Rwanda has set a clear intention to domesticate the SDGs by integrating them into her national development plans and strategies, especially the umbrella National Strategy for Transformation 2017–2024 and Vision 2050. Rwanda’s Vision 2050 identifies urbanisation as a key driver for economic transformation and urban development. This has further inspired the development of grouped villages, locally known as “imidugudu”, which have been a central part of the government’s Integrated Development Programme (IDP) and the Economic Development & Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) policy targets. Since 2010 over 60 IDP model villages have been built in Rwanda, inspired by the notion of leave no one behind, and with the aim of resettling vulnerable households living in high-risk areas. Taking the case study of Karama, a model village located in peri-urban Kigali, completed in 2019, a post-occupancy appraisal through direct participant observation and interviews with residents was conducted between 2021 and 2022. Coupled with a critical discourse analysis approach to national policies, the findings emerging from the fieldwork are discussed in relation to SDGs exposing the tension between the overarching discourse and their local grassroots applications. The qualitative data from the post-occupancy interviews is used to discuss SDGs’ potential and relevance in housing. This mapping of global policy framework alongside its local application helps to identify the extent to which context specific projects such as Rwanda’s IDP model villages can provide opportunities for the local implementation of SDGs and in doing so achieving a more resilient future for Rwanda’s communities.