MicroStory: Connecting to Markets in Rwanda

Caption: Members of the Mwendo village expanding the road after a village meeting.

Last September, the Government of Rwanda, World Bank, the Government of Japan, UK-based charity Comic Relief, and Spark Microgrants officially launched the $6 million Advancing Citizen Engagement (ACE) Project. Because the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic fall disproportionately on rural communities, the ACE Project specifically supports small businesses in rural areas to improve livelihoods. It will ultimately reach around 76,000 people across almost 250 villages.

Mwendo village is one such community. Located in the Busengo sector of Gakenke district, the people of Mwendo began working with Spark last summer, along with an initial group of 37 other villages. In October, they began holding their first village meetings, where community members discussed shared challenges and resources.

“This is the first shared activity we did ourselves together, without outside leadership. We’re excited to achieve more by working together.”

During the resource mapping exercise, when villagers document and discuss access to public and shared resources, community members flagged a stubborn travel issue. Although Mwendo is close to a nearby road, it narrows before reaching the village. For residents of the village of 140 homes, this means they can’t transport goods by car and face constraints accessing markets. Cars traveling to and from Mwendo must stop at the nearest neighboring village, where goods are unloaded and carried more than two miles to the village.

After this meeting, Mwendo village members agreed to expand the road so that cars can reach their community directly. For the past five months, after their weekly project meeting, residents spend an hour or two working together on the road. So far, they have widened 1.5 km of road, with another 2km to go.

One village member said, “This is the first shared activity we did ourselves together, without outside leadership. We’re excited to achieve more by working together.”

In addition to reaching 249 rural poor villages with small grants, the ACE Project also provides training and support to government officials at the national and local levels on how to engage citizens in local development planning. Working in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government, this practical experience will inform a new national framework on participatory village planning. By strengthening communication between government and community members, the project will also generate welfare benefits through increased uptake of government social protection programs by the rural poor.