Climate Compatible Development and Rapid Urbanisation in Rwanda

This rapid review uses information from mixture of academic, policy and governmental literature. There is a large literature base on green growth in Rwanda, although evidence on the effectiveness of its interventions or evidence gaps is limited. This review firstly provides a brief outline of the issues related to climate change and urbanisation in Rwanda. An overview of Rwanda’s planning system (policy frameworks, financial mechanisms and institutional arrangements) in relation to green growth and urbanisation is then provided. The policy landscape in Rwanda is a complex one; this review provides a brief overview of the most pertinent national policies and frameworks of relevance to green growth, urbanisation and climate resilient development, although other policies not cited also relate to these issues. The review then presents a snapshot of current donor programmes in Rwanda that relate to urbanisation and green growth, although this list is not exhaustive. Lastly, a section on challenges and evidence gaps follows, although there was a lack of information on explicit evidence gaps. Issues around inclusiveness of urban development planning has been one of the main criticisms of Rwanda’s green growth agenda, particularly in relation to marginalised and poor people’s voices (including women and people with disabilities). Although, recent processes such as reviews of city masterplans have tried to be more participatory. Largely, however, this review is gender blind and does not consider people with disabilities.