipality of Byumba Province. Its objective is to promote a sustainable local development and to improve the access of the poor to basic infrastructure and social services, such as water, education and health. Institutional development and capacity building are at the heart of the project. The project's technical support unit will assist local elected authorities, community organizations, local NGOs and the private sector to participate in local planning processes and the implementation of local development initiatives that reduce local poverty.

Through the project, grass-roots organizations at the level of 'cells' (groups of close families) and of 'sectors' (groups of cells) will participate in the planning, co-financing, implementing, and monitoring specific initiatives that deliver needed infrastructure and services. These initiatives will be financed by local governments, through the use of a 'local development fund' provided by the project.

The project also has a strong decentralized natural resource management component, including support to the management, protection and rehabilitation of natural resources (land, forests, soils), through the intensive use of local labor. UNCDF experience has found that this approach is effective in reducing the vulnerability of rural households and improving food security in ecologically fragile areas.

It is anticipated that the project will contribute in a meaningful and substantive way to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in a country which has seriously been hurt by civil unrest and genocide. Most importantly, the support is located in a rural province that is particularly vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity.

For more detailed information on UNCDF Programmes in Rwanda, please visit the project specific documents, or visit the menu on the left.