Reducing Rwanda's Population (Not by Genocide This Time)

The Rwanda government is wanting to reduce the country's birthrate by half, limiting families to three children. According to a news report in the International Herald Tribune the country's population "has quadrupled over the last half-century" since the 1994 genocide to 8.8 million people today, most of whom are subsistence farmers. At current fertility rates Rwanda's population will double by 2030.

An adviser to President Kagame is quoted as saying: "The last government's philosophy was that the country was too small for all Rwandans. We insisted that the country was big enough to accommodate everybody. But many people took that to apply to the unborn as well, and we're having to face that mind-set."

Read News Reports: • BBC • New York Times • International Herald Tribune