Malaria-related deaths also reduced from 700 in 2016 to 148 deaths in 2020. In 2017, the country experienced upwards of 4.8 million cases, but in 2020, cases dropped to 1.8 million. Medical improvements in Rwanda have reduced fatal malaria cases significantly in recent years. In 2012, the Rwandan government initiated the Green Fund, “the largest investment fund of its kind in Africa.” So far, the project has created more than 10,000 jobs and encourages rural communities to participate in agroforestry and reforestation. Rwanda also notes great improvements in terms of the environment. However, the nation hopes to resume growth following the distribution of vaccines. Rwanda has put in place measures to control COVID-19 within its borders, resulting in an unsurprising 3.4% GDP decrease in 2020. Prior to the pandemic, Rwanda was experiencing “an economic boom.” From 2000 to 2019, the economy grew by an average of 7.2% and the country’s GDP rose by about 5% annually. From 2006 to 2017, inequality declined from 0.52 to 0.43 as measured by the Gini index. Access to health care is also improving although there are still disparities between urban and rural communities. Over the past two decades, Rwanda has noted significant improvements in terms of access to utilities. Inequality is defined as “disparities between individuals or groups in areas such as income, wealth, education, health, nutrition, space, politics and social identity.” Historically, Rwanda was home to some of the highest rates of inequality in Africa. This significant decrease is largely due to innovations in the medical field, which allow for better storage and delivery of blood supplies, preventing postpartum hemorrhaging deaths in women. In 2019, the maternal mortality rate in Rwanda decreased by nearly 23% “from 1,270 per 100,000 live births” in the 1990s to 290. However, Rwanda quickly bounced back - employment rates rose from 43% in the second quarter of 2020 to nearly 49% in the third quarter. Like many countries, lockdowns and other preventive measures for COVID-19 originally caused unemployment to skyrocket back up to 1.35% in 2020. Before the pandemic, unemployment in Rwanda was steadily declining, dropping to less than 1% in 2019. Unemployment is Decreasing Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic.Rwanda also has one the highest rates of women participating in the labor force at 84% in 2019. Since the civil war, the nation has pushed for more female leadership in politics - as of November 2021, the Rwandan parliament has a 61% women-led majority, the world’s highest rate of female representation in parliament. In the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report, Rwanda ranked as one of the top five leading countries in gender equality alongside Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway. Rwanda is a Leading Country in Gender Equality.Since then, the government has committed to improving the health and quality of life for its citizens, achieving a life expectancy of 69 as of 2019. The Rwandan Civil War had a significant impact on life expectancy, which fell to a mere 26 years in 1993. The introduction of the first five-year Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy in 2008 and a second five-year plan in 2013 largely account for this reduction. In 2001, the poverty rate in Rwanda was as high as 77%, dropping to 55% in 2017. In particular, the Rwandan government notes 10 impressive improvements in Rwanda. Since then, Rwanda has been in a state of repair and has made great strides in many areas of development. The genocide led to the massacre of approximately 800,000 Tutsi civilians by Hutu extremists, marking one of the worst genocides in history. In 1990, tensions rose between these two groups and sparked a civil war, resulting in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The nation has a population of about 13 million people and is home to two main ethnic groups: the pastoral Hutu and the agricultural Tutsi tribes. Rwanda is the fourth-smallest country in Africa, located in the Great Rift Valley in the central part of the continent.
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