Making headway on projects in Rwanda
The second quarter of 2014 started with full scale implementation of projects as well as new team members on board.
The RENEWABLE ENERGY Sector received Jaime Sologuren Blanco as Sector Leader in May. Jaime and the RE team are implementing the MasterCard Foundation funded “Opportunities for Youth Employment (OYE) project” where a group of OYE trainees are building careers in Renewable Energy. The trainees are gaining skills in producing Improved Cooking Stoves (ICS) Canarumwe stoves, installing biogas digesters and solar kits in households, thus upgrading lives in rural and urban households in the country. SNV continues to support the solar market with its ‘Integrated Renewable Energy Services (IRES) program’, which aims to develop the Pico PV (photovoltaic) sector in the country by promoting the market and supporting private sector. Fabien Kayitare has joined SNV in the IRES program. Richard Mutabazi has also joined SNV to support the Pico-hydro project funded by the Walloon Air and Climate Agency (AWAC) through technical skills’ development
The WASH sector in July kicked off a project on sustainable sanitation and hygiene behavioral change in four districts in partnership with UNICEF. The project aims to improve access to sanitation and better hygiene practices in communities and schools. Implementation of WASH in schools project is ongoing; with this period dedicated to improving knowledge in key sanitation and hygiene practices; reinforcing hand washing with soap and improving safe use of existing sanitation facilities in schools within Burera, Nyabihu, Musanze and Rubavu districts. The Ecological Sanitation (ECOSAN) project is now laying plans to build and promote the use of ECOSAN latrines in public places, schools and in households in Burera and Nyabihu districts as a pilot.
The AGRICULTURE sector is implementing four projects in coffee, beekeeping and dairy.
The NAEB/PRICE turnaround program in coffee targets to improve profitability of 25 existing coffee cooperatives owning coffee washing stations and 20 new coffee cooperatives in governance, financial management and access to market. Phillipe Rumenera has joined SNV to support this project. The Smart accountability project in RWANDA’S Coffee Sector funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a program aimed at strengthening the voice of smallholder coffee producers in the District Coffee Taskforces (DCTs) using smartphone and open-source technologies. Alphonse Nkeza has come on board to support implementation of this project.
The Api-business development project funded by Red een Kind is coordinating with the Hive Limited and AEE in facilitating business linkages between the company and farmer group enterprises. These group enterprises are also receiving support to access loans to purchase modern hives and accessories from the company. In dairy, SNV is working to increase dairy production and productivity by improving management and operations of MCCs through provision of extension services and inputs to dairy farmers in their network. The MCCs will be developed into a milk hub serving both formal and informal markets and receive support to acquire appropriate equipment, through linkages to financial institutions and donors, in order to enable them to undertake value addition, including packaging and processing.