National Employment Programme (NEP) 2017-2019

Final Results of the NEP: Result for skills development for improved employability According to the external Final Evaluation nby FCG Sweden (henceforth referred to as the evaluation), the interventions related to improved skills and improved employability supported 50,309 beneficiaries over the five years of the program. The share of beneficiaries was divided accordingly: 17 332 were beneficiaries of Mass Vocational Training (MVT) which was designed to transfer basic practical skills, over a short period (36 months). Of the beneficiaries 60 % were male and 40% female. 5892 were subjects to Rapid Response Training (RRT) was designed to provide critical skills in specific trades for specific industries where training, content, and delivery were developed and executed by private companies. Of the beneficiaries 54 % were male and 46 % female. As per agreement companies were obligated to employ a minimum of 70 % of trainees after concluding the training. A study from 2016 referenced in the Final Narrative Report stated that as per that time period 93 % of trainees had been employed through the intervention. There is, however, no later study to follow up on this data. 19 756 beneficiaries received Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) which was designed to respond to the needs of that section of Rwandas labor force that possessed informally acquired skills. This category dominates the construction sector (including masonry, welding, carpentry, and plumbing). Of the beneficiaries 94 % were male and 6 % female. 1976 gained apprenticeship through the NEP. Of the beneficiaries 51 % were male and 49 % female. The Final Narrative report states the goal was to provide apprenticeship in technical occupations that were difficult for TVET institutions to offer. However, during the period reviewed by the Final Narrative Report (the financial year 2014/20152018/ 2019), the apprenticeship scheme struggled to attract companies and performed under target. The report states that companies did not view the incentives as sufficient to participate in the intervention. 3575 beneficiaries received Industrial Based Training (IBT), technical training in trades. Of the beneficiaries 57 % were male and 43 % female. Most beneficiaries of IBT have secured employment in hotels after graduating from the intervention. Concerning the increased employability of NEP beneficiaries, the final report indicates that 48.2% of the respondents were employed at the end of NEP (compared to 22.6% at the beginning). However, 32% of respondents indicated that they remained unprepared for the labor market. Result for entrepreneurship and business development NEP intervened at two levels, through the business advice and by providing access to finance (primarily through an MSME guaranteed loan scheme). During the program, 75,846 business plans are reported to have benefited from BDA services over the 5 years. Of these 61,305 businesses were financed. Therefore, 81% of loan requests submitted with the assistance of BDAs were successfully funded. However, according to the evaluation, these numbers seem to be excluding the performance of financing of Startup toolkit Loan Facility, which according to the Final Narrative Report had a performance of 52 % of toolkits being financed against the set target. An interesting highlight from the Final Narrative Report demonstrates that the percentage of business plans that received finance increased from 40 % in the first year (2014/2015) to about 80 % in subsequent years, the number of business plans prepared also increased from 768 in the first year to a span between 1700022000 in the following years. On average each of the 610 BDAs prepared around 120 business plans over the 5 years. The BDAs were deployed with two BDAs in each of the 415 targeted sectors, there was, however, considerable variation reported between districts with just 60 projects in one Sector in Nyamagabe District to more than 300 in Gasao District. At the time of the final report, the Business Development Fund (BDF) had a total of 8,111 loans relating to the SME Guarantee, and of these 515 (6 %) are reported to be nonperforming. That represents 22% of the value of the total NEP portfolio, which is unsustainable high. However, there is no reporting to indicate how many loans have been written off over the five years or the number of total jobs that have been created by the businesses supported. In addition to the SME Guarantee, the BDF also provided funding to 8,521 to businesses through the Startup Toolkit Loan Facility according to the Final Narrative Report, of which 46.8 % have been provided to women. Regarding the Agribusiness Investment Facility for University Graduates, a subsidised scheme to facilitate graduates with bankable projects in the agribusiness sector, the Final Narrative Report states that 180 projects have been funded between the financial years 2016/20172018/ 2019 (33 % of performance target). There are, however, no indication of the NPL status of these loans, nor of the share of men/women who benefited from the intervention. As an indication, the Final Narrative Report states that from the 75 projects supported in 2016/2017 (amounting to USD 11,000), 428 jobs were created. The reported final results for labour market interventions: The evaluation team at FGC Sweden was not able to attain any information about pillar 3 of the NEP for the Final Report provided by them. Therefore, the following information is gathered from the Final Narrative Report of RDB, which covers the financial years of 2014/20152018/ 2019, excluding the last six (6) months of the NEP. During the lifetime of the NEP Employment Services were made available through the establishment of three employment service centers. The aim was to create an employment service centre in each secondary city. Kigali employment service centre at Kimisagara (2013), on Musanze employment service centre (2016), and Huye employment service centre (2018). According to the data provided in the Final Narrative Report (which only concerns Kigali and Musanze), the centres seem to perform well in comparison to their targets, although they struggle to meet parity in services provided to men and women. The figures from the Final Narrative Report and the Semiannual Narrative Report (2019/2020) states that 8,663 jobseekers (3500 women) received support from the Musanze centre, 25,027 (11,933 women) at the Kigali centre, and 1,418 (366 women) from the Huye centre. There is no analysis provided concerning the impact of the employment centres on the labour market, but there is evidence that the centres struggle to engage the private sector in their services. The Labour Market Information Systems (LMIS) have been strengthened during the lifetime of the NEP by 1) Establishing labour force surveys that are conducted quarterly together with the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda 2) Established a national jobportal to harmonize private and public employment services 3) Producing several Labour Market Briefs in relevant areas to inform policies and strategies. There is no indication of the impact provided by these activities provided in the report. The National Skills Database of university graduates was developed to have a stock of skills for university graduates including presidential scholars. The purpose of the database is to facilitate the process of linking graduates with employment opportunities. According to the Final Narrative Report, the database contains a total number of 78,330 graduates covering the period 20132018. There are plans to integrate the database application with other systems (MINEDUC, MIFOTRA (IPPIS), Erecruitment, HEC, BRD, and RSSB ) this will connect both the demand and supply.

Sweden is funding Rwanda’s National Employment Programme (NEP) with 160 million SEK over five years, 2014 – 2019. The funding has been subject to two sequential agreements, i.e. 100 million SEK for three fiscal years 2014-2017 and 60 million SEK for two fiscal years 2017-2019.  The National Employment Programme is a government programme aiming at: 1.Creating sufficient productive off-farm jobs 2.Equipping the workforce with vital skills for increased productivity 3.Providing a national framework for coordinating all employment promotion initiatives As such, the purpose of NEP is to address one of Rwanda’s main development challenges, namely to create sufficient productive employment opportunities, i.e. yielding enough income to allow the worker and his/her family/dependents a living standard above the poverty line.