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Rural
poverty in Rwanda
Rwanda, Africa’s most densely populated country, remains poor and essentially rural. Several significant demographic and social shifts in the course of its history have contributed to slowing its economic development. First, Rwanda’s population multiplied eightfold in just half a century. Then, the 1994 genocide and the HIV/AIDS epidemic followed on this spiralling demographic growth, coupled with soil degradation and the resulting impact on farming – the major source of income for most Rwandans. Today an estimated 51.2 per cent of all Rwandans – 70 per cent of people living in rural areas – live in poverty. Recent data show that 94 per cent of the population live in the countryside, generating barely US$100 in gross domestic product (GDP) each year, compared with US$230 per capita nationally. During the 12 months that followed the 1994 genocide, the population shrank by 30 per cent. Close to one million people died and more than two million refugees left the country. Most of the exiles were later repatriated. The nature of human settlements in many areas of the country has been altered, as many of those repatriated lost their land, housing and assets. Who are the poor in Rwanda? Rwanda’s demographic structure has also changed, so that women today account for about 52 per cent of the population. As a direct consequence of the genocide, many households are headed by women, others by orphans. Close to 14 per cent of rural dwellers have become landless peasants living in conditions of extreme poverty. A large number of demobilized young soldiers have swelled the ranks of the unemployed. Moreover, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is weakening human resources development in Rwanda. According to the most recent estimates by the Ministry of Health, 8.7 per cent of the rural population are affected. The epidemic has serious consequences for agriculture, reducing available labour and diverting public investment in health care. Why are they poor? The causes of poverty in Rwanda are manifold. First, the population increase has not been matched by an increase in agricultural productivity.
Finally, the country has no ocean access,
and the closest port is 1,500 km from the capital. The resulting
transport costs, together with the other constraints, keep poor farmers
from earning sufficient income from agriculture. |
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