Gendered outcomes of planned resettlement in Rwanda

Keywords: resettlement, climate migration, gender, Rwanda, Africa, adaptation
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

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 the housing needs of 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. In particular, we have an impoverished understanding of the gendered effects of state-sponsored population resettlement.

This paper aims to fill some of those gaps through an empirical analysis of 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 differences in resettlement-related opinions and outcomes for women and men.