The traffic light is fighting over development aid as part of the budget negotiations. One thing is clear: Germany certainly supports dazzling projects. For example, a project to “promote positive masculinity” in Rwanda. FOCUS online research shows: There are obviously discrepancies between the goal and the implementation on site.
Where do the many billions of euros that Germany provides every year for development aid around the world actually go? In the wake of the budget dispute earlier this year, Peru’s bike paths became a symbol of controversial spending. And even now, during the negotiations on the 2025 budget, development aid spending is a main point of contention within the coalition.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has called on the Foreign Office and the Development Ministry to review the meaning and accuracy of their spending policy. Both would have to ask themselves the question: “Are we really improving life chances with our tax money or are the projects serving German interests.”
One thing is clear: the cycle paths in Peru are by no means the only dazzling project in a distant country that requires at least some explanation and is supported with German taxpayers’ money.
For example, on a page of the responsible Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) you can find this: “Project with young people on responsible handling of sexuality and promotion of positive masculinity.”
A little further down you will find out that this is an initiative in Rwanda, Africa. At least 520,000 euros are expected to flow into the country between 2022 and 2025. It is, as you can also find on the BMZ website, a follow-up project.
So money has flowed to Rwanda in previous years for a similar project. Exactly 390,000 euros, as “Bread for the World” reported upon request. The aid organization is responsible for the project on the German side. Germany is spending almost a million euros on “positive masculinity” in Rwanda.
But what exactly is being done with this money locally? How wisely is the money being used, what do people in Rwanda say about it? And what does the term “positive masculinity” actually mean? FOCUS online asked a Rwandan reporter to research on site and asked those responsible in Germany.
According to information from “Bread for the World”, the aim is “to prevent violence against women and children”. The project, which is being implemented together with the church partner “Eglise Presbytérienne au Rwanda” (EPR), is a “contribution to more gender equality in Rwanda and to reducing gender-based violence”.
The project is aimed directly at around 13,000 young people as well as teachers, school administrators and religious leaders. “It’s about curbing gender-based violence by changing the behavior of young people and their teachers. For example, we want to strengthen reproductive health and make a contribution to curbing HIV and AIDS through responsible sexuality,” says a spokesman.
The organization proudly reports that the project indirectly supports around 625,000 people in the region. However, this is only an estimate based on what the organization says is a common procedure in international cooperation. Furthermore, according to “Bread for the World”, training courses take place in schools as well as mass awareness campaigns, for example via public media.
According to Bread for the World, a population survey in Rwanda a few years ago showed that almost half of all 15- to 49-year-old women had experienced physical violence since the age of 15. More than a third of married women reported experiencing physical, sexual or emotional domestic violence in the past 12 months.
Accordingly, violence – and particularly sexual violence – is a widespread obstacle to development in Rwanda. “Our partner organizations are not interested in short-term activism, but rather in bringing about structural and therefore long-term changes for more gender equality and new role models,” say those responsible in Germany.
An interim evaluation of the previous project, which ran from 2019 to 2022, showed that the proportion of young people who had knowledge of topics such as reproductive health or gender roles in the project area increased from 50 to 70 in the first two years of the project’s duration percent has increased. This evaluation also showed that at least 80 percent of the single teenage mothers supported were integrated and successfully completed their school or vocational training.
FOCUS online commissioned a Rwandan reporter to speak to those responsible on site. Because critical reporting in Rwanda can be dangerous, the reporter does not want to be recognized. That’s why we’ll call her Aline Munezero here.
According to their research, there are some contradictions in the design and evaluation of the program. She reports that local people have the impression that the project is less about “positive masculinity” and more about another problem. The project aims to reduce the alarmingly high number of teenage pregnancies, which affect around 30,000 underage girls in Rwanda every year. But some school and community leaders question the project’s effectiveness.
Since the schools are financially dependent on the EPR Church, they continue the program despite their concerns. An important aspect of the project is the weekly conversations between students and health professionals about sexual health. However, these discussions are often disrupted by scheduling conflicts, which leads to irregular participation.
Teachers like François Ruhinamirindi therefore express concerns about whether these conversations can be meaningfully integrated into everyday school life: “The project is a good idea, but it is not well thought out. For example, we are a day school, which means we have very little time for students before they go home,” says Ruhinamirindi, a teacher in Musanze district. Sometimes none of the sexuality lessons would take place for weeks.
Given the rising number of teenage pregnancies in Rwanda, the government has sought to include sexual and reproductive health education in school curriculum. All public schools in Rwanda should set aside one hour per week for discussions about reproductive health. However, due to a lack of follow-up, not all schools implement this program.
The EPR project is somewhat similar to this government program. However, because there is no incentive for schools to implement it and it is run by outsiders such as nurses from local health centers, it becomes so logistically challenging that some schools choose not to implement it.
Furthermore, courses on sexual and reproductive health are not part of the national annual examinations. The exams are the indicator of how competitive the schools are. Therefore, teachers only focus on the courses that appear in the exams and ignore projects like the one under consideration by EPR.
The students also report inconsistencies in the conduct of the seminars. They say the program was supposed to happen once a week, but has only happened three times in the last two terms. “I have seen medical staff speaking to us twice in the last six months. I don’t understand this because we already have a similar weekly program run by our school and teachers,” said Justin Mugisha, a high school student in Kamonyi district where the EPR project takes place.
“Bread for the World” can clear up the confusion: both programs, the irregular ones and the weekly ones, are part of the commitment in Rwanda.
At first glance, however, there are different opinions between the church representatives of the EPR and “Bread for the World” about the number of people reached and the results achieved. While Bread for the World emphasizes the promotion of gender equality and claims to have supported 13,000 people in six districts, local EPR church representatives claim that the focus has been on reducing teenage pregnancy and cite a significantly lower number 5,000 reached locals in different districts.
“Bread for the World” sees no contradiction in this: the 5,000 young people are part of the total of 12,000. In addition, the prevention of teenage pregnancies is a consequence of the educational work, but not an “overall goal”.
There is also a discrepancy regarding the scope and approach of the commitment. “Bread for the World” explains that the commitment also takes place via public media and institutions. But the project’s activities are obviously limited primarily to the school sector: when asked, both the teacher and the EPR official said that the project would only be carried out in schools.
The discrepancy between the declared goals and the implementation on site raises doubts about the accuracy and impact of the project.
The districts in which the project is implemented also have different demographics, sizes and needs. Rwanda has 30 administrative districts. All districts are different from each other: some have a higher population than others, some are more urban and have better infrastructure than others. The EPR project’s beneficiary districts include Karongi and Musanze. Karongi is one of Rwanda’s poorest districts and has a higher rate of teenage pregnancy. Musanze, on the other hand, is a tourist, urban area that has progressive schools.
Against this background, the government and other financing partners tend to focus on the poorer districts. A local teacher said that the EPR project was the same everywhere and did not take into account the different contexts of schools, which made implementation difficult. For “Bread for the World” this is no reason to worry: “The project addresses problems that exist in different forms across districts.”
It is clear that the joint efforts of EPR and “Bread for the World” are, according to the people affected in Rwanda, a laudable initiative to combat teenage pregnancy. But due to problems with implementation and coordination, local people have doubts as to whether the project, which has been running for five years, is having an impact.
The available figures seem clear: according to the National Institute of Statistics in Rwanda, over 19,800 girls under the age of 18 became pregnant in 2019. This number increased to 23,544 teenage pregnancies in 2020. The latest statistics from 2023 show that the number of teenage pregnancies has increased to 33,000 per year. Overall, the population in Rwanda has grown by 2 to 3 percent since the end of the civil war in the 1990s, with a downward trend.
“Bread for the World” reports that there has definitely been a reduction in teenage pregnancies in the targeted communities and that this is not a declared project goal. And the actual goals of the previous project, namely the integration of young women and improving knowledge about the subject of sexuality, were “fully achieved”. A first external evaluation of the current project is planned for the end of 2024.
Damascene Habimana, member of the local project committee, acknowledged the difficulties but stressed the importance of continuing efforts within existing possibilities. “The project is the church’s contribution to reducing teenage pregnancy, but we know the impact is too small to make a noticeable difference. But we have limited resources and can only do what we can do,” said Habimana.
Surfing tip: Guest commentary by Martin Limbeck – If we’re not careful, we’ll soon be a developing country ourselves