A Case Study on Implications of the Ongoing Land Reform on Sustainable Rural Development and Poverty Reduction in Rwanda
Publisher: International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development
Date: 2006
The paper is a product of a short term consultancy work offered by FAO for the Ministry of Lands, Environment Forestry, Water and Mines of Rwanda. After the draft was produced, a workshop to incorporate views of stakeholders on land reform in Rwanda was convened in Kigali on 20th January 2006. The draft including stakeholders views completes a country paper for the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development to be held in Brazil from 7th through 10th March 2006.
The paper focuses on the relationship between land reform, poverty reduction and sustainable development. It is grounded in the current process of implementing a land law and policy in Rwanda. The thrust of the discussion is pillared on a number of interrelated arguments. Firstly, the current land reform in Rwanda is shaped by the economic and political context of the country, especially the structural evolution of land use, demographic change, environment, agriculture, livelihoods and governance in the post colonial decades.
Rwanda is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It has a population 8.2 million and land surface area of 26,388 square kilometers. With a population density of over 340 per square kilometer, it is one of the most densely populated in Africa. About 92 per cent of its inhabitants live in the rural areas and 90 per cent of them depend on agriculture. The per capita income is estimated to be US$ 250 and the incidence of poverty below a national poverty is slightly above 60 per cent. Being the 159th out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index, it is one of the poorest countries of the world. More than 70 per cent of the poor are in the rural areas depending on agriculture for a livelihood.