Globally, undernutrition is related to almost half of the deaths in children younger than five years of age. It leads to large human and economic costs to countries through increased morbidity and mortality in childhood, poor child growth and development, and hinders adult work capacity and productivity. These consequences, in turn, have serious implications for national development. Eliminating malnutrition has, therefore, been on the forefront of the political agenda of many countries worldwide and for global movements such as Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN). Extensive evidence on what nutrition-specific interventions work to reduce malnutrition exists. Less is known, however, about how to effectively implement these interventions at scale, and what mix of interventions is needed to effectively address the multiple co-existing nutrition problems in different contexts (including nutrition-sensitive programs). Additionally, greater clarity is needed on the role that commitment, program and policy coherence, and context-specific factors, play in creating enabling environments to reduce malnutrition. The Stories of Change (SoC) case studies, originally conducted in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India (Odisha state), Nepal, Senegal, and Zambia, and now in Rwanda, aim to fill some of these knowledge gaps by examining the “drivers of change” in reducing malnutrition across different contexts.

Governments and other food system actors from the private sector, civil society, research and education institutions are being called upon to work together to enhance the sustainability, resilience and inclusiveness of food systems. This appraisal presents key lessons from food, agriculture and environment-related institutional mechanisms, programmes and policies in Rwanda, considered against the backdrop of the country’s agroecological conditions and relevant social, economic and political history. It also provides insights into trade-offs and tensions which involve a balancing act between strong leadership and meaningful participation, securing local food sovereignty and outward connectivity, intensifying and diversifying the (agricultural) economy, creating room for private sector entrepreneurship and providing central coordination – as well as a mindset focused on what is needed and possible.

Globally, undernutrition is related to almost half of the deaths in children younger than five years of age [1]. It leads to large human and economic costs to countries through increased morbidity and mortality in childhood, poor child growth and development, and hinders adult work capacity and productivity. These consequences, in turn, have serious implications for national development. Eliminating malnutrition has, therefore, been on the forefront of the political agenda of many countries worldwide and for global movements such as Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN). Extensive evidence on what nutritionspecific interventions work to reduce malnutrition exists[1]. Less is known, however, about how to effectively implement these interventions at scale, and what mix of interventions is needed to effectively address the multiple co-existing nutrition problems in different contexts (including nutritionsensitive programs). Additionally, greater clarity is needed on the role that commitment, program and policy coherence, and context-specific factors, play in creating enabling environments to reduce malnutrition. The Stories of Change (SoC) case studies, originally conducted in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India (Odisha state), Nepal, Senegal, and Zambia, and now in Rwanda, aim to fill some of these knowledge gaps by examining the “drivers of change” in reducing malnutrition across different contexts.

Over the past 25 years, Rwanda has undergone remarkable shifts and transitions: culturally, economically, and educationally the country has gone from strength to strength. While much scholarship has understandably been retrospective, seeking to understand, document and commemorate the Genocide against the Tutsi, this volume gathers diverse perspectives on the changing social and cultural fabric of Rwanda since 1994. Rwanda Since 1994 considers the context of these changes, particularly in relation to the ongoing importance of remembering and in wider developments in the Great Lakes and East Africa regions. Equally it explores what stories of change are emerging from Rwanda: creative writing and testimonies, as well as national, regional, and international political narratives. The contributors interrogate which frameworks and narratives might be most useful for understanding different kinds of change, what new directions are emerging, and how Rwanda's trajectory is shaped by other global factors. The international set of contributors includes creative writers, practitioners, activists, and scholars from African studies, history, anthropology, education, international relations, modern languages, law and politics. As well as delving into the shifting dynamics of religion and gender in Rwanda today, the book brings to light the experiences of lesser-discussed groups of people such as the Twa and the children of perpetrators.

Mukasonga unsparingly resurrects the horrors of the Rwandan geocide while lyrically recording the quieter moments of daily life with her family—a moving tribute to all those who are displaced, who suffer. Mukasonga’s extraordinary, lyrical, and heartbreaking book … is indispensable reading for anyone who cares about the endurance of the human spirit and who hopes for a better world. — Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Los Angeles Review of Books Scholastique Mukasonga’s Cockroaches is a compelling chronicle of the author’s childhood in the years leading up to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In a spare and penetrating tone, Mukasonga brings to life the scenes of her family’s forced displacement from Rwanda to neighboring Burundi. With a view made lucid through time and pain, Mukasonga erodes the distance between her present and her past, resurrecting and paying homage to her family members who were massacred in the genocide, but also, in movingly simple language, the beauty present in quiet, daily moments with her loved ones. As lyrical as it is tragic, Cockroaches is Mukasonga’s tribute to her family’s suffering and to the lingering grip of the dead on the living.

A History of Rwanda: From the Monarchy to Post-genocidal Justice provides a complete history of Rwanda, from the precolonial abanyiginya kingdom, through the German and Belgian colonial periods and subsequent independence, and then the devastating 1994 genocide and reconstruction, right up to the modern day. Based on extensive archival research, this book provides new insights and corrects many popular stereotypes about Rwanda, aiming to go beyond the polarized and heated debates focused on the genocide and the events that followed. Readers will get a clear and broad picture of Rwanda’s history and the social and political contexts that have defined the county from the pre-colonial period onwards. Embedding Rwanda’s history in the regional context, this book avoids simple moral judgements and instead shows where and when Rwanda differed from its neighbours and how the country’s history fits into larger debates about colonialism, genocide, ethnicity, race and development. Offering a full and balanced exploration of Rwanda’s rich and paradoxical history, this book will be an important read for researchers and students of African history, genocide studies, transitional justice, colonialism, and political and social anthropology.

For 100 days in 1994, genocide engulfed Rwanda. Since then, many in the international community have praised the country's postgenocide government for its efforts to foster national unity and reconciliation by downplaying ethnic differences and promoting "one Rwanda for all Rwandans." Examining how ordinary rural Rwandans experience and view these policies, Whispering Truth to Power challenges the conventional wisdom on postgenocide Rwanda. Susan Thomson finds that many of Rwanda's poorest citizens distrust the local officials charged with implementing the state program and believe that it ignores the deepest problems of the countryside: lack of land, jobs, and a voice in policies that affect lives and livelihoods. Based on interviews with dozens of Rwandan peasants and government officials, this book reveals how the nation's disenfranchised poor have been engaging in everyday resistance, cautiously and carefully—"whispering" their truth to the powers that be. This quiet opposition, Thomson argues, suggests that some of the nation's most celebrated postgenocide policies have failed to garner the grassroots support needed to sustain peace. “Reveals the lengths [to which] the current government has gone to restructure all spaces of Rwandan society, and how Rwandans continue to resist this state interference in their everyday lives.”—Ethnic and Racial Studies “Thomson’s elegant research is praiseworthy and her arguments are forthright. . . . This important publication will be of great value to scholars of Rwanda and genocide as well as students of reconciliation politics and transitional justice.”—Human Rights Quarterly “Sobering and disturbing. . . . The peasant peoples’ resistance to official policies of national unity and reconciliation emerged because these national schemes do not reflect the peasants’ own lived realities and experiences of state power, genocide, and day-to-day living within their communities. Instead, these official policies disrupt everyday life and endanger existing networks of mutual support and dependence.”—Canadian Journal of Development Studies Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine