USAID/OTI Program Summary Rwanda: November 2000
Continued insecurity in the northwest of Rwanda increased throughout 1998 as Hutu rebel groups trying to overthrow the Rwandan government launched cross-border attacks from bases within neighboring countries. Rebel attacks and harassment within Rwanda drove almost 680,000 people from their homes and sources of food.
With a program that began in 1995, OTI played a critical role in Rwanda by facilitating peace and reconciliation and by advancing the post-genocidal recovery process. OTI addressed the social justice concerns of surviving Rwandans, promoted self-help activities identified by rural women's associations, and increased citizen participation in local government decision-making.
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| Rwandan participants in the Women in Transition Program. |
In three years, under the Women in Transition Program (WIT), OTI made a total of 1,800 grants to women's associations in 11 out of 12 provinces to support self-help activities in areas such as agriculture, livestock, income generation, and shelter. These grants directly assisted 40,922 women association members, including those in isolated and insecure areas. In northwest Rwanda's Gisenyi Prefect, where OTI staff had to be accompanied by military escort on field visits, OTI helped women's groups restart potato production, one of their staple crops.
According to an evaluation of the program, WIT proved effective at strengthening the organizational capacities of different communities, responding to local power dynamics, identifying effective community leaders and workers, and increasing a community's willingness to invest in the peace process. OTI found that many women, especially heads of households that have benefited from WIT's assistance, are now able to make their own financial decisions and are no longer dependent on external aid.
During 1999, the WIT Program worked closely with the Ministry of Gender and Women's Development to support the creation of Women's Communal Funds (WCF). These funds are managed by elected representatives from each commune and are designed to support political decentralization efforts.
"By this letter, we want to thank WIT for the sincere love that you have shown to our women. Mamas of Rwerere were close to death when you first arrived. Now women, widows, and their orphans sing a song to praise WIT. This letter is a small nothing, but it means a lot because it comes from the depths of our hearts."
— From a letter handed to the OTI team by a woman at the end of the team's visit to Gisenyi, Rwerere, commune.
"...the Women in Transition Program has played a key part in Rwanda's reconciliation process."
— U.S. Ambassador Robert E. Gribbin's farewell address in December 1998 |
OTI also managed an activity that disseminated information on the International War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). OTI's grantee was the only news organization that covered the Rwanda Tribunal in English, the language spoken by many Tutsis, on a daily basis. All of the original ICTR–related articles and analysis pieces were carried by Africa News Service and Africa News Online, which distributed them to more than 50 newspapers around Africa.
In December 1999, OTI exited its Rwanda program and handed off activities to the USAID Mission.
OTI's partners in Rwanda included the USAID Mission, United States Information Agency, the Government of Rwanda, the National Security Council, Internews, the International Rescue Committee, the U.S. Department of State, and Interagency Taskforces on the Great Lakes Justice Initiative, the Greater Horn of Africa Initiative, and Preventing Genocide.
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