WIVP in Rwanda: Rebuilding After a Tragedy

By: Karen Wong and Chris Adams, WG'06

Posted: 10/24/05

Rwanda is truly a land of contrasts. Staggeringly beautiful, the countryside is dotted with thousands of green rolling hills covered with banana trees, forests and tea plantations, providing endless picturesque vistas. Squeezed between the Congo, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania, it is one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in Africa, and home to hospitable and kind people.

Yet this beautiful country has also endured unimaginable tragedy in recent years. Another classic case of botched European colonialism, following independence in the 1960's, long simmering tribal hatred sparked numerous outbreaks of violence and killings. These events, guided by an extremist government, snowballed into the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, in which an estimated 1,000,000 Tutsis were killed in three months in an attempt to rid Rwanda of the Tutsi tribe forever.
What is staggering about the prolonged massacre is not only its scale and speed, but also the method: most of the killing was carried out by ordinary civilians using machetes and clubs. Stories abound of brutal killings of neighbors by neighbors, and even family members of different tribes killing each other. It is impossible to understand the hatred that drove such atrocities.

Genocide and civil war decimated the country and destroyed food production, infrastructure and the economy. Fortunately, a new democratic government has brought stability to the country and international aid has poured in. Rwanda is rebuilding again, but the problems facing the country are monumental.

It is against this backdrop that we came to Rwanda in June with the Wharton International Volunteer Program (WIVP). The country is rebuilding on many fronts, including health, education, agriculture, among others. However, the government recognizes that to prevent future turmoil, jobs must be created for the enormous number of the unemployed and uneducated poor. One of the catalysts for the 1994 genocide was the extremist government's ability to inflame the largely illiterate and unemployed population with hate propaganda. Creating jobs and financial independence will help prevent this happening again.

At the request of Eric Kacou (WG '04), we went to Rwanda to assist the Rwanda Private Sector Federation (RPSF). Eric is a Country Manager for On the Frontier (OTF), a consulting firm that consults to governments in developing nations, and has been working with the Rwandan government for several years. RPSF is a privately funded organization whose charter is to grow the private sector in Rwanda. This year, the RPSF's major initiative is to develop a network of business development services (BDS) centers in every province to seed and nurture economic development in the rural areas. The vision is to create a network of one-stop business development shops for entrepreneurs, business owners and farmers to receive business and agricultural advice, training, and access to finance.

Despite initial agreement on the need for the centers, stakeholders, such as NGOs and microfinance providers, disagreed on how the centers should operate. The stakeholders will be using the BDS facilities to deliver their services in the provinces and our goal was to bring consensus to the stakeholders and develop an operating plan for the rollout of the BDS centers.

With such a big agenda, we hit the ground running. We spent the first week meeting with representatives from prominent NGOs, the World Bank, the United Nations, and heads of provincial governments. These meetings were valuable, as they exposed us to the issues facing Rwanda as it rebuilds, as well as to the numerous foreign aid efforts in place to facilitate the rebuilding. Meeting with organizations such as USAID and the above institutions, we saw first-hand the varied ways in which they operate and differ in their visions. It is easy to be cynical about foreign aid, but often we were impressed by their impact. At the minimum, external aid accelerates redevelopment by leaps and bounds compared to internal, organic efforts.

With an understanding of the various stakeholder needs, we began developing the operating plan. Leveraging our combined banking, consulting, 1st year MBA background, and with the help of OTF, we prepared a plan that included an outline of the services the BDS centers should provide, how the centers should be staffed, what equipment would be needed, a budget to build and operate the centers, and a timeline to roll-out 12 centers over 3 years. (For those skeptics amongst you, FNCE 602's lessons on a small open economy came up and MKTG 622's instructions on new product adoption came into play!) We presented the plan to the stakeholders, and after receiving their comments and approval, we presented the plan to the Chairman of RPSF, who is now using the plan to raise funds to build the BDS network. It was a pleasure to see immediate impact, as the Chairman urged us to give him a plan with which he could ply visiting dignitaries that week.

While our contribution to the BDS project enables the RPSF to take a small step toward the achievement of their vision, the critical hurdles of adequate funding and effective execution still remain. Our contribution is a drop in the ocean in terms of the amount of work that is required to rebuild Rwanda. The energy and commitment that the RPSF applied in working with WIVP showed us the willingness of Rwandans to help themselves, and their potential if additional assistance from the international community is received. Also, the RPSF Chairman's gratitude for WIVP's brought home the fact that this unique Wharton institution is enabling students to make small but meaningful contribution in the developing world.

We owe a heartfelt thank you to WIVP for the unforgettable personal experiences we had in Rwanda. We were able to lend our business skills (which we take for granted) in a region that needs such skills desperately. We were exposed to the world of economic development We learned about the history of a truly unique country, and we were immersed in a culture to an extent not possible as a tourist. When we weren't at the RPSF offices or working by candle light at our guest house, we managed to trek with the last surviving population of mountain gorillas, eat in the homes of Rwandan families, and visit nightclubs in Kigali with our new friends from OTF. The glow of making a difference and the warmth of connecting with the Rwandan people have created a Wharton experience that will stay with us forever.