Land is a crucial yet scarce resource in Rwanda, where about 90% of the population is engaged in subsistence farming, and access to land is increasingly becoming a source of conflict. This study... Show moreLand is a crucial yet scarce resource in Rwanda, where about 90% of the population is engaged in subsistence farming, and access to land is increasingly becoming a source of conflict. This study examines the effects of land-access and land-tenure policies on local community relations, including ethnicity, and land conflicts in post-conflict rural Rwanda. Social relations have been characterized by (ethnic) tensions, mistrust, grief and frustration since the end of the 1990-1994 civil war and the 1994 genocide. Focusing on southeastern Rwanda, the study describes the negative consequences on social and inter-ethnic relations of a land-sharing agreement that was imposed on Tutsi returnees and the Hutu population in 1996-1997 and the villagization policy that was introduced at the same time. More recent land reforms, such as land registration and crop specialization, appear to have negatively affected land tenure and food security and have aggravated land conflicts. In addition, programmes and policies that the population have to comply with are leading to widespread poverty among peasants and aggravating communal tensions. Violence has historically often been linked to land, and the current growing resentment and fear surrounding these land-related policies and the ever-increasing land conflicts could jeopardize Rwanda's recovery and stability. Show less
This paper looks in detail at the social and economic background of mobile airtime sellers on the streets of Kigali. While informal networks have proved to be an invaluable resource for large... Show moreThis paper looks in detail at the social and economic background of mobile airtime sellers on the streets of Kigali. While informal networks have proved to be an invaluable resource for large multinational telecommunication companies seeking to penetrate African markets, changing technological capabilities may soon displace them. As Rwanda develops its Internet and payment systems, companies and institutions hope to provide airtime and services directly. The paper draws on interviews with airtime sellers in three neighbourhoods of Kigali to ask what this temporary source of employment has done to their long-term career prospects. While the Rwandan government information and communication technology (ICT) strategy has hereto focused on high-end ICT and business process outsourcing, this paper uses the experiences of airtime sellers to advocate for a more bottom-up approach to entrepreneurship and economic development in Rwanda. We stress that planners and researchers need to think more critically about value chains at the bottom of the pyramid, not just in terms of how informal networks can be used as temporary appendages to further the reach of formal multinational corporations, but how these new kinds of chains and networks can be re-engineered to provide permanent and sustainable livelihoods to workers and business owners at the base of the economy. Show less
In health facilities in resource-constrained settings, a lack of access to sustainable and reliable electricity can result on a sub-optimal delivery of healthcare services, as they do not have... Show moreIn health facilities in resource-constrained settings, a lack of access to sustainable and reliable electricity can result on a sub-optimal delivery of healthcare services, as they do not have lighting for medical procedures and power to run essential equipment and devices to treat their patients. Currently, diesel generators are the most common solution to this issue; however they are expensive due to high fuel prices and required on-going maintenance. Also, connection to the grid in rural areas is often unreliable with frequent power outages. Renewable energies however, are cleaner solutions, but they are intermittent and capital intensive. Therefore, what would be the optimal combination to satisfy the demand of a rural health facility? Few studies have provided with empirical evidence of the linkages between electricity and the delivery of healthcare services. Health facilities require electricity for lighting, support child delivery, perform surgical procedures, emergency night-time care, refrigeration for blood and medicines, and to run other essential medical equipment. Therefore, the present research project intends to develop a protocol with the following purposes: (1) to study how to optimize energy systems in resource-constrained health facilities with renewable energies, and (2) to explore available data for assessing the impact of electricity supply on improving the delivery of healthcare services. A health facility in Rwanda called Gikomero is deeply studied as an example, focusing on solutions to improve their current electricity system, which is unreliable. In this study, the health facility is regarded as a system that requires reliable electricity supply to deliver healthcare services adequately. The main goal of optimizing the health facility's energy system is to improve the delivery of healthcare services. For a system analysis, internal and external requirements must be met involving reliability and sufficiency, and cost and sustainability. To assess electricity supply in health facilities, the local context must be studied individually and in detail. Data is collected on size of health facility, healthcare services delivered, electricity needs for equipment, current and future electricity demand-supply profiles and patterns over time, indicators of healthcare performance and diverse energy supply options that are suitable for a resource-constrained health facility. The HOMER simulation software is being used to optimize the different energy options in terms of economic, technical and environmental aspects to satisfy its current and future demand while showing various scenarios. Furthermore, to assess the impact of electricity in healthcare services delivery; data is collected on health-related indicators and electricity consumption to analyze change over time and visual relationships between these indicators. The current demand of Gikomero health facility (HF) is dominated by the consumption of medical equipment, consuming 37% of the total electricity demand. Electricity supply options to satisfy the current and future demand of Gikomero HF are grid-connection, stand-alone diesel generators, solar PV panels, micro-wind turbines, micro-hydro power and biomass. The last two options were not feasible for this particular context. Energy storage systems such as batteries are expected to play an important role on increasing reliability, as systems relying only on renewable energy sources are vulnerable on their supply. Results show that a Business-as-usual (BAU) scenario has very high Net Present Costs (NPC) in comparison to other optimal scenarios that add new energy solutions. The BAU scenario however, shows the total costs of meeting the demand with sufficiency, meaning that blackouts are avoided through a generator running on a minimum load at all time (a perfect-functioning health facility). Also, the 'only renewables' scenario is very expensive, mainly due to capital-intensive technologies. The simulation results show that the most optimal option for the current system implies the addition of a 2kW solar system and 5 batteries, however when taking into account the future demand, the option proposed by Great Lakes Energy (GLE) of a 3kW solar system would be the most optimal, although with 5 batteries instead of 10 to avoid large expenses and oversizing. Moreover, results also show that storage is a really important aspect in resource-constrained health facilities. A 'no storage scenario' is very high on costs in the long-term, becoming un-affordable for the health facility. Here, batteries are considered as the 'game changers' and critical points for the reliability of the system. Furthermore, it was determined that the BAU system is oversized with a 12,5kW diesel generator, and that there are current energy losses in the system; this confirms the need for a storage system, even if renewable energies are not included. However, storage represents an argument for installing renewables to increase cost-effectiveness and independency. In terms of environmental emissions, the BAU scenario contrast highly with other scenarios so there is a need for an immediate response through an increase on the renewable fraction of the system. Show less
Dietz, A.J.; Rutten, M.M.E.M.; Bergh, M. van den; Foeken, D.W.J.; Hees, S.; Hemsteede, R.; ... ; Veldkamp, F. 2014
Internet connectivity is widely considered to be a game changer for knowledge economies of developing countries. The arrival of submarine fibre-optic underwater cables in East Africa in 2009 and... Show moreInternet connectivity is widely considered to be a game changer for knowledge economies of developing countries. The arrival of submarine fibre-optic underwater cables in East Africa in 2009 and 2010 is seen by many as a strong case in point. The fast evolution of the information and communication technology (ICT) landscape of Kenya and Rwanda that ensued has attracted the attention of actors from private investors, development agencies, NGOs, policymakers and many other groups. Kenya became a role model for its widespread adoption of mobile money services and a burgeoning ICT application development sector; Rwanda's government became known for its explicitly ICT-oriented development agenda as well as large-scale ICT projects in government, health and education that aimed to latch onto fast-growing mobile subscription rates and 3G network roll-outs. For this report, we set out to examine the role that changing connectivity has played for a particular component of the ICT sector in Kenya and Rwanda: ICT-enabled business process outsourcing (BPO).1 BPO has been a priority in the national ICT strategies of both countries, so we anticipated this sector to provide a fertile ground for comparing expectations and realities of the role that changing connectivity has played following the deployment of fibre-optic cable infrastructure. The study outlined how policy, popular discourse and media got somewhat carried away by the promise of internet connectivity as the fuel for the growth of Kenya's and Rwanda's BPO sectors. The development of ICT sectors fell short of many original hopes. Internet connectivity proved to only function as a catalyst for economic growth in combination with other enablers, even for the examined sectors of connectivity-based enterprises. Competitive advantage is always relative, and, in the case of Kenya's and Rwanda's BPO sectors, India and other Asian BPO destinations have maintained the edge in international markets. Despite the overall positive evolution of ICT-based subsectors in Kenya and Rwanda, the role of internet connectivity for growth in knowledge economies continues to be a complicated one, including for connectivity-based enterprises. Future opportunities might actually lie in 'close' (local and regional) markets, and policymakers and indeed all economic actors will need to continue to learn and adjust to other unexpected developments brought about by internet connectivity. Show less
This report constitutes a synthesis of three case studies of intrastate conflicts in Africa. Research was conducted in the context of the Conflict Policy Research Project executed by the... Show moreThis report constitutes a synthesis of three case studies of intrastate conflicts in Africa. Research was conducted in the context of the Conflict Policy Research Project executed by the Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael' for the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The conflicts concerned are the civil wars in Liberia, Rwanda and Sudan. The details of these conflicts and the policy interventions undertaken by the Netherlands and other actors vis-aI_-vis these countries can be found in the respective reports (M.V. van Baarsen: The Netherlands and Sudan: Dutch policies and interventions with respect to the Sudanese civil war; P. Douma: The Netherlands and Rwanda: a case study on Dutch foreign policies and interventions in the contemporary conflict history of Rwanda; K. van Walraven: The Netherlands and Liberia: Dutch policies and interventions with respect to the Liberian civil war). The present contribution presents the main conclusions and arguments of the three country studies. It briefly describes the issues, actors and dynamics of the intrastate conflicts in Sudan, Rwanda and Liberia and summarizes the political, humanitarian and post-conflict interventions undertaken by the Netherlands and other actors (Ecomog, United Nations, Inter-Governmental Authority for Development, IGAD) Show less
