Poverty profile and efforts to access basic household needs in an emerging city: a mixed-method study in Kigali’s informal urban settlements, Rwanda

ABSTRACT

This study discusses the profile of poverty and the opportunities impacting the life of the poor living in informal settlements within Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. We used a mixed-method cross-sectional study design with a random sample of 1,152 households and focus group discussions with community leaders.

Findings reveal that some residents of informal settlements in Kigali tend to remain in poverty with inadequate access to education and sub-standard healthcare services despite the existing pro-poor policies, including the provision of water and efforts to clean the neighbourhoods. The available income-generating activities for the poor are predominantly informal, poorly paid, and with little long-term developmental benefits. Households headed by widowed, divorced, or separated women and newly settled households are particularly vulnerable. Qualitative data suggests that social cohesion and mutual social support within the community are utilized as survival strategies by the poor, besides running small and usually illegal businesses.

The study concludes that the poor have difficulties in accessing services for which payment in money is required, including paying for children’s education, access to healthcare services, and rental fees. The challenges can be addressed by improved access to schools and government services, employment alternatives, and assistance to the most vulnerable.

KEYWORDS:

• Household characteristics
• basic household needs
• informal settlements
• Kigali
• Rwanda

This article is related to:

Research for city practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Several cells constitute a sector, several sectors constitute a district, and Kigali city counts three districts.

Additional information

Funding

The study design and data collection were funded through the Postdoctoral research grant offered to Uwizeye Dieudonne by the University of Rwanda in partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency – Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation (SIDA-SAREC) [PDG: 2016/2018]. At the time of writing, Dieudonne Uwizeye was supported by a Postdoctoral fellowship funded through the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA). CARTA is jointly led by the African Population and Health Research Center and the University of the Witwatersrand and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York [Grant No–B 8606.R02], Sida [Grant No:54100113], the DELTAS Africa Initiative [Grant No: 107768/Z/15/Z] and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). The DELTAS Africa Initiative is an independent funding scheme of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS)’s Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) and supported by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) with funding from the Wellcome Trust (UK) and the UK government. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the Fellow and his co-authors.

Notes on contributors

Dieudonne Uwizeye

Dr. Dieudonne Uwizeye is a faculty member of the department of development studies, school of governance, University of Rwanda for more than a decade. He has been involved in research and teaching, and held administrative positions within the university. His research area covers demography and population development with a focus on population-environment and health; population dynamics and health; resource distribution; and access to education with a special bias on informal urban settlements. His teaching portfolio includes undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the department of Development Studies and the Department of Local Government Studies.

Albert Irambeshya

Mr. Albert Irambeshya is a faculty member of the department of development studies, school of governance, University of Rwanda since 2009 during which he has made significant contribution in teaching and administration. He is currently doing his PhD research work at the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies, University of Bayreuth in Germany. His investigation focuses on “Social protection for elderly people in the context of rapidly ageing population.” His research interests are: Social protection, social policy and conflict transformation.

Simeon Wiehler

Dr. Simeon Wiehler is Senior Lecturer of social sciences in the school of governance, University of Rwanda. He has been involved in the academic administrative at various levels, and taught both undergraduate and postgraduate students, teaching courses related to sociology and sociological theories, and research methodology. His research interests are: social protection and inclusive. development.

François Niragire

Dr. François Niragire is Senior Lecturer of applied statistics at the University of Rwanda, College of Business and Economics, Department of Applied statistics. François Niragire has over 13 years experience of teaching in higher education. During this period Dr. Niragire has made significant contributions to research, teaching and supervision in both postgraduate and undergraduate programmes. His research interest focuses on statistical methods, policy analysis, population and health, and higher education. Areas of research: Methods of Applied statistics; Spatial modeling of health and social data; Child and maternal health; and Economics of education.