Nov 13, 2024
Rwanda has achieved impressive growth and poverty reduction over the past two decades. The share of the population below the national poverty line fell by more than 20 percentage points from
2001 to 2017, while life expectancy, access to health care, and educational attainment have improved
sharply. However, while poverty continued to fall until the eve of the pandemic, the amount of poverty reduction generated by each percentage point increase in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita fell, and the pandemic and a series of
external shocks have likely increased poverty rates.
