Flood Management in Rwanda: An Analysis of Policy Implementation Perspective

Abstract

Globally and in Rwanda, floods have caused material damage, human life losses, environmental degradation, and destruction of infrastructure and livelihoods. In 2012, Rwanda enacted the National Disaster Management Policy to address floods among other disasters in Rwanda. This study assessed flood management in Rwanda from the policy implementation perspective. It intended to respond to three main questions: (1) To what extent has the policy implementation process taken a top-down or bottom-up approach? (2) To what extent has this policy been a success or a failure? and (3) To the extent that there has been some failure, how might factors related to implementation help to explain this? Secondary data available in different publications were used. The results show that the Rwanda National Disaster Management Policy achieved partial success on its three objectives, namely, (i) to raise capacity for the management of disasters; (ii) to ensure a coordinated and participatory approach; and (iii) to link sustainable development and disaster management in relation to flood management. In raising capacity for the management of disasters, though there has been the creation of new collaborative structures, which is partial evidence of increasing capacity, one cannot conclude whether this objective was achieved because it is vague and difficult to measure. Nevertheless, good progress was achieved in ensuring a coordinated and participatory approach; and linking sustainable development and disaster management. The study recommends awareness raising and capacity building for all implementing actors with an emphasis on low-income actors to be supported financially in addition to awareness raising. It further recommends a bottom-up policy implementation approach to yield more results