Rwanda invests in model villages to tackle poverty
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Rwanda is expanding a rural development program that is slashing poverty, but at the expense of free choice. Are the benefits worth it?
By Tara Heidger
Rwanda is tackling poverty through a controversial rural development program that the government plans to expand aggressively in coming years.
Over the last decade, more than 4,000 Rwandan families have been resettled into model villages. The villages feature three-bedroom brick homes equipped with water, solar panels and sanitation systems, along with social and economic infrastructure.
Rwanda is now expanding the model village program. The government’s goal is to have 70% of the population living in an urban area or village by 2024.
Rwanda is the fifth most densely populated country in the world and the most densely populated in Africa, with 512 people per square kilometer. The hilly terrain and increasingly short supply of land make it difficult to deliver roads, sewers and electrical infrastructure to thousands of scattered farmi...
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