Bilateral Donor Practices with Agricultural Aid to Rwanda

Agricultural development can improve rural economies where poverty is concentrated in rural areas and agriculture dominates rural livelihoods. This is likely true to many sub-Saharan African countries. Foreign aid plays an important role in supporting agriculture across the continent. Rwanda is unique among African nations in foreign aid. Despite its authoritarian tendencies, Rwanda is considered the so-called “donor darling” receiving the largest per-capita aid in East Africa. Agriculture is integral to Rwanda’s economy. The majority of Rwanda’s population lives in rural areas with agriculture accounting for 27% of the country’s gross domestic product. Considering the economic importance of agriculture, bilateral donors to Rwanda have invested in its agriculture with foreign aid. This study examined details of agricultural aid to Rwanda by analyzing aid portfolios of donors under the division of labor agreement between Rwanda and its bilateral donors. The aid data were drawn from an aid statistics database, sorted and summarized. Fewer similar studies exist that examine donor aid portfolios in agriculture in individual African countries. Therefore, findings of this study can offer rare insights into how bilateral donors navigate institutional constraints in authoritarian settings with their aid. The findings of this study showed that designated donors to Rwanda’s agriculture provided 94% of total agricultural aid mainly as projects and in the two sub-sectors (the agricultural development and agricultural policy support). Designated donors provided agricultural aid mostly through non-state channels, minimizing their direct contact with the Government of Rwanda. The contour of agricultural aid reflected preferences of the two largest donors, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (USA). They collectively accounted for 60% of agricultural aid to Rwanda. The UK was the sole provider of budget support to agriculture up to 2013 after which no donor took over UK’s role. That was arguably due to Rwanda’s involvement in military activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo for which the international community criticized Rwanda. The agricultural donors mostly partnered with donor-based non-governmental organizations, probably because of restrictions imposed on local civic organizations by the Government of Rwanda. The portfolio of agricultural aid indicated that designated donors implemented the aid with minimum direct involvement of the Government of Rwanda and local organizations, suggesting how the donors, especially the UK and the USA viewed the institutional quality of Rwanda. Key words: Africa, agriculture, bilateral aid, foreign aid, governance, Rwanda, UK, USA