From rural to urban: co-production of a policy brief for Rwanda's model village

Building on earlier collaborative work in Karama, a peri-urban model village in Kigali, this study extends the inquiry to a rural context to examine how national housing programmes translate the SDGs into everyday life. Funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme, it was carried out with architecture students from the University of Rwanda and in close engagement with residents of Rugerero Model Village, developed under the Integrated Development Programme. Framed by the Capability Approach, the research explores residents’ experiences of moving into multi-storey housing supported by shared facilities such as farmland, a poultry unit, a market, and workshops. Findings were validated with participants and discussed with policy makers and practitioners in Kigali in May 2025, outlining how collective housing policy could better advance SDGs 11, 8, 10, and 3 through spatial adaptability, participation, and stronger local economies.