Impacts of climate-related population resettlement on Rwandan farmers

Keywords: Rwanda, Africa, resettlement, villagization, climate adaptation
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 56

Abstract

Since the 1994 genocide, the Government of Rwanda has resettled millions of rural people into planned villages through a nationwide villagization (imidigudu) policy. This resettlement effort was initially advanced as a way of dealing with post-war national security threats and providing housing for refugees returning to the country. Quickly, however, villagization was expanded to target the overwhelming majority of rural citizens and the policy's goals now incorporate climate adaptation and mitigation; ‘modernized and efficient’ land use, agricultural production and housing; and fertility reduction.

Despite the importance of the villagization policy in the lives of ordinary Rwandans, the (re)formation of the Rwandan state, and for our understanding of state-sponsored climate-related population resettlement in the 21st century, there has been very little research published on the subject by academics or the Government of Rwanda. Little is known about the lived experience of villagization in Rwanda, or the effects of population resettlement on the country’s rural population or the ability of smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change.

This paper aims to fill some of those gaps through an empirical analysis of livelihood and demographic data collected through a household survey of villagized and non-villagized households fielded by the author and her research assistants in 2016-17. In particular, we focus on 1. whether resettlement leads to the outcomes desired by the Rwandan state and 2. whether these outcomes are likely to improve climate resilience for smallholder farmers.