When climate change undermines poverty alleviation measures: exploring implications for communities of rural women entrepreneurs in Rwanda
Jules M. Rubyutsa, Leona Achtenhagen, Emma Stendahl, Celestin MusekuraPurpose
Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) provide an important poverty-alleviation measure in countries of the Global South. They help rural communities develop small-scale entrepreneurial activities, often within agriculture. Countries of the Global South suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change, with unpredictable weather conditions potentially challenging the success of rural entrepreneurial activities. Drawing on resilience theory, this paper aims to examine how climate change affects communities of rural women entrepreneurs in Rwanda and identifies the mitigation and adaptation strategies adopted at the micro, meso and macro levels.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted a qualitative study in Rwanda, drawing on multiple data sources across three levels. At the micro level, we conducted 25 interviews and one focus group interview with seven VSLA members. The meso level was captured by ten interviews with local support organisations. At the macro level, we systematically analysed government policies and programmes, complemented by eight interviews with central government representatives.
Findings
We find that Rwanda’s government has long been aware of the impact of climate change and has implemented a range of mitigation and adaptation strategies, including a focus on advancing transformative and learning skills. However, despite these concerted government actions, VSLA members still lack knowledge about possible adaptation strategies and commonly acquire skills informally within their community. This adversely impacts the primary functions of VSLAs – savings and loans – and results in an increased rate of loan defaults, potentially jeopardising the VSLA model.
Social implications
Rwanda aspires to become a middle-income country by 2035. Safeguarding small-scale entrepreneurial activities as a poverty-alleviation measure plays an important role in that process, and our findings can help raise awareness for more forcefully addressing the threat that VSLAs are currently facing.
Originality/value
The originality of our findings stems from applying a systemic approach across three levels of analysis (e.g. micro, meso, macro) that goes beyond the more isolated levels of analysis typically applied in prior research. This approach allows us to identify a meso-level gap between macro-level governmental policies and micro-level agency that would be important to address for supporting VSLA communities in increasing their adaptability to climate change and, with that, safeguard the economic sustainability of this important poverty-alleviation measure. We also highlight the willingness of entrepreneurial communities to play a more significant role in combating climate change.