Policy Influencing on Covid-19’s Economic Impact in Rwanda

  • Status:
  • Ongoing
  • Programme:
  • Policy Influencing Think Tank Support
  • Funder:
  • International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
  • Partner:
  • IPAR-Rwanda and University of Aberdeen
  • Years:
  • 2020-2022
  • Key Policy Areas:
  • GenderPrivate sector growthSocial protection and poverty
  • Type of Support:
  • Policy Influencing Support

Kivu is partnering with IPAR-Rwanda to support their policy influencing work on mitigating the impact of Covid-19. IPAR-Rwanda is conducting primary research on the impact of Covid-19 on businesses and households. Kivu’s role on the project is to provide capacity building support across the key skills of policy influencing. This includes mentoring on policy analysis and development across social protection, business support, macro-economic policy, and other relevant policy areas. Kivu is adopting a ‘learning-through-doing approach’ to capacity building with IPAR. For example, we have worked closely on using the primary research to inform policy influencing on business support during the Covid recovery period and on e-commerce.

Key Impacts:
  • Policy impact on e-commerce policy, with Bank of Rwanda pressuring mobile phone providers to reduce fees on low-cost transactions
  • Increased capacity and confidence within local partner on direct engagement with Rwandan policy makers – assessing and responding to policy maker demand
  • Strong Kivu understanding of the political economy and country context in Rwanda