Impact of Non-Governmental Organizations on Community Livelihoodsin Rwanda

This study assessed howSOS Family Strengthening Programimproved livelihoods by comparing livelihoods of its beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries localized in three sectors (Kinyinya, Kacyiru and Gatsata) in Gasabo district, City of Kigali. The study period ranged from 2015 to 2018. The data were provided through a structured questionnaire distributed among 266 respondents including 151 beneficiaries and 111 nonbeneficiaries. The SOS services are vocational skills (driving, welding, sewing, hair dressing), mobilization to join Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), training on entrepreneurship and family planning methods, tree plantation, wood recycling, vegetable garden, water harvesting, energy-saving stove and construction of skate park. Also, 23 percent of program nonbeneficiaries are employed on monthly payment basis compared to 17% of program beneficiaries. However, 23 percent of program beneficiaries working with joining saving schemes register high income (75,000–100,000) than 19% of nonbeneficiaries. Also, 53% of project beneficiaries are very high able to cover health and school insurance than 43% of non-beneficiaries and 119 of 200 SOS program beneficiaries have at satisfactorily level, benefited from the program. Finally, correlation between SOS project and livelihoods improvement generated a positive and a very strong correlation between both variables (r= 0.990 or 99.0%, p=0.045), at 0.05 significant. Therefore, it is concluded that between 2015 and 2018, SOS Family Strengthening Program was impactful due to the difference recorded between the livelihoods of the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries.