In Rwanda, UNDP has been working as a key development partner of choice since 1977, to achieve sustainable human development in economic, social and environmental fronts. Working closely with the Government, civil society, the private sector and communities, UNDP aims to eradicate extreme poverty, and reduce inequalities and exclusion to protect both people and the planet.

Rwanda is among eight pilot countries selected in January 2007 to implement the One UN Reform , which enables the UN System to provide a more effective and coherent response to the needs of the Government of Rwanda and its Development Partners. As part of the UN Country Team, UNDP works with other sister agencies to implement the “One UN – Delivering as One” process.

UNDP-Rwanda’s programmes and activities, respond to challenges facing the country achieve its short and long term development goals, be it national initiative or international agreements. These include, among others, EDPRS (Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy), Vision 2020, and SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). Our assistance framework is guided by the United Nations Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP) 2013-2018, which is aligned with the priorities of the Government of Rwanda, as identified in the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) and the Vision 2020 of Rwanda.

The promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women is central to the mandate of UNDP and intrinsic to its development approach. 

In Rwanda, UNDP supports the empowerment of women and girls through all its programmes and projects. Gender is mainstreamed in the Office’s annual integrated work plan and in the country programme document.

UNDP also undertakes rigorous social and environmental screening of all projects. This process includes screening for gender parameters to ensure the full integration of gender sensitive approaches and results at every phase of programming.  The objective is to guarantee that women as well as men in Rwanda benefit in equitable, concrete and tangible ways from the programmes UNDP supports.

UNDP also encourages and provides technical assistance to our National Implementing Partners to adopt Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting.

What do we want to accomplish?

UNDP works in nearly 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. Those priorities are part of the globally adopted 2030 Agenda or SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). We help countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results.

The DaO System does not merge together all UN agencies operating in Rwanda in a single entity. Instead, all UN agencies work closely and jointly to ensure that operations are guided by strategic development objectives. Under the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) , the shared programming process maximizes the benefits of using agency-specific skills, individual agency’s comparative advantages and mandates.

Within the framework of Delivering as One UN in Rwanda, UNDP works closely with the Government, as well as with development partners and civil society, and all other UN agencies operating in the country in order to build institutional capacity and effect sustainable development. UNDP in Rwanda acts as the seat of the Resident Coordinator and performs an important coordinating role with all other UN agencies including the World Bank and the IMF.

The objective of this reform is to improve the impact, coherence, efficiency, and positioning of the UN System at country-level to better assist the Rwanda in achieving the MDGs, and to guide it to the fulfillment of the Vision 2020. The UN in Rwanda is now “results-driven” rather than “funding-driven”.

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