Paradox of poverty amidst potential plenty of natural resources of land in Rwanda

Abstract

According to WB, poverty is more than just the amount of money one has. It is a multidimensional issue that concerns one's level of access to health services, educational opportunities, and quality life. The objective of the study was to examine the paradox of poverty amidst potential plenty of natural resources on land in Rwanda. This was done by analyzing the relationship between land as a natural resource and poverty levels, assessing the level of poverty, examining people's perception in regards to poverty and analyzing the level of poverty amidst potential plenty of natural resources of land in rural Rwanda. The research was carried out in 20 districts in rural areas. Questionnaires and literature reviews were used to collect the respective datasets and simple random sampling technique was used to distribute 600 questionnaires. The findings revealed that the attitude of rural people towards land use as a resource is positive. Further the study findings indicated that though people are willing and able to use land, but the nature of land scape and the problem of land fragmentation has quite often acted as a hindrance to land use hence exacerbated poverty. However, the research results revealed that, although these people are referred to as poor due to their inability to earn a certain percentage of money as per World Bank standard, they are able to self-sustain themselves with all human necessities using small available land. However, world bank also does not only look at poverty in terms money but they also look at in terms of basic needs approach which they convert to 1.2 dollars per day.