Social Security in Rwanda: Overcoming Indifference

The current social security system in Rwanda, set up in 1962, has until recently been viewed with indifference by most Rwandans. This is because employees in the formal sense, who are the ones concerned by the pension and occupational risk branches, represent only a tiny minority of the population, attempts to provide medical cover for the population are still in their infancy, and in a context where unemployment is the rule and work the exception, the risk of unemployment is uninsurable. Faced with this situation the first challenge was to increase people's awareness of the problem by launching a debate in which social security was seen as part of efforts to combat poverty and underdevelopment. The greater awareness which this produced has enabled us to introduce a plan which we hope, on the basis of the first results, will lead to better things in future. Fundamental changes have just been made to the pension scheme, the management institution has been restructured and modernized, and efforts in the field of healthcare are producing their first fruits. Perhaps now, at long last, after years of indifference and inertia, a new day is dawning for social security in Rwanda!