![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/rwanda-1-1024x325.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis could have easily been the case in Rwanda, which experienced a brutal genocide in 1994. But instead of languishing, the country focused repair efforts on empowering citizens. In an effort led primarily by the government and local communities, Rwanda prioritized giving workers the tools they needed to rebuild their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March of 2022, around 5,000 smallholder farmers were given ownership of the Mulindi Tea Factory<\/a>, the largest tea production facility in the country. The Mulindi Tea Factory is the first factory wholly owned by farmers in Rwanda and serves as an example of how empowerment targeted toward serving workers can help everyday citizens escape poverty and build a better future for themselves and their communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1994, Rwanda, a country of approximately thirteen million people, suffered brutal killings against its Tutsi minority. A campaign that took over 800,000 lives, the Rwandan genocide is one of the world\u2019s most devastating and destructive tragedies and ravaged the local economy\u2014yet, in just twenty-eight years, Rwanda has the third-highest GDP growth rate<\/a> in the world. How was the country able to recuperate so quickly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Usually, after a tragedy of this magnitude, domestic and foreign aid organizations come in to provide assistance and help rebuild. But frequently, that aid is misguided\u2014in both poor and rich countries, we often see non-government organizations (NGOs) and other nonprofit companies work only to improve commercial conditions or other self-interested projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This pattern repeats itself so often that there is a name for it: the nonprofit industrial complex<\/a>. \u201cNonprofits are held up as the path toward making the world a better place,\u201d Sidra Morgan-Montoya writes. The nonprofit industrial complex, Morgan-Montoya continues, \u201cis erected by a network of public and private entities \u2014 including the state, businesses, individuals, and nonprofits themselves \u2014 who make decisions that uphold the power each of them has in society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Economist Dambisa Moyo defines this type of work as \u2018dead aid\u2019 in her book Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa<\/em><\/a>. Her research found that not only did aid not help; it actually hurt economic prospects<\/a>. \u201cIn fact,\u201d Moyo writes, \u201cacross the globe, recipients of\u2026this aid are worse off; much worse off. Aid has helped make the poor poorer, and growth slower.\u201d One of the big reasons for this is corruption: corrupt politicians and bureaucrats easily capture foreign aid money because assistance initiatives are often directed in a top-down approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Rwanda is different. Integral to the country\u2019s success is the power of NGOs and governments not to provide aid but to empower everyday Rwandans. The current government, which has been in charge of the country since the end of the genocide, approached nation-building with an anti-corruption ethos, a rarity in East Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After investing in reconciliation efforts after the genocide as Minister of Defense, Paul Kagame became Rwanda\u2019s president and made fighting corruption a top priority for his administration<\/a>. Kagame\u2019s work has paid off: according to the Corruption Perception Index, Rwanda has gone from being as corrupt as Russia or the Philippines in 2006<\/a> to having a better corruption index than Italy or Greece by 2020<\/a>. On a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt, and 100 is free of corruption, over two-thirds of countries scored below 50. In 2021, Rwanda scored 53 points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The government\u2019s actions against corruption have fueled the country\u2019s stellar economic growth by targeting and attempting to alleviate extreme poverty. Countrywide reconciliation was a big part of this: the government worked to improve the livelihoods of both perpetrators and victims of the genocide to break the cycle of retribution that befalls many conflict zones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One example is Girinka<\/a>, a poverty alleviation strategy where communities share livestock offspring. The government provides one cow per family, and part of the program requires communities to share offspring among their neighbors. Through this program, the government empowers people who quite literally were fighting each other just a few years ago to share a common resource and build prosperity together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only do these pro-poor policies actively empower Rwandan citizens, but government efforts influence the way other organizations work within Rwanda. This is how we arrived at our current moment, with the Wood Foundation relinquishing control of the Mulindi Tea Factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wood Foundation<\/a> is a Scotland-based charity focused on social transformation through educational, economic, and societal investments. In 2012, the Wood Foundation and its partner, the Gatsby Foundation, bought a majority stake in the Mulindi Tea Factory. Before that, the government was in charge of operating the factory, and for the last decade, ownership was split: 55% of the company was controlled by the East African Tea Investments (the Wood\/Gatsby investment arm) and 45% by local farmers. The Wood Foundation bought the stake to help the factory become self-sufficient and improve production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Mulindi Tea Factory is not only Rwanda\u2019s largest tea facility but also the country\u2019s oldest. The plant began tea production in Rwanda in 1960 and faced with economic and political hardship, the government sought outside help. The East African Tea Investments group invested $15 billion U.S. to modernize the factory. Some key initiatives include<\/a>: expanding fields under cultivation, education & training for cooperative members, and improving corporate governance structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With technical assistance from the Wood and Gatsby Foundation, farmers were able to increase<\/a> processing capacity, doubling from 60 to 120 tons of green leaf per day. The average farmer\u2019s annual gross income increased from $1,412 in 2013 to $2,881 in 2021. Not only were farmers able to double their income, but they also received valuable education and training to continue increasing output and help build more efficient systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAid Does Not Always Equal Empowerment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/vivek-kumar-JS_ohjocm00-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/rwanda-2-1024x325.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/rwands-3-1024x325.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nOwnership is Everything<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/egle-sidaraviciute-RA0ulK_q67w-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/rwanda-4-1024x325.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n