Rwanda

Rwanda country profile

BACKGROUND

Rwanda is a small landlocked country in Central Africa, located a few degrees north of the Equator where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Rwanda’s weather is characterized by a temperate tropical highland climate. Due to its high elevation, it has lower average temperatures than are typical for equatorial countries. It is divided into four main climatic regions: eastern plains, central plateau, highlands, and regions around Lake Kivu along the western border.

The country’s terrain is diverse and includes mountain rainforests, gallery forests, savannah woodland, wetlands and aquatic forests and agroecosystems. It earns its nickname "Land of a thousand hills" because of the dominating mountainscapes of central and western Rwanda. Approximately 66 per cent of the national territory is under agricultural cultivation and an estimated 89 per cent of rural households practice small-scale farming, which can then be impacted by poor rainfall, drought, and floods. Vulnerability and exposure to climate threats are exacerbated by a context of displacement. As of 2019, 175,000 Congolese and Burundian refugees were living in Rwanda, with 91 per cent of them residing in refugee camps.

Rwanda is exposed to drought, floods, and heavy rainfall, all of which have increased in frequency. As small plot cultivation is common in the hillsides and mountains, an increased number of people are exposed to run-off and landslides. Rwanda is also susceptible to diseases that are influenced by climatic factors such as malaria, meningitis, and cholera.

INFORM RISK INDEX (2022)    

Hazard and exposure: 3.0  |  Vulnerability: 5.9  |  Lack of coping capacity: 5.1 |  Total: 4.5 (medium)  |  Rank: 61

HAZARDS COVERED BY ANTICIPATION    

Riverine floods | Disease outbreak (Ebola) | Population movement | Volcanic activity

EXPERIENCE ON ANTICIPATION 

• Start Network and Start Fund are actively allocating financing to anticipatory responses in Rwanda. Start Fund has provided funding ahead of flooding, displacement, and an Ebola outbreak.
• Rwanda Red Cross is partnering with the Belgian Red Cross to develop an Early Action Protocol (EAP). The elected hazard has yet to be determined.