The Movement for Community-led Development

Movement Matters #21 – Noel Rwagasore, Better Life Achievement Organization (BLAO)

From Advocacy to Action: From Advocacy to Action: In a new interview with Sera Bulbul, Noel Rwagasaore, a dedicated Human Rights defender and civil society activist and coordinator for MCLD Rwanda National Association in formation, shares his two-decade journey of championing human rights and participatory governance in Rwanda. Noel discusses his founding of the Better Life Achievement Organization (BLAO) and reflects on the importance of community involvement in fostering sustainable development as he contributes to the formation of MCLD Rwanda. 

Featured photo: Noel (left) giving his welcome remarks during a training of Trainers organized by BLAO with support from UNDP.

Sera Bulbul: How did you get to where you are? What inspires you? 

Noel RWAGASORE: I have been a human rights defender and civil society activist for twenty years. I have been supporting the advancement of human rights and participatory governance with a focus on promoting the inclusive and equitable development of people, particularly those from vulnerable and marginalized communities in Rwanda.

I have founded different organizations aiming to amplify the voices of people from vulnerable and marginalized communities to enable them to defend their rights and drive their own development. One of those organizations is BLAO, founded with the following mission: “To ensure that children, women, and youth enjoy a human rights-based holistic and sustainable social economic development.” 

This mission is implemented through three main strategic objectives: 

1. To promote and defend human rights, especially the rights of the most vulnerable groups of children, youth, and women;    
2. To promote good governance, peace and security, fighting against Genocide and its  ideology; 
3. To contribute to ending hunger and poverty and addressing climate change. 

Civic space that supports participatory governance and inclusive and equitable development are critical to this mission. I founded BLAO to promote conducive civic space and human rights including the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and improve participatory governance. Through BLAO, I have been supporting communities – particularly the most vulnerable – through public policy advocacy, legal representation, and socio-economic empowerment.

Sera: Can you tell me more about the background of BLAO? What is its creation story and how did that evolve to what the organization is now? 

Noel: Better Life Achievement Organization (BLAO) is a Rwandan Non-governmental organization that I founded in Kigali on April 5^th, 2008. We are registered with the government of Rwanda and thus can operate across the entire country.

The tragic situation of genocide committed against the Tutsi that our country went through in 1994 left various vulnerable groups including orphan children, children acting as heads of households, widows, street girls and boys, prostitutes, etc. I founded BLAO to contribute to the reconstruction of the country by promoting public policy effectiveness, fighting against all forms of violence, and assisting vulnerable and poor people to improve their living conditions. Our projects have been focused on promoting conducive civic spaces, social justice, economic development, and human rights. 

Sera: How do you engage local communities in the planning and execution of your projects?

Noel: The main strategy that we use is the involvement of community members in our initiatives to bring change in our society: First we conduct community-based capacity strengthening for community members. We do this especially to help them be aware of legal and policy frameworks. We work according to issues that the communities are facing. We support them to strengthen their capacities and accompany them to be able to defend themselves through advocacy activities.

Sera: Can you share a success story from one of your community-led projects that particularly stands out to you?

Noel: One of our major successes started in 2010 when BLAO introduced the Community Supporters Team (CST) approach. Through the CST, we have worked on the socio-economic empowerment of poor community members, especially vulnerable children, youth, and women including people with disabilities. 

In 2015 BLAO implemented a youth empowerment and livelihoods project under four major objectives: 

1. To reinforce and expand the CST capacities 
2. To increase access of vulnerable families to a network of high-quality preventive, curative and social services at the household and community level for the most vulnerable populations 
3. To strengthen the stability of families through economic strengthening, food security and education services
4. To strengthen the capacities of local government, civil society, and community groups to support the most vulnerable children and families in a sustainable manner. 

All the activities were carried out using the CST approach, through which we have reached 32,519 households catering to 128,790 children. 

We have used our CST approach to combat poverty and facilitate holistic and sustainable community empowerment and development for both parents and children. We have seen how communities have been transformed by parents and children having a sense of self-worth and confidence. 

Sera: What are some of the biggest challenges you face in community-led development, and how do you overcome them?

Based on my experience, I can raise three main challenges facing community-led development in Rwanda: 

1. Need for more capacity strengthening and higher education: A lot of community members have not had a chance to undergo all of the necessary steps of their education. 
2. Need for more enabling ecosystem for participatory governance and citizen engagement: the regulatory environment in Rwanda can be amended to better align with with community-led development and the #ShiftThePower movement.
3. Lack of adequate financial capacity: The people we work with need more support than we can offer because of our limited financial capacity. 

To overcome these challenges, we invest more efforts in:

1. Organizing community education and information initiatives on issues such as newly adopted laws and policies, positive parenting, environmental protection, climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience, etc. 
2. Organizing policy advocacy and influence initiatives by engaging National, Regional and UN Human Rights mechanisms to address policy gaps and attract the decision-makers to take action.
3. Enhancing our fundraising by developing project proposals to submit to funders, engaging community members, and ensuring sustainability. 

Sera: How does Better Life Achievement Organization ensure the sustainability of its projects after initial implementation?

Noel: To make our projects sustainable after initial implementation, we engage with local actors and communities in all project processes. We also ensure sustainability by strengthening their capacity to enable them to ensure project ownership.

Sera: What is your vision for the future of community-led development in Rwanda, and how do you see Better Life Achievements Organization contributing to that vision?

Noel: My vision for community-led development in Rwanda is to have a peaceful Rwandan society with inclusive and equitable sustainable development as a result of the #ShiftThePower’s full implementation.

BLAO will continue to contribute to this vision by mainstreaming MCLD strategies and values in all its initiatives, ensuring continuous policy advocacy and influence initiatives towards full domestication of the #ShiftThePower in Rwanda, implementing public awareness raising initiatives about Community Led Development and the MCLD strategies, principles and core values. 

Sera: I’d like to shift our conversation to talking about MCLD. What compelled you to join the Movement? 

Noel: When I heard about MCLD, I had a higher interest in MCLD because the MCLD mission is aligned with my vision of promoting the power of people. I joined the MCLD because I believe that I share the same vision with my colleagues in MCLD across the world.

Sera: What, if anything, have you learned from participating in the Movement?

Noel: Since joining MCLD in December 2023, I have learned about effective ways to engage with the community and make my organization’s programs community-led. 

Sera: That is great to hear, Noel. What is one piece of advice or guidance you would give an organization starting its journey towards being more community-led and more inclusive?

Noel: The advice that I can give to an organization starting its journey towards being more community-led and more inclusive particularly in Rwanda is to invest more in community capacity building, policy advocacy, and monitoring to ensure the alignment of the policies with community-led development strategies. 

Sera: Looking to the future, what are Better Life Achievement Organization’s priorities for the next few years in terms of community-led development?

Noel: BLAO’s priorities for the next few years in terms of community-led development are:

1. Make the MCLD Rwanda association a legally recognized Network;
2. Build the MCLD Rwanda association networking and partnerships with as many like-minded organizations as possible at national and international levels;
3. Strengthen the capacities of the MCLD Rwanda association members in community-led development principles, strategies and values to enable them to effectively adopt and mainstream CLD in all their programs design and implementation;
4. Implement continuous policy advocacy and influence initiatives towards community-led development-oriented policies and laws in Rwanda, particularly for the sectors that are more sensitive to community development such as education, health, environment and climate change and agriculture;
5. Conduct public awareness raising about Community Led Development principles and core values. 

Sera: Thank you so much, Noel. As a closing question, how do you see our partnership evolving in the future to further our shared goal of creating peaceful and stable communities?

Noel: Our partnership evolving in the future to further our shared goal of creating peaceful and stable communities should continue to be based on mutual respect and understanding. MCLD at the Global Secretariat level will keep supporting the National Association development and ensure that the national association strategies, principles, and values are always compatible with the MCLD manifesto at the global level.

The MCLD Rwanda association will always ensure that community-led development principles drive all its interventions and the MCLD manifesto is at the center of all programs planning and implementation.