Rwanda Initiative for
Sustainable Development

By Christian Schulze

Rwanda faces various challenges related to land, but the key ones are the issues of land scarcity, combined with the high population growth, the patriarchal structures that remain strong due to the cultural setting and disputes over land rights emanating from multiple claims due to different waves of refugees caused by conflicts that have characterized the country for decades.

According to Mrs. Annie Kairaba, the director of the Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development (RISD), strikingly 90% of community disputes are related to land, with the insecurity of land rights out of competing claims, where by one piece of land is claimed by different parties, as the main source of conflict: “The majority of these disputes are both inter and intra family which arise from unequal inheritance of land, polygamy and children born out of these illegal marriages”, Mrs. Kairaba said. Regarding the conflict potential of insecure land rights, resolution of competing land claims is central towards the achievement of sustainable peace in the country.

Therefore RISD, a Rwandan NGO focusing on building the capacities of the grassroots through effective policy research and advocacy, is implementing its Land Dispute Management Program (LDMP) to contribute towards sustainable management of land related disputes and support the ongoing land reform process in Rwanda. Since the project started in 2008, over 14,280 participants in 22 Cells benefited directly from the training and functioned as multipliers in their respective communities.

Targeting Local leaders, especially ‘Abunzi’
RISD Director Annie Kairaba handing out LDMP certificates to trained local leaders
Mrs. Kairaba said that the LDMP aims to bring information to the grassroots and therefore focuses on building the capacity of local leaders to identify, manage and resolve land related disputes promptly, fairly and peacefully: “Local leaders are addressed for making the community understand their land rights, through knowing and understanding the relevant legal provisions, because they are closely involved in the communities, understand local issues and hence can handle them quicker and better than courts”. Especial attention is therefore given to mediation as a means of dispute resolution and the ‘Abunzi’ (mediators) who face many land disputes in their daily work.

Focus on women’s land rights For Justin Mimi, the Executive Secretary of Rwaza Sector in Musanze District who first got in contact with the LDMP when RISD was carrying out the LDMP pilot project in 2008, it is important that all residents know their land rights and subsequent land laws, but especially for women he considers it vital: “Over 90% of land disputes are related to inheritance leaving women as the prime victims”. Thus RISD specially focus on women’s land rights during training and in its public awareness campaigns and can announce that so far 48% of the trainees have been women.

LDMP design

The LDMP targets the Cell and Sector levels and is structured in 4 parts: Assessment of capacity needs of local leaders, training, public information and awareness and mentoring. During the program participants get trained in dispute management, mediation and legal provisions such as the Organic Land Law, Expropriation Law, Abunzi (Mediators), Law or Law on Matrimonial Regimes, Liberalities and Succession. Meanwhile both mass media and community based channels like drama, songs, poems and art work are used as outreach tools to inform and sensitize the communities. To provide continued support to trainees, working groups are selected form and by trainees to document disputes and how they are resolved. RISD trainers then follow up and collect data from these working groups quarterly for comparable analysis and monitoring of the ongoing land reform process.

Testimonies from the ground

Mr. Mimi, who attended the RISD training courses given to local leaders in dispute management and land related legal provisions tells about his personal experience with the LDMP: “Through the specific approach of strengthening the capacity of local leaders, especially mediators and village leaders, in preventing and resolving land related disputes, RISD helped us a lot in reducing land related disputes in our Sector, which were actually very many”.

Justin Mimi in front of local leaders during the LDMP training in Rwaza Sector People in Rwaza can now spend most of their time in agricultural activities rather than being concerned with land related disputes and going to court, which was not the case before the LDMP training.