Development on the Margins: Rwanda Alternative Grassroots Economic Strategies

Abstract

Land scarcity in Rwanda has long been and continues to be a topic of concern for citizens and government officials alike. In a country where agricultural laborers account for an estimated 85% of the total work force (Rwanda National Agriculture Survey, 2008, p. 1), agrarians are increasingly sharing smaller and smaller plots of land as farm size reduction takes place. Not only are farm plots becoming smaller and smaller, but they are also becoming less effective in their production and use. Increasingly, the most vulnerable citizens are no longer able to gain access to adequate land resources to sustain livings through agricultural production. Thus, the primary purpose of this research and dissertation was to test the notion that vocational and micro-business training and implementation strategies might offer successful alternative livelihood opportunities, beyond agrarian options, for marginalized people in the western province of the Rubavu district of Rwanda. The justification for, and approach to developing grassroots alternative economic strategies like vocational and micro-business training were derived out of the theoretical constructs and history set forth in regional development studies and feminist political ecology literature. To test the notion that alternative economic strategies developed at grassroots levels might offer livelihood opportunities, beyond agrarian options for marginalized people by introducing and promoting off-farm income earning opportunities through vocational training and subsequent launching of micro-businesses, information was collected from a number of persons and sources. Study participants included vocational and micro-business training program participants, trainers, social workers, and a government official in the region. Information was collected via surveys, interviews and first-person observations. From the results I found that vocational and micro-business training followed by micro-business launches often offered sufficient economic viability to replace agrarian forms of livelihood. Participation in vocational and micro-business training also increases the social, civic, and political capital and navigation skills of program participants.