Friday, 16th of October 2020/, 09.00 – 11.30AM

Venue : Virtually through ZOOM

1. Background

The coronavirus pandemic is an ongoing global health emergency. It is having significant social and economic implications in almost all countries. The ILO has estimated that the impact of COVID-19 on the global world of work will be devastating. Full or partial lockdown measures are affecting almost 2.7 billion workers. This includes two billion workers in the informal economy and up to one billion who will be pushed further into unemployment and underemployment. Poverty is increasing due to the economic consequences of the crisis and current restrictions on the movement of people and goods.

Employment is a catalyst for development as it constitutes a connection between poverty reduction and economic growth. According to the Rwandan Labour Market, the majority of employment opportunities are found in the informal sector. In practice, the recent Rwanda labour Force Survey, employment in the informal sector was defined as all persons 16 years of age and over who were engaged in unregistered private business enterprises that did not keep written records of accounts and they represented 75.8 percent of total employment. Like any other country of the world, Rwanda is experiencing a serious burden caused by COVID-19 either in increase in number of infected persons with lower cases of recoveries as well as few deaths.

2. Objective

EPRN and FES Rwanda have called for “Policy Briefs” and were asking the scientists and other actors of the Rwandan society to propose their ideas on different themes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 12 authors participated in the call and issued their papers, four of them were selected to be published and discussed.

The objective of this policy dialogue is to present the policy briefs.

EPRN and FES are inviting Rwandan decision makers and all other interested actors to read and discuss the policy briefs. The intention is that the policy dialogue will help to formulate further policy recommendations and suggest a coordinated framework to deal with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

3. Organizers

This dialogue is jointly organized by EPRN and FES Rwanda.
EPRN : A Network of Researchers with a mission to contribute to the evidence based economic policy making by providing high quality research, building capacity and creating networking opportunities (www.eprnrwanda.org )

FES : The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is the oldest political foundation in Germany with a rich tradition in social democracy dating back to its foundation in 1925. The foundation owes its formation and its mission to the political legacy of its namesake Friedrich Ebert, the first democratically elected German President. The work of our political foundation focuses on the core ideas and values of social democracy – freedom, justice and solidarity. (www.fes-rwanda.org)

4. Participants

60 participants are expected to this Virtual Policy Dialogue. Expected participants include officials from public institutions, Private Sector, EPRN Members, Academicians, Trade Unions, Development Partners, CSOs, INGOs and Media.

5. Agenda

The policy dialogue will start from 9.00am to 11h30am and shall be characterized by topic related presentations and audience exchange (Q & As).

The session will be held virtually by use of ZOOM. Organizers will send an invitation link to all invitees. Please register until Thursday, 15th of October 2.00pm

Please confirm your participation : info@eprnrwanda.org and/or info@fes-rwanda.org

N.B : You will get the access link after your registration.