Sustainable economic development is one of the three priority areas of the German Development Cooperation in Rwanda. The DED initiated its contribution to this field in cooperation with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in 2004. The joint programme’s main objectives are the improvement of economic capacities of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as the enhancement of income generating activities. Here, the programme wants to support efforts outside the agricultural sector, involving the poorest members of Rwandan society. The DED works in two components of the programme, namely “Private Sector Promotion” and “Support to Vocational and Technical Education Systems”.

Private Sector Promotion

The DED contributes with two Technical Assistants to this first programme component. One expert is based at the newly created Rwanda Development Board (RDB), and supports the unit for “entrepreneurship development and incubation” in its efforts to establish a sub-unit for product quality and product innovation in the food sector.

The second DED expert works with the Private Sector Federation (PSF) in the field of Private-Public-Partnerships (PPP). The Technical Assistant’s main task is to support the Federation in identifying potential partner organizations for PPP-projects, and to subsequently supervise the implementation processes.

According to the DED’s philosophy, PPP-projects should support initiatives that possess an evident social development component. If a potential private partner carries at least 50% of the necessary costs, the DED may decide to engage as public partner in the cooperation. The two main criteria for DED-collaboration are that a given PPP-project enhances the national Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS, see column on the right hand side) and that no competitive advantages are created through the project. PPP activities in Rwanda wish to particularly support potential partners in the rural areas, as their income possibilities are dire and an improvement of living conditions is often urgently needed.

Support to Vocational and Technical Education Systems

DED activities in the second programme component aim at strengthening vocational education as well as human resource development in all areas. The rationale behind this engagement is the inter-linkage of qualitative improvement of vocational training with the creation of new jobs. The German engagement is highly appreciated by its partners, not least because Germany as a donor contributes significantly to this often neglected sector.

At present, four DED Technical Assistants work in the vocational training sector. They consult their Rwandan partners for instance on improving training curricula as well as on finding entry points for private sector contributions in education systems. A major improvement consists for example in comprehensive training for trainers and the orientation of vocational training curricula towards existing demands on the Rwandan job market.