The participants of the National dialogue on COVID-19 effects on the most vulnerable groups in Rwanda have called for joint actions geared towards mitigating Covid-19 effects on the most vulnerable citizens and vowed to implement the recommendations derived from the surveys conducted by Transparency International Rwanda (TI-RW).
The dialogue was held on February 19, 2020, stocktaking from TI-RW’s project entitled “Social Accountability Tools to explore COVID-19 response effects on beneficiaries of social-protection programs in Rwanda”.
"Covid-19 created unprecedented socio-economic disruption & although all sectors are negatively affected, categories of citizens traditionally vulnerable were the most affected. Those include VUP beneficiaries & others whose lives depend on daily income," Apollinaire Mupiganyi, TI-RW Executive Director said while commenting on the findings of the Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) in VUP public works and Direct Support and the Quantitative Service Delivery Survey (QSDS).
In his remarks, the Ambassador of Germany to Rwanda, Dr Thomas Kurz commended the efforts by the government of Rwanda to contain the spread of the Covid-19 Pandemic and underpinned the need for all stakeholders to work together in a bid to mitigate the covid-19 effects on the most vulnerable groups.
"TI-RW has provided evidences & clear recommendations which have the potential to improve the lives of many Rwandans. It would be worthwhile to think about jointly taking action & we are ready to partner in this endeavor,” added the ambassador.
“This research is very informative because it is a kind of a third eye on what we (the government) already know. It is complementing the data we have in order to be able to make necessary adjustments,” said Claudine Nyinawagaga, the Director General of the Local Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA).
According to the surveys (QSDS and PETS), though the government’s covid-19 preventive measures have had side effects, they were worth to be prescribed as the only surefire way to curb the spread of the disease.
As recommended, while addressing the Covid-19 effects on vulnerable groups, it is crucial to readjust all social protection programs, taking in mind that the number of people in needs for the support has tremendously increased.
While government try to rescue economic sectors affected through the recovering funds, it is critical to strengthen LODA’s financial capacity to allow the agency to provide basic assistance to those who have been weakened to play an economic role due to Covid-19.
There is also an urgent need to include a psychological assistance component for some categories of people who lost their beloved ones due to Covid-19 and could not provide them adequate accompaniment and still experience surviving issues due to their economic vulnerability.