Rural-Urban Mobility and Rural Livelihood Transformations in Sub Saharan Africa. A Case Study on Rwanda

The RurbanAfrica project aims to explore the connections between rural transformations, mobility, and urbanization processes and analyze how these contribute to an understanding of the scale, nature and location of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Rural-urban interactions and connections play an influencing role in local economies and in the livelihoods of a large amount of people in sub-Saharan Africa. These connections are perhaps most clearly visible at the family or household level. Rural-based households coping with structural poverty conditions may employ multiple residence strategies and their livelihoods as such becoming increasingly multi-local and multidimensional. Building on the growing awareness of the economic importance of rural-urban mobility and migration for rural livelihoods, this paper will explore how causes and patterns of human mobility between rural and urban areas and the processes of livelihood transformation relate to agricultural transformations and how it affects poverty reduction and local development in rural areas. It will thereby question the overall negative interpretations of the economic role of rural-urban mobility and migration in sub-Saharan Africa. The results will be based on empirical research that will take place in Rwanda, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. As a case country this will be the focus of more specific investigation.