Partnerships to Provide Critical Access; National Rural Infrastructure Programming in Rwanda

Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) is an International Non-Government Organization (INGO) that constructs long- span, cable-supported footbridges for transportation connectivity in rural parts of low-income countries. By building footbridges over impassable rivers, B2P and their partners act as a catalyst in rural communities, providing access to health care, education and market opportunities.

Following a nation-wide Rwanda needs assessment that involved assessing over 1500 locations where communities reported an inability to access local services year-round, B2P partnered with the Rwandan Government to prioritize the sites that were technically feasible and high impact, culminating in a five-year MOU to co-finance up to 355 bridges to connect over 1.1 million rural Rwandese. The private engineering and construction sectors have played a key role in providing funding and support for this scale up and this paper will address the design innovations brought forth, resulting in lost-cost and low-tech infrastructure for rural applications. To demonstrate the importance of B2P’s Corporate Partnership program on their scale-up in Rwanda, this paper will discuss a few of the innovative design and construction techniques developed in these partnerships through a case study of the Uwarukara footbridge in Rwanda.

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