Rwanda has remained committed to devising ways of eradicating hunger and poverty figures down further from the figures the government previously achieved— designed goals of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Rwanda goal of the EDPRS 2 is growth acceleration and poverty reduction through four thematic areas including economic transformation, rural development, productivity and youth employment, and accountable governance.
The EDPRS 2 aims to achieve the following goals by 2018: raise gross domestic product (GDP) per capita to $1,000, have less than 30% of the population below the poverty line, and have less than 9% of the population living in extreme poverty.
At least seventeen goals were proposed for countries to pursue in the post-MDG era and endorsed at the UN headquarters in New York in September.
The difference between MDGs and SDGs is in the level of ambition and resolve; for instance where the target was to eradicate extreme poverty, the new resolve is to end poverty in all forms.
Between 2015 and 2030, world leaders hope that diligent implementation of the sustainable development goals will not only uphold achievements from the millennium development goals or help deliver success where failure has been registered.
During the opening session of Compact 2025 roundtable discussions on March 22, 2016 Rwandan Prime Minister Anastase Murekezi said that Rwanda needs stronger coordination mechanisms to eradicate hunger and malnutrition as the country aims at reducing the number of stunted children to below 15% in 2020.
Compact 2025, is an initiative for ending hunger and malnutrition by 2025 and by building a knowledge base and promoting innovation. Compct2025 seeks to help countries develop, scale up, and communicate policies and programs for the biggest impacts.
“Rwanda’s efforts to fight malnutrition have led to improvements but with a pace that does not match our national ambition. Indeed, Rwanda has made great strides in improving food production, as a result food crop production grew two times faster than average population growth, between 2007 and 2014”. Said the Premier.
Prime Minister Murekezi pointed out that hunger and malnutrition are not problems that Government can solve alone, he called private sector, development partners as well as civil society to work hard to accelerate progress that contribute to ending hunger and malnutrition by 2025.
“Rwanda attaches great value to its international commitments. Among which the implementation of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals that aim at ending all forms of malnutrition by 2030, and the 2025 Compact targets,” Murekezi added.
Compact 2025 initiative was launched officially in November 2015, in USA by the International Food Policy Research Institute and have chosen Rwanda and Ethiopia as the focal country to host the roundtable discussions in March 2016.
Compact 2025 roundtable discussions bring together stakeholders from around the world to set priorities, innovate, learn and fine-tune actions, build on successes share lessons to accelerate progress.
EDPRS2 is now in its second phase and it intends to further drag down poverty levels through 13 social protection programmes including Ubudehe and Girinka that directly benefit the less privileged.