Assessing the role of partners in rural youth village saving and loan associations’ activities in Byumba sector-Rwanda

Partner institutions significantly support rural Youth Village Savings and Loans Associations, a self-initiated approach to addressing unemployment and related socioeconomic problems of rural youth in Rwanda; however, their role is not highlighted in the literature. This study describes the role of partner institutions in those savings groups’ activities. A case study utilizing a mixed method was adopted for the purposively selected respondents. The questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from 54 rural youth members of the savings groups. In contrast, three focus group discussions with committee members and 9 in-depth interviews with the representatives of different partner institutions of rural youth saving groups were conducted to collect qualitative data. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences and thematic analysis were used to analyse quantitative and qualitative data separately. This study revealed that governmental and Non-Governmental Organisations, business companies, financial institutions, and Faith-Based organisations support rural youth saving groups significantly through training and capacity building (96.3%), advocacy (96.3%), networking (81.48%), technical assistance (79.63%), and financial support (64.81%). The latter applies social work practice and uses social work methods and theories. Social workers should document their achievements and duplicate them to reduce rural youths' unemployment and its related socioeconomic problems.