Poverty In Rwanda, A Sad Truth.
Rwanda continues to be stricken with extreme poverty despite the millennium development goals. Rwanda is a landlocked, resource-poor country. The population is about 9.7 million, and 87 per cent of Rwandans live in rural areas. Population density in the country is the highest in Africa, with about 370 persons/km². The annual demographic growth rate is 2.8 per cent, and the population is expected to increase to about 12 million by 2015.
The country is one of the poorest in Africa. Gross domestic product per capita was US$464 in 2008, and Rwanda ranked 167th out of 182 countries in the 2009 United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index.
Who are Rwanda’s poor people?Poverty is widespread throughout the country. In 2006, 56.9 per cent of the total population were living below the poverty line and 37.9 per cent were extremely poor. In rural areas about 64.7 per cent of the population were living in poverty.
The genocide of 1994, which led to the loss of about 1 million lives and the creation of some 800,000 refugees and displaced persons, had a devastating social and economic effect on the country. It led to a change in the country’s demographic structure: women today account for about 54 per cent of the Rwandan population, and many households are headed by women and orphans. Households headed by women (29 per cent of the total rural population), households headed by children, and households affected by HIV/AIDS are also affected by poverty or are at risk of falling into poverty. Close to 14 per cent of rural dwellers have become landless peasants who live in conditions of extreme poverty, and a large number of demobilized young soldiers have swollen the ranks of the unemployed.
http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/rwanda
The country is one of the poorest in Africa. Gross domestic product per capita was US$464 in 2008, and Rwanda ranked 167th out of 182 countries in the 2009 United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index.
Who are Rwanda’s poor people?Poverty is widespread throughout the country. In 2006, 56.9 per cent of the total population were living below the poverty line and 37.9 per cent were extremely poor. In rural areas about 64.7 per cent of the population were living in poverty.
The genocide of 1994, which led to the loss of about 1 million lives and the creation of some 800,000 refugees and displaced persons, had a devastating social and economic effect on the country. It led to a change in the country’s demographic structure: women today account for about 54 per cent of the Rwandan population, and many households are headed by women and orphans. Households headed by women (29 per cent of the total rural population), households headed by children, and households affected by HIV/AIDS are also affected by poverty or are at risk of falling into poverty. Close to 14 per cent of rural dwellers have become landless peasants who live in conditions of extreme poverty, and a large number of demobilized young soldiers have swollen the ranks of the unemployed.
http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/rwanda
Two prevalent issues
In the country of Rwanda there are myriad issues with poverty that could be outlined, and that alone is a sad thing.
One of the reasons there is so much poverty in Rwanda is linked to the geography. It is a landlocked resource poor area. Agriculture makes up 36 percent of its GDP, but the land is very fragile and infertile and is really hard to sustain. That issue is coupled with the lack of modern implements to help them farm.
- A possible solution to this problem could be to start a foundation of people in the farming industry willing to donate their time to go to Rwanda and teach the Rwandans how to properly cultivate and for the government to find in their budget to obtain used and otherwise discarded farm equipment from surrounding countries.
Another reason why there are so many impoverished Rwandans is because the market for micro enterprise goes widely untapped. There is a huge market for small businesses in the transport and delivery phases of agriculture as well as the processing phases that goes untouched because of the lack of knowledge and education in rural Rwanda.
- The solution for this would be to push for education and let these people realized that they do not have to wait for someone or something to help them out of poverty, but that it lies in their hands and they just have to try and work hard.
One of the reasons there is so much poverty in Rwanda is linked to the geography. It is a landlocked resource poor area. Agriculture makes up 36 percent of its GDP, but the land is very fragile and infertile and is really hard to sustain. That issue is coupled with the lack of modern implements to help them farm.
- A possible solution to this problem could be to start a foundation of people in the farming industry willing to donate their time to go to Rwanda and teach the Rwandans how to properly cultivate and for the government to find in their budget to obtain used and otherwise discarded farm equipment from surrounding countries.
Another reason why there are so many impoverished Rwandans is because the market for micro enterprise goes widely untapped. There is a huge market for small businesses in the transport and delivery phases of agriculture as well as the processing phases that goes untouched because of the lack of knowledge and education in rural Rwanda.
- The solution for this would be to push for education and let these people realized that they do not have to wait for someone or something to help them out of poverty, but that it lies in their hands and they just have to try and work hard.