Rwanda’s Refugee Sustainable Graduation Strategy 2025–2030 aims to transition 50% of refugee households from aid dependency to self-reliance by 2030. Progress toward this goal cannot be tracked using existing data instruments, as refugees are excluded from the national household surveys that underpin the country’s poverty analysis. This data gap, combined with the absence of a shared definition of self-reliance among government, humanitarian, and development partners, motivated the preparation of this note. Its primary objective is to build consensus on how to define and measure refugee self-reliance in the Rwandan context, and to propose a concrete measurement framework to fill that gap.
As of March 2025, Rwanda hosted 135,952 displaced persons, including 114,804 refugees, originating primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. Over 85 percent reside in five camps (Kigeme, Kiziba, Mahama, Mugombwa, and Nyabiheke), where many services are either subsidized or provided free of charge, including housing, education, health services, and water.
The note proposes and describes the Rwanda Self-Reliance Measure (RSRM), a multidimensional self-reliance measurement tool conceptually grounded in the Self-Reliance Index (SRI) developed by RefugeePoint and the Women’s Refugee Commission. The RSRM covers seven dimensions—housing, food security, education, health, labor, income, and social capital—for non-camp refugees, and six dimensions (excluding housing, which is provided free of charge in camps) for camp-based refugees. Indicators within each dimension are scored on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), with a minimum threshold score of 3 required for a household to be considered self-reliant on a given indicator. Weights assigned to dimensions reflect the relative importance that the government of Rwanda assigns to each dimension in the definition of self-reliance, which differs for camp-based or out-of-camp populations. For example, labor and income each receive a weight of 22.5 percent for camp-based refugees and 20 percent for non-camp refugees, reflecting the greater importance of economic independence where basic services are not aid-dependent. Composite household scores are categorized as highly self-reliant (≥70), moderately self-reliant (60–70), or low self-reliance (50–60). A key design feature of the RSRM is that it explicitly attempts to assess whether essential needs are met independently of humanitarian aid.
The RSRM is piloted using a panel survey of 2,000 refugee households conducted across the five camps and Kigali. The first survey round was conducted between January and March 2024 and the second round in April 2025. The sampling frame is drawn from the UNHCR ProGres registration database, ensuring representativeness across the surveyed locations.
Main findings:
- Because shelter is provided free of charge to camp-based refugees by UNHCR, housing is excluded from the RSRM for this group on the grounds that it cannot serve as a measure of self-reliance from aid. For non-camp refugees, who must independently secure their own accommodation, housing carries a weight of 15 percent in the composite index. The housing dimension includes indicators on the adequacy of housing, overcrowding, and access to improved sanitation.
- Food security is considered an essential need in the RSRM, with nearly 60 percent of refugee households reporting that they typically eat only one meal per day. The dimension includes indicators on: the typical number of daily meals consumed by the household in the last 7 days; the food consumption score (FCS), which measures food consumption frequency, and relative nutritional value of different food groups; and the reduced coping strategy index (rCSI) to measure the hardship faced by the household due to food shortages. The RSRM assigns food security a weight of 20–22.5 percent, reflecting its importance for self-reliance. The author notes that food security for camp-based refugees is heavily dependent on humanitarian aid, with 70 percent of households receiving aid in cash.
- The RSRM measures education through two indicators—child school attendance and adult educational attainment. Public primary and secondary schools in Rwanda are free and open to refugees, making access to basic schooling a relatively weak differentiator of self-reliance across the refugee population.
- The health dimension of the RSRM focuses specifically on whether chronic illness or disability interferes with a household’s ability to generate income, rather than measuring access to health services per se. Basic health services are free or heavily subsidized for refugees in both camp and urban settings, making access a poor proxy for self-reliance in this domain.
- The RSRM’s labor dimension captures not only whether household members work but also the type of contractual arrangement, on the basis that daily contracts are associated with economic vulnerability and limited income stability. This reflects the low quality of employment observed among refugees: while 24% reported doing paid work in the previous seven days (rising to 45% among those in Kigali), approximately 50% of employed refugees work under irregular daily labor contracts, and only 8% report running a business or engaging in farming. Overall, only 15% of refugees are employed, compared to 46% of the total Rwandan population.
- The RSRM measures income through four indicators: estimated monthly household income, independence from transfers, ability to save, and (for out-of-camp refugees) the ability to pay rent. A household must report monthly income of at least FRW 60,000 to meet the self-reliance threshold on the income indicator, while any receipt of transfers in the preceding six months results in the lowest possible score on the independence indicator.
- Social capital, measured by active participation in community groups and decision-making, is included in the RSRM as a proxy for dignity, reflecting the note’s definition of self-reliance as meeting essential needs with dignity and independently of aid. High community participation is associated with higher subjective well-being among refugees.
The note recommends that the RSRM be adopted formally and that its panel survey be continued to refine the tool and track progress over time. It argues that improved measurement would enable better targeting of humanitarian resources toward the most vulnerable, while identifying households approaching readiness for graduation. The note also calls for the inclusion of refugees in national household surveys such as the EICV, which would allow for the generation of comparable socioeconomic data and more rigorous tracking of convergence between refugee and host community welfare over time.