In Rwanda, human development is occurring in a context of recovery from terrible civil conflict. The
genocide of 1994 has left the country with deep social, psychological and economic scars; human
development in this context consists partly of building a shared sense of national identity in a divided country.
Rwanda also faces chronic economic constraints arising from the density of population in a landlocked
country, which the genocide has compounded by destroying human, physical and social capital and by
accelerating the AIDS epidemic. This report therefore focuses on the themes of reconciliation and poverty
reduction, which are currently receiving particular attention from government and its partners in Rwanda.
