Effects of Youth Empowerment on Community Development in Rwanda - A Case Study of Nyamasheke District

The dominant goal of the youth sector in Rwanda is to support growth, competitiveness and to facilitate youth to contribute to the country's medium term objectives as outlined in the Vision 2020. For this noble target to be achieved, there is a need for youth to be empowered by reinforcing their capacity, participation, inclusion and collaboration in all aspects of the development of Rwanda. However, the challenge remains, youth are not fully involved in the processes of community development, they are poor and the majority of them live in conditions that still need to be improved. The main objective of this study is to assess the contribution of youth empowerment in the process of community development in Rwanda more especially in Nyamasheke district. The specific objectives of this study will be to find out how capacity building among youth increase small businesses in community development; to determine the effect of the youth social integration in increasing youth creativity toward Community Development as well as to examine the influence of capital availability in involving youth in decision-making towards community development. This research is very significant to various categories of people (researchers, Youth as well as local authorities). It will equip the researchers with techniques for problem identification and solving. It will be an instrument for implementation processes, performance and need analysis to youth in particular and to the whole community in general. This study will inspire the youth as well as the local authorities to the transformation of the current youth vulnerable jobs into productive remunerative jobs. It is very relevant as the youth represent a big part of our society, it is necessary to view them not only as the tomorrow's leaders but also as main actors and beneficiaries of the today's society. The study used descriptive research design by using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sample size was determined from the population using the formula developed by Yamane in 1967. Thus, the sample size of this study was made of 99 young people representing 12806 youth population of Kilimbi Sector in Nyamasheke District. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to support empirical findings for this research in Nyamasheke District and the data was finally analyzed. To ensure validity and reliability of the content, a pilot study was conducted where the researcher first tested 15 main respondents from key stakeholder.