Economic empowerment of
gender-based violence survivors

New Hope for those affected by gender-based violence in Rwanda

According to the United Nations, gender-based violence (GBV), especially against women and girls, is the most systematic and widespread human rights violation globally. GBV can include sexual, physical, mental and economic harm inflicted in public or in private. It also includes forms of threats of violence, coercion and manipulation such as intimate partner violence, child marriage or female genital mutilation. In 2015, the World Health Organisation identified six causes and risk factors of GBV: traditional gender norms supporting male superiority and entitlement, abuse of alcohol, use of drugs, weak legal sanctions, poverty and high levels of crime and conflict in society.

Rwanda has demonstrated the willingness to address GBV through laws and policies but despite great efforts, GBV remains one of the obstacles hindering national development. According to Rwanda’s Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, one of the main challenges faced by GBV victims is their economic dependence on the perpetrator. Victims who have no means to live independently from their perpetrator continue to live with violence, significant fear, stigma, and low self-esteem.

Against this backdrop, Invest for Jobs supports the international non-profit organisation Health Poverty Action (HPA), which works with survivors of GBV in four districts in western Rwanda. HPA assists GBV survivors to claim their right to decent and fair employment. Survivors are thus enabled to increase their autonomy and decision-making abilities over all aspects of their lives.

Economic empowerment of gender-based violence survivors

With the support of Invest for Jobs, HPA launched a training programme aiming for both social reintegration and economic empowerment of survivors of GBV. The programme equips participants with the skills they lack for potential employment, particularly in Rwanda’s tea sector, where more qualified staff is needed for tasks such as plucking leaves and processing tea.

In a first step, participating GBV survivors received trainings on general work-readiness skills, such as soft and financial skills. The work-readiness training started in January 2023 and lasted for two months. In two modules aptly called “Work Ready Now” and “Be Your Own Boss”, participants were equipped with general soft skills required at the workplace as well as with entrepreneurial skills. Topics ranged from personal development and interpersonal communication to finding and keeping work, safety and health at work, workers’ and employers’ rights and responsibilities, financial fitness and exploring income-generating options.

Following these generalist training modules, participants received industry-specific and practical training on tea plucking and processing at tea estates. These trainings lasted for four months and took place each working day in the morning. Adhering to international labour standards, trainees were provided with personal protective equipment for tea plucking and processing. Furthermore, trainees could place their children in early childhood development centres operated by the tea estates during working hours, a measure particularly aiming to empower young mothers to be independent care takers.

More than 2,000 workers hired in the tea industry

A total of 3,876 GBV survivors, 79 per cent of them women, actively participated in the work-readiness and financial literacy trainings. As a result, many beneficiaries have formed savings and internal lending communities that are linked to local microfinance institutions. These communities empower the participants to provide internal lending when needed, but also to invest in promising income-generating business projects.

Due to relocation and other life events, some participants made use of the skill set mediated in the generalist trainings and transitioned to entrepreneurship. Around 400 beneficiaries took up income-generating activities in tailoring services, wholesale trade, mobile money services or various farming activities including modern farming and livestock.

3,433 GBV survivors proceeded with the technical tea plucking and processing training. 2,053 of them successfully completed the second round of training in July 2023 and were able to secure employment contracts in one of the five participating tea estates. 802 additional participants are undergoing further training as of December 2023 to enhance their tea-plucking skills with imminent contracting opportunities.

Beyond its job-creating impact, the programme has a significant economic impact on the participating tea factories in the Western province of Rwanda. Before the project, the tea factories were struggling with a shortage of skilled workers and declining productivity. With more than 2,000 skilled workers hired thanks to the training programme, the factories could fill vacancies in a short period of time. This led to remarkable production increases of up to 12.45 per cent between March and July 2023.

To implement this project, Health Poverty Action is supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) within the framework of the Special Initiative "Decent Work for a Just Transition".