The Recent Fertility Transition in Rwanda

rwanda is a small, poor country in Central africa surrounded by the democratic republic of Congo, uganda, tanzania, and Burundi. with an estimated population of about 11 million, the country has the highest population density in the african continent (415 persons per square kilometer). in addition, at the beginning of the twenty-first century it had one of the world’s highest population growth rates. However, during the first decade of this century, this country, commonly remembered for the genocidal massacres in 1994, has experienced a very rapid demographic transition. the government first became concerned about rapid population growth in 1982 when a national office of Population was created to confront the problem and to promote family planning. in 1990, a formal policy with similar objectives was adopted, but progress came to a halt with the 1994 genocide in which an estimated 800,000 to one million persons were killed. Following this crisis, the promotion of birth control was unpopular for several years (BBC news 2007) because of the enormous loss of life during the mid-1990s. at the time it “seemed difficult to believe that overpopulation would ever be a problem” (Kinzer 2007). the genocide and the associated collapse of the health system reduced the total population from 7.1 million in 1990 to 5.6 million in 1995. this trend reversed quickly, however, and by 2000 the population had reached 8 million with a growth rate of 3 percent per year. as a result, concern about rapid population expansion returned and a new national population policy was issued in 2003. this policy was strongly endorsed by the country’s female legislators, “who have spent years pushing for a serious population control effort” (Kinzer 2007). in the late 1990s, the reconstruction of a devastated health system resumed and by 2001 the ministry of Health had “implemented a national network of mutuelles, innovative community-based health insurance schemes supported by member premiums and government funding.” although family planning was not a primary focus, it grew in importance over time (madsen 2011).