DWFI has a team in place in Kigali, Rwanda who have been working to gain a holistic and personal understanding of the state of irrigation entrepreneurship there. This work has included recent development of a smallholder irrigation ecosystem map.
In October, DWFI Policy Team Communications Specialist Rachel Williss and Communications Specialist Arianna Elnes, who are both based in Lincoln, Neb., USA, traveled to Rwanda to meet with this team, which included DWFI Program Consultants Grace Mukarusagara, Raissa Urujeni and Natacha Akaliza.
Williss and Elnes learned about the work being done on irrigation research and joined Mukarusagara, Urujeni and Akaliza in conducting interviews with smallholder farmers on irrigation. They captured photos and video footage for future use and collaborated with the Rwanda team on the communication of their work. While together, they took the opportunity to record video interviews with the team, as well as work on research reports and an upcoming grant application.