Market System Analysis - Rwanda

Weaving better working conditions into Rwanda's garment industry

Untangling the garment value chain to promote better working conditions and fight informality in Rwanda

Short description

Not many market systems development projects are specifically tasked with trying to improve job quality for informal workers, but that’s just what the Sida funded, Promoting Decent Work in Rwanda’s Informal Economy project is trying to do. And Rwanda’s garments & tailoring sector presents an interesting yet challenging opportunity to do it.

The garments & tailoring sector in Rwanda is in its infancy and most businesses in this sector are largely informal. Tailors working independently or in informal tailoring businesses were found to suffer from the largest number of deficits: long working hours and unstable income plus insufficient coverage of health insurance and lack of pension savings.

So where should a market systems project best focus its resources to improve job quality and the livelihoods of these workers? This market systems analysis in Rwanda’s garments & tailoring sector provides a starting point – it takes a deep-dive into understanding the key market constraints to better job quality and root causes of these constraints. The analysis also sets-out potential intervention areas which can address these root causes and in the process, strengthen the garments & tailoring market system and improve the job quality for the informally employed.

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