TITLE:
The Challenges and Examination of New Programme Ubudehe 2020 in Rwanda
AUTHORS:
Havugimana Alexis
KEYWORDS:
Ubudehe, Challenges, EDPRS, VISION 2020, Population, New Programme, Rwanda and Examination
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.13 No.5,
May
8,
2023
ABSTRACT: Ubudehe is a Rwandan practice and a cultural value of mutual assistance
among people living in the same area in order to overcome or solve their socio-economic
problems. In the past, Ubudehe was pre-occupied in agricultural activities to
ensure timely agricultural operations for food security purposes. As a form of
social capital, Ubudehe involved trust and reciprocity. The practice of Ubudehe in the traditional context was a mechanism of
bringing together the community, sharing the burden of problem solving, maintaining social norms, social
cohesion and ensuring social control among communities living together. The main pillars of
social protection consist of eradication of extreme poverty and ensuring
prosperity and wellbeing for everyone, but all these cannot be achieved without
a fundamental baseline that is based on poverty levels amongst Rwandan
population. The Ubudehe categorization was first established by the Government
of Rwanda in 2000 as part of the strategies to address poverty reduction and
recently these categories were revised from four numerical naming to five
letters (A, B, C, D, E). The
discussion with a representative of the Local Administrative Development
Entities (LODA) was focusing on putting clear distinctions between the new
Ubudehe categories and the previous ones as well as tacking the issue of new
aspects and what the general public should expect from the new categorization. At
the end of year 2020, all
people in Rwandan are giving the main information with categorization in new
ubudehe programme 2020. The local government leadership with Loda helps the people to get all
information in collaboration LODA and
MINALOC. The challenges demonstrate how a process of community
consultation and participation is able to identify and rank community members
according to “social
poverty”,
drawing on the Ubudehe tradition which is considered a strength of Rwanda’s
social fabric. This article
highlights 5 challenges related to new categories differentiations and
comparison between the old ubudehe with new ubudehe program: 1) The system used to
identify the people from one category refers to the documentation riche and
richest poor and non-power ranking and the barriers of lacking information from
villages and the population system also can be the barriers; 2) We need to know the
difference between the new ubudehe programme and old ubudehe program; 3) Categorization based on
the salaries also is a challenge; 4) The same features characterize as old ubudehe programme and all of people do not have a category; 5) No Training for implantation, fail system
computerization and no regularly public debates and private with overall
objective. Data generated through of 385 interviews were conducted during May 2022
to October 2022 by research survey group at Musanze District with 15 Sectors. On impact, 95% of the
sample confirms that their incomes had improved; within that, about 71% consider that their income
had doubled and 22% consider that their income had more than tripled. In
addition, unplanned and unintended changes occurred through Ubudehe, as
actually noticed in the sample of villages with the creation of 4805 temporary
or more long-term jobs, through the construction of classrooms, health centres,
roads and bridges, mills, electricity and water infrastructures, as well as the
creation of radical terraces. The radical terraces make it possible to fight
against erosion, which is important in Rwanda
because of strong frequent rains on steeply sloping grounds. A notable
cultural change has also been witnessed. Currently, under the oversight of the Ministry of
Local Government (MINALOC), Ubudehe program is managed by the Local
Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA) through District and Sector
administration.