In Rwanda, two factors make land a highly important and contested issue. First,
Rwanda has the highest person-to-land ratio in Africa. This creates tremendous
pressure on land in a country where most of the population lives in rural areas, and
where agriculture remains the central economic activity. Second, Rwanda is recovering
from massive population shifts caused by decades of ethnic strife and the 1994 civil war
and genocide, which resulted in displaced populations and overlapping land claims.
Due to the high person-to-land ratio, many rural families that depend on land resources
hold plots of sub-optimal size. Concurrently, insufficient land for the landless and for
Rwandans returning from years or decades as refugees abroad is also a problem that the
government has attempted to remedy through the controversial policies of “land
sharing” and grouped settlement, or “villiagisation.” Additionally, there are conflicting
claims to land parcels, which have been created by a series of population displacements
and returns since 1959.
Autores y editores
Jennifer Brown, Justine Uvuza
About Landesa
Landesa partners with governments and local organizations to ensure that the world’s poorest families have secure rights over the land they till. Founded as the Rural Development Institute, Landesa has helped more than 105 million poor families gain legal control over their land since 1967. When families have secure rights to land, they can invest in their land to sustainably increase their harvests and reap the benefits—improved nutrition, health, and education—for generations.
Proveedor de datos
The LAND Project is a five year program supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Its primary goal is strengthening the resilience of Rwandan citizens, communities and institutions and their ability to adapt to land-related economic, environmental and social changes.