Member's Documents
Rwanda Country Strategy and Programme Evaluation
Published by: Independent Office of Evaluation, International Fund for Agricultural Development
During the evaluation period, the pace of poverty reduction slowed and pressure on scarce land resources increased. The reasons were a growing rural population and greater exposure to the effects of climate change.
The CSPE found that the country programme was closely aligned with the Government’s priorities. It leveraged IFAD’s comparative advantage in helping smallholders enhance productivity and access markets by investing in livestock, agricultural export and irrigation. This contributed to improving smallholder producers’ income and food security. IFAD-supported initiatives also paid increased attention to the adverse effects of climate change.
Among the challenges noted by the evaluation, the improvements in agricultural productivity will decline over time, unless market linkages are bolstered and the goods produced meet the relevant quality standards. In addition, the country programme did not meet the targets set for youth outreach. Furthermore, although tackling malnutrition was a priority, there were no deliberate efforts to promote dietary diversity.
Moving forward, the CSPE recommends, among other things, capitalizing on IFAD’s comparative advantage by placing greater emphasis on markets and private initiatives. Future interventions should prioritize environmental and natural resource management, climate change, malnutrition reduction and youth inclusion.
