Today on 24th September 2018 at Lemigo Hotel, there was held a one day workshop on learning and experience sharing on graduation from poverty.  Convened by the Ministry of Government (MINALOC), the workshop is line with the Strengthening Social Protection project (SSPP) funded by the World Bank, a project which is intended “to improve the effectiveness of Rwanda’s social protection system, notably the flagship Vision 2020 Umurenge Program (VUP) for targeted vulnerable groups”. Participatory organs to the workshop include social protections implementing agencies and supporters namely the Local Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA), the World Bank (WB), Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN), Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI), Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Gender and family Promotion (MIGEPROF), National Early Childhood Development Programme (NECDP), National Children Council (NCC), National Council of People with Disabilities (NCPD), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Department for International Development (DFID), Concern Worldwide, Care International, and Word Vision. While officiating the workshop, Mrs. INGABIRE Assumpta, Permanent Secretary at MINALOC, thanked participants for their presence and their proved commitment to support Government efforts in graduation from extreme poverty. “This workshop will bring insights into our work towards self-resilient economy”, she stated. She recalled the assertion made by HE Paul KAGAME, the President of the Republic of Rwanda, saying that “Beyond extreme poverty, the journey continues to prosperity”.  Referring to available statistical data on household profiling undertaken by LODA in 2018, Mr. SIBOMANA Saidi, Division Manager in charge of Local Development Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation,  revealed that 35% of people living in poverty have not been yet reached by any government support. To address this challenge, the GoR has embarked on a new approach and came up with a multi-sectorial plan to undertake joint actions by different stakeholders which shall lead to the eradication of extreme poverty as envisaged by EDPRS2 and Vision 2020. To achieve this target in a holistic and harmonized way, the implication of development partners, national and international NGOs remains paramount. To break the ice, participants at the workshop exchanged on a number of topics including the following: Lessons learnt from Minimum Package for Graduation as part of VUP, Guidelines for VUP skills training scheme, Lessons learnt from Concern Worldwide Graduation pilot, Lessons leant from ‘Strengthening the impact of VUP – Public Works and beneficiaries’ graduation out of poverty’ project. Concerning lessons learnt from MPG routine monitoring and in line with policy commitments relating to supporting sustainable graduation from extreme poverty in order to deliver to Vision 2020 targets and EDPRS 2, Division Manager in charge of Social Protection at LODA, Mr. GATSINZI Justine highlighted out that:

• A more holistic approach is desirable to create a much more enabling environment;
• Strengthening Coordination across sectors is critical;
• Diversification of Asset transfers is a felt need;
• Linking beneficiary needs and potentials with socio-economic data from Household profiles can add value;
• Harmonization of case worker mechanism is deemed necessary for better time use and ease referrals;
• Strong monitoring, and responsiveness of MEIS is vital; and
• Need for MPG process evaluation to inform scale and align with pipeline interventions/strategies such as multi-sectoral coordination, profiling.

All in all, the workshop exchange and inputs focused on more harmonized, efficient and effective social protections interventions by all stakeholders towards poverty free Rwanda.