How Work Contributes to Socio-economic Development

1Why this matters

On the last Saturday of every month, from 08:00 to 11:00, Rwandans stop their usual business for umuganda, national community work. Nobody is paid, yet roads get repaired, anti-erosion ditches get dug, classrooms get built and streets get cleaned. Umuganda is one visible example of a general truth: a country develops through the work of its people. This lesson shows the different ways that happens.

2How work develops a community and a country

• It produces goods and services that meet people’s needs: food, clothes, houses, health care, transport.
• It earns income. Wages and profits pay for food, school fees, health insurance and better housing, so living standards rise.
• It creates savings and investment. Part of every income can be saved, for example in a SACCO, and lent to others to start or expand businesses.
• It pays for public services. Taxes on incomes and sales fund schools, hospitals and roads.
• It builds skills. Every job teaches something; experienced workers become more productive and can train others.
• It builds infrastructure through community work. Umuganda has repaired roads, built schools and dug ditches that protect farms from erosion.
• It reduces poverty, idleness and crime. People with productive work have less reason and less time to turn to theft or drug abuse.
• It gives dignity and self-reliance. People who earn their own living depend less on help from others, and a country whose people work depends less on foreign aid.
• It builds unity. Working side by side, as in umuganda or a cooperative, builds trust between neighbours.

Worked example: what one umuganda morning is worth

This case is written by Ganzaa. In one sector, 3,000 residents take part in umuganda for 3 hours. Suppose a day labourer in the area earns about 500 Frw an hour. What is the labour worth?

1. Hours of work = 3,000 people × 3 hours = 9,000 person-hours.
2. Value at 500 Frw an hour = 9,000 × 500 = 4,500,000 Frw.
3. Over a year of monthly sessions: 4,500,000 × 12 = 54,000,000 Frw.

None of this appears as anyone’s wages, yet the sector gets 54 million Frw worth of roads, ditches and classrooms. Unpaid work contributes to development just as paid work does.

Worked example: work and one household

Kamanzi works as a mason for 4,000 Frw a day, 24 days a month. His household income is 4,000 × 24 = 96,000 Frw a month. From it he pays for food, the children’s school materials and the family’s health insurance, and saves 10,000 Frw a month in his SACCO. After two years he has 10,000 × 24 = 240,000 Frw, enough to buy his own tools and start taking small building contracts. Work led to income, income to saving, and saving to a business: that chain is how households climb out of poverty.

Practice