Value chain development and public expenditure priorities in Rwanda’s agri-food system
Researchers
The project will assess the potential social and economic impacts and trade-offs between and among different value chains and related public expenditures in Rwanda’s agri-food system. Using a forward-looking economy-wide model specifically adapted to Rwanda, the project will identify value chains that are most effective at fostering social and economic development along five dimensions:
- Generating economic and sectoral growth;
- Reducing national and rural poverty;
- Generating jobs and employment;
- Diversifying diets and improving diet quality;
- Reducing gender inequalities.
By understanding impacts and trade-offs among investments in different value chains across these five dimensions, it is expected that policy analysts and advisors in Rwanda’s agri-food system—including IFPRI and IGC partners working at MINAGRI and its agencies for crop/livestock research and export promotion—will have a fit-for-purpose toolkit and stronger evidence base with which to weigh alternative public investment options. A stronger evidence base (coupled with effective communication) will allow policymakers and other decision-makers to revise investment and programme priorities. This will ultimately allow Rwanda to better realise its ambitious goals goals for an equitable and sustainable economic transformation throughout the agri-food system and the country as a whole.