Abstract
This chapter analyses the factors behind economic growth in the first decade of the Second Republic as well as the onset of decline from the mid-80s onwards. I deal with the nature of the tax system, the provision of public goods as well as the degree of poverty and inequality. I look at internal migration and the colonization of marginal land in response to population pressure. I use data on the rural household economy to gain insight on the farming and living conditions of ordinary Rwandans.
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Notes
- 1.
Recensement General de la Population et de l’ Habitat au 15 Aout, 1991, Resultats Definitifs, Service National de Recensement, Ministere du Plan, Kigali, April 1994.
- 2.
Des Forges, A., Leave None to tell the Story, Human Rights Watch, New York, 1999, p. 15.
- 3.
L’umuganda dans le dévéloppement national, Janvier 19990, MRND, Kigali.
- 4.
André Guichaoua also arrives at 1 billion RWF as the annual value of the projects realised by umuganda in this period. Guichaoua (1991), Les Travaux Communautaires en Afrique Centrale, Revue Tiers Monde, XXXII, no 127, Juillet-Septembre, p. 563.
- 5.
The value of an entire labour day was 100 FRW, the sum of a long morning and shorter afternoon.
- 6.
Gasana, E., Butera, J.B., Byanafashe, D., Karekezi, A., Rwanda, Comprehending and Mastering African Conflicts, 1999, p. 157.
- 7.
Olson, J.M., The impact of changing socio-economic factors on migration patterns in Rwanda, Ph.D Dissertation, Michigan State University, 1990, p. 150.
- 8.
Clay, D., Reardon, T., Kangasniemi, J, Sustainable Intensification in the Highland Tropics: Rwandan Farmers’ Investments in Land Conservation and Soil Fertility, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 1998, p. 363.
- 9.
Bart, F., Montagnes d’ Afrique, terres paysannes, le cas du Rwanda, 1993.
- 10.
The sale of livestock, worth on average 3,000 RWF in 1990 is strictly speaking not ‘income’ but a change in assets or portfolio.
- 11.
Clay, D., Promoting Food Security in Rwanda through sustainable agricultural productivity: meeting the challenges of Population pressure, Land Degradation and Poverty, International Development Paper no. 17, Michigan State University, Departments of Agricultural Economics and Economics, Chap. 4, p. 16.
- 12.
Blarel, B., Hazell, P., Place, F., Quiggin, J., The Economics of Farm Fragmentation: Evidence from Ghana and Rwanda, The World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 6, no. 2, p. 252.
- 13.
Place, F and Hazell, P, Productivity effects of Indigenous Land Tenure Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, February 1993, pp. 14–15.
- 14.
Byiringiro, F. and Reardon, T., Farm Productivity in Rwanda: the effects of farm size, erosion, and soil conservation investments, Agricultural Economics 15, 1996, pp. 132–135.
- 15.
Clay, D. et al., Promoting Food Security in Rwanda, ibidem, Michigan State University, Chap. 3, p. 34.
- 16.
Wiggins, S.Changes in African Farming Systems between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s, Journal of International Development, vol. 7, no 6, 1995, pp. 807–848.
- 17.
Platteau, J.Ph., Institutions, Social Norms and Economic Development, Harwood, 2000, Chap. 2, p. 26.
- 18.
Kalinjabo, C., (in French) The role and structure of taxes in Rwanda, National University of Rwanda, Butare, 1984.
- 19.
Original in French: «pour que le mécontentement soit canalisé, il faut une action politique qui est difficilement concevable dans un pays profondément marqué par le monolithisme politique».
- 20.
Scott, J., (1976), The moral economy of the peasant, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 29–34.
- 21.
Original in French: les impots rureaux ne tiennent pas compte du revenue réel ou potentiel de chaque contribuable pris isolément. Ils l’atteignent plutôt à travers des contributions personnelles et réelles grossières qui frappent de la même façon tous les assujettis, riches et pauvres confondus.
- 22.
See also Chap. 5 on crop failure in southern Rwanda in 1989. A local NGO pleaded to free peasants from paying taxes in that year.
- 23.
World Bank, 1987, The role of the communes in the development of Rwanda. p. 12.
- 24.
Muller, C., The impact of the production composition on the nutrition status of agricultural households in Rwanda, Applied Economics Letters, 1999, vol. 6, pp. 125–131.
- 25.
Austin, G., The effects of government policy on the ethnic distribution of income and wealth in Rwanda: a review of published sources, Department of Economic History, London School of Economics, 1996.
- 26.
Muller, C., Transient seasonal and chronic poverty of the peasants: Evidence from Rwanda, CSAE, Oxford University, 1997, p. 28.
- 27.
Azam, J.-P., The Redistributive State and Conflicts in Africa, keynote address at the annual Conference of the Norwegian Association for Development Research, Oslo, September 1999.
- 28.
Marysse S., Basic Needs, Income Distribution and the Political Economy of Rwanda, UFSIA, paper 55, 1982.
- 29.
Presidentiel decrees 3/1/1977 and 28/10/1980. Marysse also adds that the wage increase between 1976 and 1980 for all scales in the army was slightly better than in the administration.
- 30.
Storey, A., Economics and Ethnic Conflict, Development Policy Review, vol. 17, 1999.
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Verwimp, P. (2013). The Rwandan Economy 1973–1994: From Macro to Micro. In: Peasants in Power. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6434-7_3
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