Christian Bering
Dr. Baugus
ECON 360
4 September 2021
Milestone 1
The country that caught my attention for this project is Rwanda. It is located in central-east Africa and is surrounded by Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania. One of the key reasons that Rwanda is so trapped in poverty is because of the genocide that took place there in 1994. According to Clay (2021), It is estimated that over 800,000 civilians were killed in the span of one hundred days. After this remarkable tragedy the Rwandan economy was decimated and has almost had to start from scratch. This paper will be spread into two parts: the first being part being an examination of data collected regarding the present state of the country, and the second part will be my recommendations for fixing the problems they are facing.
The earliest known inhabitants of Rwanda are Hutu and Twa peoples of Africa (2018). Through the late 1800’s into the 1900’s Rwanda was fought over by Germany and Belgium. It wasn’t until 1978 that Rwanda had an official elected leader of the country and had independence from other countries. In 1994 a plane carrying both the president of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down and caused the horrific genocide. Since then, the country has been slowly building back to a stable state.
To give some background into the economic status of the country, the average GDP per capita is $820 USD and the national GDP is $10.35 billion annually. The majority of their economy is dependent on agriculture. Dry beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, and coffee beans are the most popular and profitable sources. However, most farmers do not have the money to buy advanced farming equipment and still rely on hand tools to harvest most of their crops which is not efficient enough to mass produce. Rwanda also relies on financial aid from USAID up to $126 million annually. The overall state of Rwanda needs to improve and can potentially be done using the tools learned in this class.
Reference
Clay, Daniel. (2021). “Rwanda”. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Rwanda.
(2018). “Rwanda profile- Timeline”. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14093322.
Hi Christian,
I see you mentioned Burundi; I thought of it for my project because it has the number one lowest GDP at $276. Rwanda is a good choice. It is the twentieth lowest GDP at $820. It is said to be one of the safest countries in the world and less corrupt than many others and is becoming the Singapore of Africa and that economically it’s on the rise, but they might just be leaving the poor behind because I don’t see how a country increases wealth while its citizens increasingly fall into poverty. Something seems amiss. Operating in a biblical manner would not leave the needs of the poor unmet. “He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise” (Luke 3:11, King James Version).
Blessings!
Christian,
I am excited to see how your project progresses, as I expect we will have quite a few similarities for economic stability between our nations (I am studying Mozambique). I am also interested in understanding the differences between these two countries in Africa, and why some socioeconomic policies and practices will fair better in one versus the other. Banerjee and Duflo articulate in their book Poor Economics, "the lack of a grand universal answer might sound vaguely disappointing, but in fact it is exactly what a policy maker should want to know - not that there are a million ways that the poor are trapped but that there are a few key factors that create the trap, and that alleviating those particular problems could set them free and point them toward a virtuous cycle of increasing wealth and investment (13). I trust that we are able to at least identify some of these areas, if not to add more tools to the tool belt of governments, corporations, and individuals to increase GDP.
Christian,
I really enjoyed reading your post. Rwanda is an incredibly interesting nation, and your analysis will be a very interesting one. Your outline is very simple and straight to the point for your evaluation. I would like to suggest that in addition to examining the present state of the country that you provide an analysis of past problems that the nation has faced, and the decisions that led it there. This is extremely important because without proper understanding of past mistakes, there is a good chance they may be repeated Additionally, despite many challenges Rwanda has faced, its economy has increased drastically.
Moreover, between 2010 and 2016, a positive shift in its economy improved its ranking from 139 to 62 with the Annual World Bank Doing Business Report (Economic Growth and Trade | Rwanda | U.S. Agency for International Development, 2016). Through assistance from the International Monetary Fund, and the World bank, the country has been able to make key reforms to propel its growth (World Bank, 2017). What do you think we can learn from such an exponential improvement? Do you believe there are some policies and reforms that Rwanda should continue to enact, or you do believe the nations needs to dismember everything completely and start fresh?
References
Economic Growth and Trade | Rwanda | U.S. Agency for International Development. (2016, November 4). Www.usaid.gov. https://www.usaid.gov/rwanda/economic-growth-and-trade.
World Bank. (2017). Overview. World Bank; The World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/rwanda/overview.