Exploring the Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfer Programme on Cognitive and Relational Well-Being A Study of Female Beneficiaries in Rwanda

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Bethan Kell

M.Sc. International Development Studies

Graduate School of Social Sciences

University of Amsterdam

Cover Photo: View over Northern Rwanda, whilst collecting baseline survey data (February 2020)

Exploring the Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfer

Programme on Cognitive and Relational Well-Being

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Master’s Thesis

Exploring the Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfer Programme

on Cognitive and Relational Well-Being

A Study of Ultra-Poor Female Beneficiaries in Rwanda.

In collaboration with

Name: Bethan Kell

Student Number: 12651184

Email: bethan_hollie@hotmail.com

Course: Master of Science in International Development Studies Supervisor: Nicky Pouw

Second Reader: Josh Maiyo Date: 19th_{June 2020}

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Abstract

Unconditional cash transfers as a form of development aid have shown to have positive impacts on a person’s material and physical health. However, there is a clear knowledge gap on whether unconditional cash transfers significantly improve a person’s psychological health. This research aims to analyse the effects of unconditional cash transfers on relational and cognitive well-being of beneficiaries in Rwanda. The Capabilities Approach and Well-Being Approach are used to explore how the combination of unconditional cash transfers and weekly skills training build economic capabilities and contribute to cognitive and relational well-being. This study uses a mixed method approach including focus group discussions and semi-structured in-depth interviews, alongside secondary baseline data.

This research finds that beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries consider material well-being to be the most important well-being dimension, along with family, kinship and community. In regard to relational well-being the findings show that the marital relationships of

beneficiaries improved as they were able to provide a stable income which lessons tensions in the household related to poverty. Loneliness was curbed through the project as beneficiaries formed friendships with other beneficiaries and felt able to share their problems with other members and project staff. Beneficiaries of the project felt more included in society because they felt unashamed to attend social events. However, the project also had negative

community spill over effects. Friends and community members experienced high levels feeling of jealousy towards beneficiaries. Cognitive well-being improved as beneficiaries’ levels of happiness increased. Beneficiaries were able to develop high levels of self-belief and thus created the capacity to develop aspirational hopes and dreams for themselves and their family. Financial goals included; buying land, investing in more animals and educating kids. Controversially, many beneficiaries believed they were not completely satisfied with their life as they still had the desire to grow and achieve more personally and for their family and business. Despite building economic capabilities uncertainty and worry was still felt for the future by beneficiaries in the project.

Key words

Unconditional cash transfers Economic capabilities Cognitive well-being Relational well-being Trade-offs

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List of Figures, Tables and Images

Figures

Figure 1 Three Dimensions of Well-Being 20

Figure 2 Conceptual Scheme 26

Figure 3 Flag of Rwanda 39

Figure 4 Rwanda's Social Gender Index Scores 42 Figure 5 Map of Northern Province Rwanda 44 Figure 6 Times in a Month Household Went Without Food 50

Figure 7 Times in a Month Household Went Without Water 50 Figure 8 Times in a Month HH Went Without Cooking Fuel 50 Figure 9 Times in a Month HH Went Without Regular Income 50 Figure 10 Graduation Pillars Applied to 100WEEKS, Rwanda 53

Figure 11 Household Decision Making 61

Figure 12 Well-Being in Rwandan Women 63

Figure 13 Adaptation to Conceptual Scheme 71

Figure 14 Visual Representation Relational Well-Being 74 Figure 15 Visual Representation Cognitive Well-Being Network 83

Figure 16 Revised Conceptual Scheme 89

Tables

Table 1 Ubudehe Categorisation 40

Table 2 Summary of SIGI Categories 42

Table 3 School Attendance of 100WEEKS beneficiaries 47

Table 4Material of Walls 49

Table 5 Material of Internal Walls 49

Table 6 Material External Walls 49

Table 7 Frequency of Beneficiaries Household Members 51 Table 8 Occupations of Beneficiaries at Baseline 54 Table 9 Attitude Towards Other Cognitive Emotions 79 Table 10 Ranking in Importance of Hopes and Dreams 82

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Table 12 Summary of Relational Well-Being between Beneficiaries and Non-Beneficiaries 105 Table 14 Summary of Relational Well-Being between Beneficiaries and Non-Beneficiaries 106

Images

Image 1 Picture Taken During Focus Group Discussions 31 Image 2 Picture Taken During Baseline Data Collection 31 Inage 2 Picture Taken During Baseline of Beneficiary’s Home 49

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List of Abbreviations

B Beneficiary

BD Baseline Data

BRAC Building Resources Across Communities

CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women

CES-D Centre for Epidemiology Studies Depression Scale

CT Cash Transfers

DRC Democratic Republic of Congo

FGD Focus Group Discussion

IC Informal Conversation

NB Non-Beneficiary

NGO Non-Governmental Organisation

NISR National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda

RPF Rwandan Patriotic Front

RWF Rwandan Franc

TUP Targeting the Ultra-Poor

UCT Unconditional Cash Transfers

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Acknowledgements

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who assisted me the process of writing this thesis.

Firstly, to all the respondents, thank you for taking the time to be involved in this study. I really appreciated your involvement and openness.

Secondly, to 100WEEKS, thank you for being such a great organisation to work alongside. To Jeroen and Gitte, you have a very successful and inspiring organisation. Yvonne, thank you for being there the whole way, I always enjoyed our weekly phone conversations and you have always been there for the odd message or query. Gervais and Fabrice, I could not have asked for a greater pair to be in the field with. Thank you so much for letting me tag along to so many meetings and for always helping assist me in my mobilisation. And to all the enumerators for helping me, I enjoyed spending my field work experience with you all and getting to know each and every one of you.

Thirdly, to the staff at the University of Amsterdam, thank you for the assistance during the Masters. A special thank you to my supervisor Nicky Pouw, who provided me with

invaluable guidance throughout, I appreciated it a lot.

Fourthly, Anika thank you for co-supervising and providing amazing insights.

Last, but certainly not least thank you to all my wonderful master’s friends, the days in the library felt endless but we got through it in the end!

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1 Introduction

1.1 The Problem

Inequality in the world has been worryingly widening for the last decade, the rich have acquired an exponential amount of wealth and consequently half of the world’s population have been living on less than $5.50 a day (World Bank, 2018). Opportunities for people living in poverty have been stripped and power given to the wealthy. In addition to this, our current power fuelled system has allowed the rich to need minimal effort making money, whilst those living at the bottom are being exploited. Those who are living in poverty need to put in countless working hours for pitiful wages (Oxfam, 2020). Alongside this the engrained societal system has been built on years of sexism, thus women continually find themselves at the bottom of the economic and structural food chain, often in situations of oppression and systematic violence (ibid.) To highlight this Oxfam (2020) found that “the richest 22 men in the world own more wealth than all the women in Africa” (p. 9).

Recently large sums of money and energy have been commissioned to try and target ultra-poor women (Altaf, 2019). One source of development aid which has become increasingly popular as a poverty reduction tool for the poorest in society are unconditional cash transfers (UCT) (Haushofer and Shapiro, 2013). UCTs are small stipends given directly to people on either a weekly or monthly basis. UCTs unlike cash transfers (CT) do not have any pre-determined conditions to allocate money. Thus UCTs can be seen as one of the few poverty reduction tools which give complete agency to the beneficiary. Studies have hailed UCTs as a successful poverty reduction tool. A study by Haushofer and Shapiro (2013) found that’s UCTs in Kenya have allowed households to; buy and build assets (39% over the amount transferred), increase consumption (creating variation in the food eaten and increasing nutrition levels), reduce hunger (increasing food consumption by 20%) and gain revenue (from re-investment and livestock). Whilst these results show significant improvements in a beneficiaries livelihood (the means of securing necessities) they do not necessarily show a significant improvement in a beneficiaries life-satisfaction. Psychological well-being of the beneficiary is often under-exposed and under-highlighted in research, many UCT

programmes gloss over this important concept when analysing the effectiveness of UCT interventions.

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Research has shown that ultra-poor women have not been able to access money to pay attention to their well-being, they have not invested in education, social networks, healthcare and mental well-being (Altaf, 2019). Coupled with this ultra-poor women have spent

countless years feeling inferior, low in self-belief and have self-defeating thoughts (ibid.). Thus a significant amount of research needs to be under-taken to understand whether UCT programmes can help alleviate women from this state of ill-being. Research has shown that once women enter this state of ill-being the negative emotions which have been internalised can stay with the person even after their economic wealth increases (Rojas, 2008). Thus, ultra-poor people experience an inferiority complex even when they become financially better-off.

This research aims to deepen understanding on the psychological ill-being that derives from being ultra-poor and proposes a more comprehensive approach when analysing how UCTs have been effective. The research aims to uncover the individual and structural barriers to achieving psychological well-being in the context of unconditional cash transfers in Rwanda. Through thorough analysis this research highlights the key positive and negative well-being outcomes experienced by beneficiaries.

1.2 Relevance

1.2.1 Practical Relevance

Poverty reduction tools need to be scrutinized and exposed when they fail to provide for the poorest in society. Targeting models which try to specifically target the ultra-poor have not been tested (Alviar et al., 2010). Existing models have outlined the need for targeting tools to still rely on cost considerations and community satisfaction (BRAC, 2019) and often uses local knowledge as a source of poverty indication. Local knowledge whilst not bounded by a strict criteria of eligibility can often result in nepotism and elite capture (Altaf, 2019). As a result it is pertinent to analyse whether UCTs end up reaching the poorest in society. Not only do poverty reduction tools need to be analysed to see if they reach the poorest category of people they also need to be analysed to see whether there are any unintended consequences arising. Usually these stem from unobservable mechanisms within gender, culture and context. For example for rural Bangladeshi women income-generating

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opportunities are restricted by patriarchy (Cain, Khanam, and Nahar, 1979), there are religious norms known as ‘purdah’, ‘purdah’ is a social construct that dictates the domestic sphere, this has been resulted in women having lack of control over money (ibid.). When women are in charge of finance, they need to overcome these gender norms, the pressure of this could negatively affect women’s well-being (Goetz and Gupta, 1996). UCTs have been implemented in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda by Give Directly. In a study by Egger et al. (2019) an index of female empowerment showed that empowerment did not significantly change between recipient and non-recipient household in Kenya. Thus, women

empowerment can be discouraged due to many patriarchal ideologies in developing countries. Currently, there is no existing literature looking at the psychological effects on UCT programmes in Rwanda. This research aims to look into the outcome of a UCT programme within this area of context.

1.2.2 Academic Relevance

Well-being is encompassed within the Capabilities Approach. Robeyn’s (2017) analysis on the wellbeing, freedom and social justice asserts that “the capability approach is clearly… involved in offering an account of well-being” (p. 118). However, critical writers have pointed out that within the Capability Approach, well-being has become operationalised as purely ‘choice’ (DesGasper, 2000). Simplifying well-being risks running the discourse whereby choice is never considered oppressive (ibid.) In the instance of the capabilities approach the increase of capabilities and choice does not account for overworking, stress and consequent negative health effects (DesGasper, 2002). Thus incorporating a well-being approach to this research provides a holistic understanding to build upon when considering the effectiveness of UCTs.

This thesis utilises a well-being approach in order to address the gap in academic literature that fails to provide substantial qualitative accounts of beneficiaries themselves. Previous studies have predominantly looked at quantitative results. Happiness has been analysed through the evaluation of cortisol levels (Haushofer and Shapiro, 2016) and depression on the Centre for Epidemiology Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) (Kilburn et al., 2016: 2018, Angeles et al., 2019). Qualitative research highlights the meanings participants give to concepts within research and allows for life experiences to be determined which explain many of the decisions made when choosing between well-being trade-offs. Thus this thesis

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utilises the Multi-Dimensional Human Well-Being Approach (Pouw & McGregor, 2014). This approach has three dimensions (material, relation and cognitive), in addition to this it incorporates three trade-offs, trade-off between dimensions, trade-offs between the individual and collective (household, family, friends & community) and trade-offs over time (past, present and future) (ibid.)

1.3 Research Approach

To guide this thesis the following research question has been developed: How do

Unconditional Cash Transfer Loans combined with skills training lead to economic capabilities and contribute to cognitive and relational well-being of ultra-poor women in North West Rwanda? The focus of this research is on the beneficiaries who are currently

receiving UCTs. A mixed-method approach will be utilised for this thesis: qualitative

methods, such as focus group discussions and interviews, alongside supplementary secondary data: baseline survey data provided by the organisation.

1.4 Outline of Thesis

The central research question is explored in the following seven chapters. Chapter 2 provides a literature review providing an overall picture of existing UCT programmes and explains the theoretical framework. The theoretical framework is based on the combination of Sen’s Capabilities Approach (Sen, 1985) and the Wellbeing Approach (Pouw and McGregor, 2014). Chapter 3 outlines the research sub-questions, introduces the method and methodology of the research and explains the data analysis of a mixed method approach. In Chapter 4 the essential contextual background of Rwanda is presented including the chosen target location of Musanze and the surrounding districts. Chapter 5 presents the research findings of the targeting strategy in aiming to reach the poorest in society, paying close attention to living conditions and consumption of beneficiaries. This chapter also analyses the economic capabilities built up throughout the project. Chapter 6 connects economic capabilities with the concept of well-being in Rwanda. Chapter 7 aims to isolate relational well-being and explores the relationship between economic capabilities and cognitive dimensions, focusing on key relationships and inclusion within society. Chapter 8 aims to isolate relational well-being and aims to understand the relationship between economic capabilities and cognitive well-being on depression, happiness and life satisfaction. Finally, chapter 9 answers the

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research question, analysing all well-being dimensions and trade-offs. This section provides reflections on the theory, research methodology and conceptual scheme. This chapter also outlines policy recommendations for key agents associated with the thesis. Following this the chapter outlines suggestions for further research on the topic.

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2 Theoretical Framework

2.1 Introduction

This chapter introduces the theoretical framework and outlines the underlying theories of the research. The theoretical framework aims to analyse well-being by looking at concepts of people, poverty and social protection. Section 2.2 explains the category of ultra-poor people as a distinct category from poor people. It outlines previous researchers definitions of this category and draws on the capability approach to assess ‘functioning’s’ and ‘freedoms’ of the ultra-poor. The next section, section 2.3, aims to highlight the difficulty and absence of development aid reaching the poorest category within society. This section also provides a current literature review of existing cash transfers programmes which have specifically targeted the ultra-poor. Section 2.4 introduces the Multidimension Human Well-Being Approach, another key underlying theory which the research is based on. The Well-Being Approach first introduced by McGregor and Pouw (2014) argues that there are three

individual but overlapping dimensions of well-being. Section 2.5 outlines key concepts and breaks down these concepts into dimensions, defining each dimension to provide clarity for further chapters. Finally, section 2.7 concludes with the conceptual scheme outlining the journey from receiving UCTs to the development of economic capabilities and how this translates into well-being dimensions.

2.2 What Does it Mean to be ‘Ultra-Poor’, the Capability Approach?

This section explains how the capability approach distinguishes the ‘ultra-poor’ from the ‘poor’. This section highlights the barrier of social exclusion which prevents the ultra-poor from being able to have the ‘functioning’s’ and the freedom to live the standard of life they desire (Sen, 1999a).

The phrase ‘ultra-poor’ was first given attention by Lipton (1983). Lipton differentiated between the poor and ultra-poor and expressed the need for these to be recognised as

different groups within society. Lipton (1988) measured the difference in the two categories in terms of food, income and assets. It has been shown that people fall into an ‘ultra-poor’ state for a multiplicity of individual reasons e.g. death of a family member, ill-ness, natural disaster etc. (Narayan et al., 2009). In order to understand this type of poverty, we need to view poverty as a multi-dimensional approach. The multi-dimensional poverty approach

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encompasses various deprivations people experience and focuses on an individual’s capability to function within society (Sen, 1999b). Sen argues that there is not a set list of basic capabilities that allow people to survive and climb out of poverty as many factors such as agency, reason, choice and context are hugely important when selecting capabilities on an individual basis (Sen, 1993). Nussbaum (2001) tried to develop the capabilities posed by Sen into a theory to conceptualise this thought and argued that well-being is fundamental. Ibid. listed the following as central human capabilities for a ‘good’ well-being, applicable to any context and culture: life, bodily health, bodily integrity, senses, imagination and thought, emotions, practical reason, affiliation, other species, play and control over one’s environment (Nussbaum, 2001, p. 78-80).

Capabilities in essence are the hand of opportunities available for a person to have a life of freedom (Robeyns, 2017). Thus, ‘freedoms’ in a theoretical sense refer to the ways and means a person is able to live the kind of life they wish to have and value. According to Sen development should be viewed “as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy” (Sen, 1999, p.3). Sen (1999) proposed that this could be expressed in terms of five freedoms, political freedom, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency

guarantees and protective security.

Through the recognition of freedoms, it is possible to make “strong and explicit links to agency, poverty and public policy” (Hulme et al., 2001, pg. 9) these can provide a holistic view to understand the factors that categorise the ultra-poor. Lipton (1983) originally defined the ultra-poor as those who have low transformation capacity of labour into food. The ‘ultra-poor’ are seen as spending more than 80% of their income on food and have very little disposable income over food to spend on non-food products, as a result the ‘ultra-poor’ often stay landless. According to Sen (1981) the ‘ultra-poor’ are unable to provide sufficient food for a subsistent life. Ibid. suggested that the ultra-poor are in large part dependant on public or private transfer-based entitlements. Following this, Bhalla and Lapeyre (1997) introduced the concept of ‘social exclusion’ whereby poverty widens the social sphere for the poor’ and creates social deprivation and marginalisation. The difference between the ‘ultra-poor’ and ‘‘ultra-poor’ is the ability to access important networks (family, community and

voluntary organisations) (De Haan and Maxwell, 2017) . As a result of social exclusion and marginalisation the only way for ‘ultra-poor’ people to survive is by means of begging and welfare from others (Devereux, 2003). Devereux (2003) referred to the ultra-poor as a state

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of ‘destitution’. Altaf (2019) found that ultra-poor people tend to internalise the negative encounters they have experienced which leave them feeling inferior, low in confidence and undermining their own self-belief. She found that the ultra-poor either get excluded by society (even by family members) or choose to socially exclude themselves, through shame or inferiority. Altaf (2019) explained that ultra-poor people do not develop the capacity to participate in society, engage with politics and thus are unaware of aid given by development agencies. This ultimately widens the gap between ultra-poor people and the five freedoms, this exasperates as times goes on. Hulme et al. (2001) showed that in the absence of

capabilities and freedoms people can end up in a state of chronic poverty i.e. poverty lasting for longer than five years.

2.3 Literature Review on Unconditional Cash Transfer Programmes

Unconditional cash transfers can be viewed as a social protection for the ‘ultra-poor’ in society and can provide agency to function. Unconditional cash transfers in theory can be an ideal, cost effective development strategy for households with heterogeneous needs

(Haushofer and Shapiro, 2016). However, this theory is only effective if it reaches the ‘ultra-poor’. As explained in section 2.2, the ultra-poor are often excluded from society, the vast majority of development interventions cannot make their way to the ultra-poor in society because the ultra-poor cannot be heard or seen (Altaf, 2019). As a result many ‘ultra-poor’ miss out. There is also a significant lack of (intentional) targeting, which could be attributed to nepotism and elite capture, lack of transparency in why the ultra-poor have been excluded and lack of evaluation and monitoring from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government institutions (ibid). Paying attention to gender is important, research shows women spend money in a more family-friendly way, based on household consumption and spending studies (UNICEF, 2016). Women are usually brokers of nutrition, health and education status of children within the household and have been shown to smooth consumption more effectively than men (Goetz and Gupta, 1996).

When looking into successful unconditional cash implementation programmes for the ultra-poor Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC) can be considered one of the most important actors. BRAC is an unconditional cash transfer programme which provides loans to ultra-poor women in Bangladesh. It is currently one of the most holistic cash transfer

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weekly skills training to provide a human capital aspect alongside protective security. The BRAC model provides trainings which aim to build up economic capabilities such as; entrepreneurship and financial literacy (Ahmed and Chowdry, 2001). Lawson et al. (2017) stated that in comparison to poor people, people living in an ultra-poor state cannot benefit from a single instrument. Hence, an intervention needs to pay attention to not only the material aspect, but also skill training, coaching, and community based approach.

BRAC’s TUP (Targeting the Ultra-Poor) programme introduced in 2002 has been one of the most successful at reaching the poorest in Bangladesh. They use village participatory

methods and survey’s to access the poorest in society (Hulme and Moore, 2007). The TUP programmes is unique due to the combination of different types of promotional aid e.g. skill training, asset grants, stipends. TUP programmes also try to address social-political aspects of different levels within society. There are five steps to the programmes: participatory spatial maps and wealth rankings, asset transfer, stipends and cash transfers, savings and monitoring and finally trainings given through home visits. After accomplishing all of the steps

recipients are deemed ‘graduated’ from extreme poverty, this is known as the graduation approach. Over 2 million ultra-poor people have been targeted in Bangladesh as of December 2018 and out of the chosen recipients 95% achieve ‘graduation’ (BRAC, 2019).

Hulme and Moore (2007) looked at the TUP programme through a critical lens. It was shown that some particular types of ultra-poor people are not reached, these include the

economically unable, elderly, chronically ill, (AIDS) orphans and ‘adversely incorporated people’ (e.g. refugees, indigenous people and bonded labourers) (Ibid., 2007, p.12). Paying specific attention to the cash transfer stage of the TUP programme many authors have looked at the overall effectiveness on empowerment, especially within women. Bastagli et al. (2016) found that whilst cash transfers do tend to increase women’s decision-making power it can sometimes be accompanied with non-physical abuse or controlling behaviour. Cash transfers need a considerable amount of focus on context-specific gender relations and the underlying causes of gender-based inequality in order to be effective. Thus, a cash transfer should be given in such a way that it minimises intra-household tensions and helps to tackle gender barriers and norms.

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2.4 Combining the Capabilities Approach and Well-being Approach

Building on Sen’s (1985) capability approach, poverty has been considered to be an experienced state, this combines the “objective circumstances of a person and their ‘subjective’ perception of their condition” (McGregor, 2006, pg. 3) to better understand poverty. Thus, the well-being approach is needed to re-define the individual as a social human being who achieves well-being by relating to others. Well-being is determined through the quality of life, relationships and possession of things (White, 2009). In terms of development, the capabilities approach can be combined with Pouw and Mcgregor’s (2014) Well-Being Approach. The Well-Being approach branches away from traditional thought of income and welfare centred development and towards human well-being as a key

development aim. The main concept is that the market economy is a social phenomenon (Pouw, 2015) and relationships between economic agents is key to understanding how the economic sphere operates.

Pouw and McGregor (2014) conceptualise well-being into three dimensions; material,

cognitive and relational. Pouw and McGregor (2014) view the three dimensions of well-being as an overlapping Venn Diagram, where each dimension can be considered as a stand-alone dimension or as a combination of two/three dimensions (Figure 1). Thus the “realisation of quality of life can thus be assessed in an integrated and comprehensive manner by looking at the intersection” (p. 17).

Figure 1 The Three-Dimensional Approach to Well-Being.

Source: Interpretation from Pouw and McGregor (2014)

Material Well-Being

Relational Well-Being Cognitive/ Subjective

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Pouw and McGregor (2014) highlight the complexity of well-being as a concept, noting that trade-offs continuously occur. Three trade-exposed in the literature are as follows.

Individuals choose (or could be forced through poverty) different combinations of well-being dimensions, for example some people might prioritise the material aspect of well-being at the expense of their cognitive and relational well-being. Well-being decisions also depends on the “trade-offs people are willing to make on behalf of others, their relations and what they want to share as a collective” (Pouw and McGregor, 2014, p. 18). Finally, well-being can be shown to have trade-offs over time, the well-being achieved today ultimately determines the future (ibid.)

Perceived well-being from UCT programmes must be seen to improve one or a combination of well-being dimensions and must have a sustainable change over a person’s lifetime. Looking at UCTs as a sustainable poverty solution allows us to move beyond the observable material aspects of poverty and into an experienced state of poverty (Rojas, 2008). Studying poverty through a well-being approach may shed light on the reason why even though people are provided with temporary aid they still show some dissonance between income poverty and experienced poverty (ibid.). This dissonance could be shown by a person who

experiences an income level that moves them out of income poverty but still experiences poverty through low life satisfaction and ‘ill-being’ (McGregor, 2004). This approach to poverty places importance on people who have been able to forge a way out of deprivation (of freedoms) and into a state of well-being.

2.5 Difficulties Combining Approaches

Whilst interest in the conceptualisation of well-being within development has been

increasing, it is still majorly underdeveloped. One reasons for this is that conceptualising an approach requires definition and measurement. It is difficult to define and measure well-being as it is deeply subjective and personal (White, 2009). In addition to this, whilst conducting research in the Global South, collective well-being needs to be encountered for more as the opinions of others can have a much more influential impact. Societies in the Global South tend to be more collectivist, especially in relation to autonomy (Devine et al., 2006; Gough and McGregor, 2007). Furthermore, underlying universal well-being elements need to be established and measured.

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At the core of the concept of well-being, one needs to understand what you need to have for a satisfactory life. Measuring this can be problematic as different people’s views on how they feel and assess the quality of their life is influenced by personality and individual context. Thus, to add more rigor to the research several domains need to be addressed such as social relationships and material conditions (White, 2009).

2.6 Key concepts

2.6.1 Freedoms

Freedoms are an essential key concept when understanding the human well-being of the ultra-poor. It is a key concept to understand development for evaluative and effectiveness (Sen, 1999, Chapter 1). Freedoms have been described as an end and a means to

development. Addressing a means to development refers to the five categories of instrumental freedom. The five freedoms are as follows: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunity, transparency guarantees and protective security. According to Sen (1985) and Nussbaum (2001) capabilities and functioning’s are influenced by these freedoms which in turn affects the situation of the individual and their ability to climb out of poverty. Due to the relevance and feasibility this research will only include protective security, social opportunities and economic capabilities.

2.6.2 Protective security

Protective security refers to the intention to prevent certain populations from being subject to abject poverty through social safety nets. (Sen, 1999, p.40). According to Sen (1999), there are two types: fixed institutional arrangements such as official laws and policies that protect people’s rights and ad-hoc arrangements such as informal avenues available by NGO’s and private institutions to attempt to improve a person’s quality of life.

2.6.3 Social Opportunity

Social opportunities cover a broad range of aspects within society. Society creates

arrangements which aid an individual’s freedoms, constrains their abilities and shapes how they act and what they are capable of doing (Sen, 1999). In order for people to possess agency, individuals must have social opportunities otherwise they remain inactive agents

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within society. At the core of social opportunities there is basic healthcare, basic education and land ownership and rights. Giving an individual access to be healthy, educated and possess land gives substantive freedom to a better life (Sen, 1999, p.39). Governments should not allow for social opportunities to be provided by the free market, instead public policy should centre around the provision and distribution of these needs (Duhs, 2008). Social opportunities effect both the private and public life of unconditional cash transfer recipients, as they provide the prerequisites for participation in the economic sphere through skills and health. All three aspects of social opportunity, health (health insurance), education (weekly skills programme and children’s education) and land ownership and will be used in this research to demonstrate the opportunities available to UCT beneficiaries.

2.6.4 Economic Capabilities

Economic capabilities look at the access an individual has to the economic sphere through employment. Economic capabilities allow an individual to consume, produce and exchange economic resources (Sen, 1999). This influences the ability for a household and individual to manage their expenses, to make spending decisions and to save excess money. When

referring to freedom this expresses the choice to work in the absence of forced labour and in a field of choice. The economic capabilities which will be addressed in this thesis in detail are entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

2.6.5 Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the combination of covering basic needs, investing in assets and

increasing empowerment. The entrepreneurship that is usually seen in developing countries is ‘survival’ or necessity’ entrepreneurship (Berner et al., 2012). Survival entrepreneur do not have a choice whether or not to start a business as they cannot usually find wage employment due to low levels of education. Survival entrepreneurs do not adhere to the normal logic that entrepreneurs should take risks (ibid.). The aim of a survival entrepreneur is to increase security in the household and smoothen consumption (ibid.). For this reason, survival entrepreneurs tend to specialise in selling one produce or working in one kind of enterprise in order to secure basic needs. Berner et al. (2012) also argue that “reciprocity is an essential

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Once basic needs are covered a shift in focus can occur whereby the beneficiaries can start thinking beyond survival means. According to Berner et al. (2012) capacitated individuals in the survival group can become skilled workers in small enterprises. Growth driven

entrepreneurs are those who are motivated to see their business expand (ibid.). This can happen through the investment in assets and acquiring revenue to re-invest in business. “Women’s economic empowerment refers to improvements and transformations in women’s rights, agency, voice and decision-making in relation to markets” (Vossenberg, 2016, pg. 5), through developing business and investing in assets empowerment can increase in women.

2.6.6 Financial Literacy

Financial literacy refers to the educated financial decision people have to make on a day to day basis. Cognitive capacity can be diminished as a result of constantly having to make mentally challenging financial decisions. Vohs (2003) found that those who live in poverty face constant financial dilemmas, as such due to the continuous nature subsequent financial decisions are more likely to be impulsive or potentially problematic. This ia an example of poor financial literacy. When micro-finance loans and savings lessen the cognitive burden, this allows people relief by smoothing consumption. Consumption smoothing describes how people minimize uncertainty and optimize security by ensuring proper balance of spending and saving. Literature has shown that when people have savings their cognitive well-being is improved due to the confidence in being able to react to unforeseen financial shocks (Goetz and Gupta, 1996), thus the ability to smooth consumption and manage debt is seen as a long-term economic capability.

2.6.7 Well-Being

The Well-being in Developing Countries Research (WeD) define well-being as a “state of being with others, where human needs are met, where one can act meaningfully to pursue one's goals, and where one enjoys a satisfactory quality of life” (ESRC Research Group on Wellbeing in Developing Countries, 2007, p. 1).

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Well-being according to McGregor (2004) is the combination of: • The resources that people have

• The needs that they are able to fill

• And the evaluation of subjective well-being

2.6.8 Material Well-Being

Refers to the amount of income wealth of an individual and whether materials can determine quality of life (Pouw and McGregor, 2014).

2.6.9 Cognitive Well-Being

Cognitive well-being deals with the subjective evaluation of quality of life (McGregor, 2004). One aim of poverty interventions is to improve self-belief, this gives people the confidence to exert control over one’s motivations, behaviour and social environment. Franzblau and Moore (2001: p. 93-94) suggest that personal control is collectively a cause and consequence of the environment that surrounds them. It could be problematic to assume that ultra-poor people can always have control over their life if they wish too, as happiness or perceived self-efficacy may not be necessarily helpful in aversive environments (ESRC Research Group on Wellbeing in Developing Countries, 2007). People living in extreme poverty may experience dysfunctional thinking which leads to a darkness and depression symptoms (Franzblau and Moore, 2001).

2.6.10 Relational Well-Being

Relational dimension takes into account the importance of having a social support system and network and the impact this has on overall well-being (ESRC Research Group on Wellbeing in Developing countries, 2007). There is an assertion that people in poverty are the least powerful in society and their ability to exercise agency to counter inequality and improve their livelihood is supressed (Mosse, 2010). Relational well-being takes into account that people’s quality of life will be determined with the quantity and quality of relationships in their life (McGregor, 2004).

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2.7 Conceptual Scheme

Figure 2 Conceptual Framework

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2.8 Conclusion

This chapter. highlighted the evolution of ultra-poor as a concept over time and the

importance of categorising between the poor and ‘ultra-poor’ in terms of functionings and freedoms. This section showed the importance of gender mainstreaming development aid as consumption is smoothed within the household if money is given to women, however it can be shown that women are often subject to negative patriarchal consequences and lack agency in certain countries. This chapter outlined UCT programmes in existence, and the difficulty in targeting the ultra-poor. This chapter introduced the being approach as a basis for well-being dimensions to be analysed. The Well-Being Approach was shown to consist of three dimensions material, cognitive and relational and this theoretical approach argues that combining the three well-being dimensions with ‘freedoms’ provide a holistic basis to understand the effectiveness of UCT interventions. Following this, key concepts are defined, breaking down concepts into their correspondent dimensions. Finally this chapter

demonstrated how the conceptual scheme will be used to analyse the relationships between concepts.

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3 Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction

Following on from the theory which grounds this research, this chapter outlines the process of knowledge and the process of data collection and analysis. Section 3.2 outlines the research questions and sub-questions which outline what knowledge we aim to know in the conclusion. Section 3.3 clarifies the ontological and epistemological stance which will help justify the decisions for the methods and methodology section. Section 3.4 discusses the unit of analysis and unit of observation and section 3.5 highlights the different sampling methods, data collection and data analysis. Section 3.6 outlines the process of data collection, breaking down the different methods undertaken in the field. Following this section 3.6 sheds light on how the data will analysed. Finally section 3.7 reflects on the quality criteria and section 3.8 reflects on the ethical considerations of the research, focusing primarily on limitations and recommendations for the future.

3.2 Research Questions

The research questions were framed within a well-being and multi-dimensional poverty approach. This research is in cooperation with 100WEEKS. 100WEEKS is a Dutch organisation which provides unconditional cash transfers to women beneficiaries for a duration of 100 weeks. Along with the money beneficiaries receive a weekly skill and training session. This research aims to compare well-being dimensions of women

beneficiaries in the 100WEEKS project with ultra-poor women receiving no financial aid. The sub-questions start with understanding the selection process of 100WEEKS, this aims to analyse whether the poorest in society have been reached. The following questions are aimed at bottom-up findings, the sub-questions are designed to manage the overall research question by firstly building up a contextual narrative of economic capabilities and well-being. Sub questions iii) and iv) aim to explain how these abilities translate into overall well-being by focusing on unobservable mechanisms and isolated dimensions.

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Main Research Question: How do Unconditional Cash Transfer Loans combined with skills training lead to economic capabilities and contribute to cognitive and relational well-being of ultra-poor women in North West Rwanda?

My sub-questions look at:

I. How were women selected for 100WEEKS and how does the weekly skills training help develop economic capabilities?

II. What do ultra-poor women consider to be well-being/ill-being and what are the unobservable mechanisms behind this concept?

III. How do 100WEEKS beneficiaries perceive their relational well-being (individual, collective and over time)?

a) Do beneficiaries attribute any change in relational well-being to the economic capabilities built up through 100WEEKS?

b) How does relational well-being of beneficiaries compare to non-beneficiaries? IV. How do 100WEEKS beneficiaries perceive their cognitive well-being (individual,

collective and over time)?

c) Do beneficiaries attribute any change in cognitive well-being to the economic capabilities built up through 100WEEKS?

d) How does relational well-being of beneficiaries compare to non-beneficiaries? 3.3 Ontology and Epistemology

Since epistemological assumptions prevail upon ontological assumptions, which in turn derive the type of methodology and data collection, it is crucial to talk through the philosophy behind this research.

This research is guided by a relativistic epistemological approach. Relativism as an

epistemological approach puts emphasis on the fact that values, interests and objectivity only have meaning when a variety of different individual perspectives and viewpoints come to a social agreement (Smith, 1983). Relativism acknowledges there are multiple interpretations of reality and this requires the engagement of humans through culture, agency and structure (Guba, 1990). Guba (1990) implies that none of these interpretations are either correct or false. Epistemologically it means that the reflections of reality we see as a researcher though inter-subjectivity is context and time specific, this acts as a limit to this approach (Smith,

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1983). Quantitative analysis is usually lacking in well-being research due to a restricted time frame and nature of the concept, however having this this secondary data source deepens my analysis and embrace the relativistic nature of the research by widening the sample of

realities.

The methodology is guided by the constructivist approach, due to the explorative nature of human experience. This research looks at the realities of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries’ socio-economic life. The constructivist approach is deemed best suited to comprehend these realities. The constructivist approach has three methodological implications ‘inductive’, ‘interpretative’ and ‘historical’ (Pouliout, 2007, pg. 364 – 367). Firstly, ‘inductive’ refers to starting with individuals, whilst well-being dimensions were constantly at the forefront of interview questions, participants were free to talk around the questions and guide interview outcomes. ‘Interpretative’ means that the importance of the individuals role in society and whether or not financial aid is received should be recognised (Pouliout, 2007). The research should also be ‘historical’ so the issues at hand should have constantly been evolving as time goes on (ibid.). The participant should also be probed to think from a previous well-being mindset. Ideally participants would have been asked about the concepts at different times whilst on placement, this acknowledges that time whilst on placement was limited and this bounds the research to the temporal nature of social life (Blaikie, 1993).

3.4 Unit of Analysis and Sampling Strategy

The main unit of analysis of the research was the improvement or decline in relational and cognitive well-being of beneficiaries in the 100WEEKS project. The research achieves this by observing and interviewing 100WEEKS beneficiaries and analysing the difference in their well-being throughout the project. The well-being of female beneficiaries was directly

compared to the well-being of non-beneficiaries, of which these women had not participated in the 100WEEKS project or received any other financial aid. Non-beneficiaries were comparable in terms of key characteristics such as age, poverty category, education,

employment. A table showing the key characteristics of non-beneficiaries can be found in the appendix (appendix 1). The main aim was to target ultra-poor women as similar to

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When going about sampling beneficiaries, I was given access to the entire list of beneficiaries in an excel file. When choosing beneficiaries to interview, I would select the group I wanted to interview based on location, duration in project. A number was then allocated to each beneficiary between 1-20. I would randomly select the women to be interviewed using an online random number generator. My project manager would then help me access these women and arrange a time and place to be interviewed. Whilst interviewing

non-beneficiaries, snowball sampling was used. Snowball sampling uses an initial small sample, then through relations a larger sample can be targeted. I would ask 100WEEKS coaches to identify women with similar selection criteria as an initial sample group. Targeting non-beneficiaries was done in clusters, whilst there is a potential for biases from coaches I asked a different coach to select the first non-beneficiary interviewed and from that I could access relatives and friends with similar characteristics.

Image 1:Picture Taken During Focus Group Discussion. Image 2: Picture Taken During Baseline Data Collection

3.5 Methods

3.5.1 Focus Group Discussions

The first stage of data collection was conducted by running focus group discussions (FGDs) with women currently in the 100WEEKS project. FGDs were useful for gathering collective perspectives (Hennink et al., 2011) such as economic capabilities and well-being. The research initially used FGDs since they “offer the researcher the chance to study ways in which individuals collectively make sense of a phenomenon and construct meaning around it” (Bryman, 2016, p. 504). FGDs will aim to answer the first two sub-questions, the first sub question centres around 100WEEKS selection and the build-up of economic capabilities. The

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second sub-question centres around what well-being is in Rwanda. Both sub-questions require constructing a phenomenon and meaning, thus FGDs were the chosen method. FGDs were a conscious choice as they can be shown to alleviate some of the antagonising nature that interviews evoke as well as diluting the power relation between the moderator and participant. FGD participants were able to take some control over the direction of the session and exposes ideas that had not occurred to me beforehand. FGDs were a source of

reassurance that dimensions were understood, and language used was appropriate. From the FGDs I decided to rephrase wording for depressive symptoms and sense of belonging (as both were thought of in terms of material wealth by beneficiaries).

3.5.2 In-depth Interviews Semi Structured Interviews

As the main unit of observation were female beneficiaries from 100WEEKS, my primary source of data came from in-depth semi structured interviews. I managed to interview 11 women from the project. The interviews were usually conducted during weekly training session, where all 20 beneficiaries and coaches were present. Interviews were used to answer the final two sub-questions looking at the isolation of cognitive and relational well-being. Interviews were more appropriate than FGDs due to the personal and sensitive subject of well-being. All interviews were conducted in a quiet place near to where the training session was being conducted, by doing this it meant that the women did not have to travel out of their way to meet me. After every question I asked the beneficiaries to compare and contrast how they felt now to before the project started, this gave me a constructivist interpretation of their well-being. The interviews conducted with non-beneficiaries were run in church grounds as these tend to be a central landmark for a few villages or towns. All women interviewed were Christian. I interviewed 17 control group participants, the questions were almost entirely the same as the women in the project however questions focused only on current life situation. All the interviews were done using a translator which reared a number of implications to my research. Although the intention was that the translator would translate during the interview a lot of finer detail was missed due to the women talking for a few minutes and the translator not being able to retain all detail the women had said. As a result, many of the interviews were translated afterwards by asking a Rwandan native speaker to sit and translate line by line. The translators that I used were all ‘enumerators’, students in university who were employed by 100WEEKS to ring the beneficiaries to discuss problems they were

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experiencing. The students had experience in talking effectively to the women, so they all understood the tone and language that was appropriate. However, none of the ‘enumerators’ had any translating experience.

3.5.3 Non-Participant and Participant Observation

During the data collection process, beneficiary and non-beneficiary observations were collected during onboarding meetings, baseline questionnaires, staff intervention meetings and training sessions for coaches. Onboarding sessions were always held two weeks before the women receive their mobile phones which receive first instalment of the 100WEEKS mobile money. Baseline questionnaire’s took place in the women’s houses, enumerators from the 100WEEKS project enter the women’s houses and ask them a series of questions related to demographics, education, health, children, family planning, consumption, housing, wealth, well-being, social capital, finance and empowerment. The baseline survey is also used as a visiting opportunity for 100WEEKS staff to see the condition of the beneficiaries houses before the project starts. A meeting was attended after one of the 100WEEKS staff had been informed that a group of beneficiaries had decided to take out loans, the 100WEEKS staff member went to the district to understand the purpose of the loans i.e. consumption or investment in assets. Other meetings attended during fieldwork included a meeting with 100WEEKS coaches. During this meeting 100WEEKS coaches received training provided from the Netherlands addressing documentation of financial diaries.

3.5.4 Field notes and additional sources

This research was strengthened by using thick descriptions of social settings and beneficiary backgrounds. Whilst in the field notes were continually written which included as much description of environments, locations, body language and other potentially interesting factors. The appendixes act as a detail description to show exactly what questions were asked as part of my research procedure and can act as a guide for future researchers.

3.6 Data Analysis

The research looks at the contribution UCT programmes have on well-being, as this is explorative by nature, a deductive approach was taken to the analyse the data, the research empirically scrutinises the hypothesis based on existing theory and social research (Bryman,

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2016). During the time in the field, comprehensive notes were taken and transcripts of FGDs and interview were compiled which was used to run ‘open coding’ to detect key themes. Strauss and Corbin (1990) define open coding as “the process of breaking down, examining, comparing, conceptualizing and categorising data” (p. 61). This coding procedure helps to generate concepts which will later be grouped, and categories formed. The aim of open coded is to saturate the data so that “no new information of themes are observed in the data” (Guest, Brunce and Johnson, 2006, p. 59).

The quantitative data used in this analysis is mostly descriptive in nature, serving mainly to generalise findings. The variables obtained by 100WEEKS are nominal (e.g. gender,

occupation), ordinal data (e.g. education level) along with interval data (e.g. age). Questions focusing on economic capabilities and well-being, which will be of significant interest to this research, are mostly ordinal in nature, this data analysis will require visualization tools (Bryman, 2016). Visualization tools such as frequency tables, bar charts and pie charts have been created using SPSS. Secondary data will be used in the first two sub-questions to help construct concepts due to the accessibility of a large number of circumstances as data was available for this. The following two sub-questions need a grounded constructivist approach to analyse personal life-situations and accounts of cognitive and relational. Thus in-depth interviews will be utilised for these sections.

As there is no control group in the quantitative data, the validity of the results can be compromised, discoveries on causation are difficult to make solely using the findings from the questionnaire. In appendix 1. a comparison between secondary baseline data participant, beneficiaries who partook in interviews and non-beneficiaries who partook in interviews has been created to compare the three groups. The figures show that there is consistency in key characteristics between all data sources and participants.

3.7 Ethical Considerations and Positionality

Whilst in the field, ethical guidelines were taken into consideration when making any decision related to participation and welfare. As the concepts in my research were of a personal and intrusive manner, sensitivity was considered at all times. Whilst discussing well-being with interviewees some of variables were of a triggering nature, such as

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participant I would pause the interview and make sure that the participant felt comfortable and happy to continue with the interview, this was one of the motives for selecting semi-structured interviews.

Before gathering any data, I obtained written consent and emphasized to the participant that they had the ability to withdraw from the research at any point. Ethical guidelines shaped the way I behaved towards participants in order to gain trust. I gained trust by attending weekly training sessions, I also had either a project staff or translator introduce me to the women and outline my interest and intention for the research. Regarding positionality I was aware of the complexity that came with being associated to a non-governmental organisation. I ensured that confidentiality would be taken very seriously and that anything the participants talked about during the interview would not be shared anyone including the country manager or project manager. This positionality was also equally as important whilst interviewing non-beneficiaries who had not been selected to receive temporary aid from 100WEEKS. For these interviews I positioned myself as an independent researcher so that participants did not believe that my interview would help them to receive any development aid.

3.8 Quality Criteria and Limitations

As argued by Guba and Lincoln (1985,1994 in: Bryman, 2016) the most important criteria for qualitative data are firstly ‘trustworthiness’ which consists of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability and secondly, ‘authenticity’.

Credibility ensures that multiple accounts of social reality are incorporated into research to avoid making conclusions from a single narrative usually expressed by the majority. Well-being as a concept can be understood as a construct of individual perspectives and stand points. To ensure credibility in my research I ran FGDs with different groups of beneficiaries in an attempt to get multiple perspectives in case one person’s viewpoint influenced the group. Selection bias proved to be a limitation as I only interviewed a certain age demographic, poverty category, calibre and gender. To try and counteract this I had an additional interview with one of the 100WEEKS staff in order to triangulate my findings. Regarding the criteria of transferability and dependability, this research aimed to gain rich accounts of the details of the culture of Rwanda as well as an attempt to widen the context to

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similar African developing nations by reading about the problems in different countries and communicating with the 100WEEKS staff on their experiences in other locations the project is working in. The main focus was to understand the local context and culture with the help of my supervisor and enumerators. I audited my research in order to ensure dependability, during the field I kept a transparency document which is also available in the appendix (appendix 5). The transparency documents provides relevant details to identify participants. Confirmability could have been compromised by the type of questions I needed to ask in my interviews. During FGDs I noticed that relational and especially cognitive well-being was not a topic openly discussed in Rwanda as many questions seemed to stem back to material well-being. In order to mitigate this in my interviews I realised that questions needed to be focused and directed at certain well-being dimension. Thus restricted the breadth and explorative nature of answers.

To adhere to the second quality criteria authenticity, a researcher should look into the politics of fairness, ontological authenticity, education authenticity, catalytic authenticity and tactical authenticity (Bryman, 2016, pg. 386). Whilst my research represents different women, not all views have been fairly represented, especially those at the starting stages of the project. In terms of authenticity, the results of the research will hopefully be used by the project itself to confirm to donors success of the project on women’s well-being. The results can also be used as recommendations in both a continuum and constructive manner. Similarly, when it comes to catalytic authenticity, 100WEEKS staff who are actively working with the beneficiaries can be informed of my research to try to change beneficiaries well-being realities within the project.

3.9 Conclusion

This chapter outlined the research questions and sub-questions for the following research. Following this a relativistic epistemology and constructivist ontology was established. The process for selecting participants was explained, iterative sampling for 100WEEKS beneficiaries and purposive/snowball sampling for non-beneficiaries. A breakdown of data collection was compiled, including FGDs, in-depth semi structured interviews and secondary data sources. Data analysis is an important part of research and it was highlighted that open coding would be used to detect key themes and SPSS used to show visuals from the

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secondary data source. The next section looked at ethical considerations and positionality. This section highlighted the difficulty of researching whilst being affiliated with a charity and the triggering nature of well-being dimensions. Finally the chapter concluded with reflections on the quality criteria and limitations of this research in this field.

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4 Empirical Context

4.1 Introduction

This chapter describes the context of the research country, Rwanda. Section 4.2 summarises the history of Rwanda from genocide to current day presidency. Section 4.3 sheds light on current poverty reduction policies and economic landscape, focusing on female participation. Section 4.4 outlines the social characteristics including gender, education and healthcare. After exploring the overall country profile, section 4.5 focuses on the research location and focuses predominantly on economic characteristics of the research area.

4.2 Political Characteristics

Rwanda is a nation located in East Africa, surrounded by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi. Rwanda has a relatively loaded history of conflict and civil war however, recently Rwanda has been able to regain stability and come together as a united nation. Rwanda is 26,338 km2_{and has a population of 12,310,939 (World Bank,} 2018), which was previously divided into three tribes, Hutu (85%), Tutsi (14%) and Twa (1%). In 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) a refugee rebel group from Uganda invaded the northern territories of Rwanda which sparked the Rwandan civil war. The Tutsi rebel group blamed the current Hutu-dominated government for not addressing the problems Ugandan refugees faced. Whilst there was no winner from the civil war it weakened the Hutu authority and on 6th April 1994, the civil war ended with a cease fire when Habyarimana (Hutu current president) was assonated. Habyariamana’s plane was targeted near Kigali airport. This sparked ethnic tension and within hours the Rwandan genocide had begun. Over the next 100 days approximately 800,000 Rwandans died as the Hutu’s sought revenge on the Tutsi minority (Scheffer, 2004). By mid-July 1994 the Tutsi RPF had systematically gained control over the country, over 2 million Hutu’s had fled the country and the long journey of reconciliation and peace was initiated by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Des Forges, 1999).

Today the country seems stable, the current president Paul Kagame took presidency in 2000, continuing to win the election in 2003 and 2010. Following a referendum change in 2015, Kagame has remained in power till today, with 98.79% of the votes in the 2017 election

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(Lacey, 2003). He has been championed as an incorruptible, visionary leader and has helped Rwanda to become a ‘donor darling’ in the international aid community.

The flag of Rwanda was adopted in 2001, to symbolise unity and confidence in the future. The blue band stands for happiness and peace, the yellow stands for economic development and the green band stands for hope and prosperity.

Figure 1 Flag of Rwanda

Source: Wikipedia (2020)

4.3 Economic Characteristics and Development Policies

Despite rapid economic improvements Rwanda is still classed as a low-income country by the World Bank however it’s goal is to become a middle-income country by 2035 (The World Bank, 2019). It aims to do this by becoming a prosperous place for foreign investment and business start-ups, The World Bank (2019) stated that “public investment has become the main engine of transformation” (p. ix) this has earnt Rwanda the title ‘the Singapore of Africa’.

Since the election of Kagame in 2000, Rwanda’s Human Development Index and rates of tourism have profited. The country has seen a rapid decrease in the poverty rates (from 77.2% in 2001 to 55.5% in 2017) and life expectancy has improved (from 46.6 years in 2000 to 59.7 years in 2015) (The World Bank, 2019). Numbers of ultra-poor people have been declining through the governments social policy which has been successful at providing protective security. Ubudehe is a form of social policy in Rwanda and is a term used to describe “culture of collective work” (Ezeanya-Esiobu, 2017 p. 13). Today, Ubudehe forms a categorisation system in which Rwandans use the ‘Umugundu’ structures (lowest