Agricultural production is highly sensitive to climate change and variability. Abnormal variability in temperature and rainfall patterns increases probability of reduction of crop yields that end up in food insecurity as a direct consequence. This study explored the impact of climate change and variability on maize production in the northern highlands and central plateaus wetlands of Rwanda and its connection to food security for local farmers. Data were obtained using different methods and techniques including review of existing published and unpublished reports, analysis of meteorological data, field observation, household questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The study revealed abnormal changes in rainfall and temperature where mean temperature has increased by 0.85 0C in Bahimba wetland and 1.1 0C in Bishenyi wetland for the past 30 years. Research findings show that rainfall decreased by 30 mm in Bahimba Wetland while increased by 50 mm in Bishenyi wetland. Consequently, due to prolonged droughts in Bishenyi wetland, maize yields reduced by 41% per hectare in 2013 and 51% per hectare in 2014. Likewise, in Bahimba wetland, maize yield reduced by 17% per hectare in 2015. These reductions in maize harvests have caused food insecurity among maize farmers and the entire population in the same area. It is recommended that improved adaptation measures including watersheds management, new drought resistant and early maturing maize varieties, community food reserves, savings and credits groups, improving irrigation infrastructures, diversified income sources and improved maize value chain should be taken to ensure increased maize yields and sustainable food security.

The government of Rwanda initiated and adopted pro-people Home-Grown Initiatives in order to reduce poverty and uplift significantly the socio-economic status of Rwandan citizens. Those home-grown solutions included among others; Vision 2020 Umurenge Program (VUP). VUP is a large scale social protection program which is government owned and led. VUP was launched in 2008 with 3 components: Direct Support, Public Works and Financial Services. In Kayonza district, VUP started in Nyamirama sector as a pilot. Data from VUP unit in Kayonza district show that since 2008 Nyamirama sector received Rwf 977,993,079 and this amount was utilized for VUP. However, despite those millions of money injected in to reduce poverty, Nyamirama Sector is still characterised by poverty, and among the poorest sectors in Kayonza district. This study was undertaken to determine the limitations of VUP to contribute to sustainable graduation from poverty. The main objective of the study was to determine the factors hindering VUP to contribute to sustainable graduation of its beneficiaries. The study was predominately of descriptive research design. The target population for this study were all VUP beneficiaries from 2008. Using Coheran formula, a sample size of 98 respondents was selected. Systematic and purposive sampling methods were used. The triangulation of data collection techniques was used to collect data. Based on some indicators, such as income, source of income, food intake, assets possession etc. the findings showed no significant contribution of VUP to change poverty status in which beneficiaries were in before VUP support. However, compared with previous findings from other researches on VUP, it was revealed that the findings of the research are specific and only applicable to Nyamirama sector. Factors causative to poor contribution of VUP program in Nyamirama sector were analysed:(i) Beneficiary-specific factors, such as general illiteracy (ignorance), financial illiteracy; (ii) Community-specific factors (culture of having many children); (iii) VUP program-specific factors, such as .insufficient support, delays of payment, short duration of public works and delays in approving and giving VUP loans; (iv) Market and climate changes-specific factors (Food inflation and draught).Another non-negligible factor is the fact that Nyamirama sector was the poorest sector and pilot sector. Considering the findings of the research, recommendations were made: increase VUP support, reduce delays in payment, increase wage per day and duration of VUP/PW and regular training and sensitization of VUP beneficiaries on profitable use of VUP support.

The freedom of contract also known as “autonomy of the will” is a key principle that is followed in all types of contracts. It implies that people are free to organize their relationships, undertakings and to conclude any contract that is suitable for them.1 F. ZIGIRINSHUTI goes on arguing that the freedom of contract principle permits any individual to enter into any contract with the other and the law enforces those agreements.2 From the above definition, as many authors argue, for parties to organize their contract in a way suitable to them, there are some guarantees that must be considered. For instance, E. BUTCHER explains that the freedom of contract principle implies 3 main guarantees recognizable as influenced by Swiss Law: parties must have freedom to conclude or not conclude a contract as well as freedom to choose who to contract with, freedom to determine the content and the terms of contractual provisions and then the freedom to depart from the types of contract as presented in their Code of obligations.3 As it appears, the later gives parties the right to make any other contract even though it might not be provided in their law regulating contracts. However, this freedom is not unlimited, but in a way also benefitable to individuals. As the above author has mentioned, this principle can only be restricted by reasonable regulations to prohibit actions contrary to public order, policy or contrary to good morals (contra bonus mores); besides as he adds, regulations must be reasonable and legal.4 The other thing but which is the result of the principle of freedom of contract is that it can be restricted by the parties’ will. This research will specifically talk about the matrimonial regimes and see the applicability of this principle under such contracts as far as Rwandan law is concerned.

The study about agent banking and its benefits to involved Financial Stakeholders was conducted in the banking Sector, comprised of two objectives: explore the process for adoption of agent banking for the creation of a financial system: A case of BK and Equity Bank Rwanda; and identify the benefits of agent banking as a financial system for financial stakeholders, including agents and commercial banks, central bank, Access to Finance Rwanda and customers. The agent banking is designed to help commercial banks increase their outreach without incurring additional costs of setting up physical branches. This study used an exploratory case study research design and sample size of 26 respondents. Data were collected using interviews and analyzed using content analysis. The study identified the process of adoption of agent banking as a financial system and benefits to involved financial stakeholders banking to follow the proposed steps. This study found that agent banking adoption process starts with Central bank issuing agent banking guidelines and Commercial banks apply to obtain prior written approval of the Central bank. In this process, commercial banks invite interested agents to apply seeking permission to provide financial services on their behalf. Technological devices such as mobile phone and POS machines and computer machines are used in the process to provide the financial services after signing the contract between a commercial bank and an agent. It benefits Central bank and Access to Finance Rwanda in terms of promoting financial inclusion; increasing the market share and market penetration especially in remote areas for commercial banks. Agents benefit from it, in terms of commission received for agents and customers get convenient access to bank services, for customers. The study concluded that, agent banking that should be adopted by all the commercial banks in order to speed up the promotion of financial inclusion in Rwanda. It therefore recommended that the central bank should provide online approval to easy the process. Commercial banks should keep increasing the number of agents to reach potential customers in unbanked locations. They should also adopt other technological devices to provide agent banking services and offer micro loans via agents. Increase the threshold of cash in and cash out transactions an agent cash effect.

This study is about code switching use in Kinyarwanda, the phenomenon which is referred to as the alternate use of two or more languages, language varieties or styles within one segment of sentence or conversation. Even if code switching seems to be a normal way of efficiently expressing ideas among bilingual persons, the big challenge may arise when the message involving code switching has to be relayed to another audience through interpreting, especially when code switching users are not continuously bearing in mind that it can adversely impact what interpreters render. The study targeted Members of the Rwandan Parliament (MPs), specifically in the Chamber of Deputies. It was realized that by using code switching, MPs’ major objective is to express their ideas or respond to other needs with language resources available to them and they know that interpreters, as language engineers, will always find a way to relay the communication-which is not the case all the time. In this study, it was hypothesized that the more the source text producer uses code switching items, the more difficulty the interpreting task becomes and the more quality of the output diminishes. The quest for solving this situation increases levels of quality offered by interpreters at the Parliament and provides interpreters with a better working environment. The study sought to answer the following questions: What kind of code switches are used by Parliamentarians speaking Kinyarwanda? To what extent does code switching affect the interpreting quality from Kinyarwanda into either English or French? and which strategies can be used to handle code switching while interpreting from Kinyarwanda into either English or French? To respond to these questions the study used a sample population including MPs and interpreters. The latter were selected from those working at Parliament permanently and those who interpret for the institution on a part time basis. Different data collection methods were applied: questionnaire, interview, skimming through MPs’ contributions containing code switching items and recordings of interpreters’ outputs. The researcher’s participation through observation and provision of clarification where necessary also contributed a lot. MPs understudy proved to use code switching items from both English and French, where out of 826 code switching items analyzed, 74% were from English and 26% from French. No single MP proved to stick to using code switching items from only one language. Three code switching types were employed disproportionately: intra-sentential code switching was predominantly used, 57.4% compared to inter-sentential code switching, 39.3% and tag switching, 3.3%. Such code switching items were made with various linguistic items including nouns, verbs, adjectives, abbreviations and interjections and so on. Impact of code switching on the interpreting quality appeared not negligible as code switching items in STs lessened the interpreting quality by between 10 % and 26%. This impact was weighed intertextually, intra-textually and instrumentally, as worked out by Shlesinger (1997: 128). Quality factors looked at were equivalence (1), accuracy and appropriateness (2), and comprehensibility (3). Errors made by interpreters involved in the study showed the impact of code switching items in the SL and they manifested themselves through omissions and distortions for the 1st quality factor, via hesitations, pause-fillers, bad use of grammar, lack of coherence and wrong choice of words for the 2nd quality factor as well as through lack of explicitness and completeness for the 3rd quality factor. Findings of the study showed that code switching in Kinyarwanda STs constitute jeopardy to the quality of interpreting. Some alternatives to deal with this situation were proposed, and these require efforts from both interpreters and interpreter-mediated events’ organizers or clients.

The high speed of urbanization in Rwanda has considerably increased housing demand and the mortgage market has emerged to ensure that funds are available to producers and purchasers of real estate. But, the housing needs vis-à-vis the capacity of most people to afford to own homes from their own incomes is still a challenge as mortgages products are available at outrageous conditions making mortgage finance unaffordable. For better market readjustment, the effects or mortgage market factors to housing affordability should be clarified. The objective of this study is therefore to determine how mortgage finance market affects the affordability of housing in Rwanda, particularly in Kigali city. To attain this objective, relevant research methods are used to collect and analyse data. The research findings revealed that the adopted loan amortization schedule, the risks caused by the absence of secondary mortgage market resulted in high cost of finance, and the dominance of short-term financial institutions reduced mortgage finance affordability and therefore only 15% of Kigali city households could afford housing annually in the last ten years. It is noted that, this said affordability is only purchase affordability without repayment affordability. The study highlights also that, if the secondary mortgage market is properly developed to reduces the risks that caused the high interest rate, the flexibility on loan amortization is adapted and the long term financial institutions participate in the market with favourable legal framework, the mortgage finance market can contribute a lot in alleviating the issue of housing affordability in Kigali city. And Kigali city become a show case to other developing countries too.

The study is conducted to assess the contribution of security organs and reconciliation in post genocide Rwanda: Case study of Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), from 1994 to 2016. The researcher selected Rwanda Defence Forces based on its thought contributions, roles and attributes that were carried out during and after the violent conflict that culminated in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, in relation to the Rwanda reconciliation process other than warfare and protection. The study objective is to assess and provide findings about the RDF contributions rather than warfare and protection of civilians and infrastructures with which brings about reconciliation and harmony in post genocide that others can learn and benefit in conflict situations. And in view also to bring its findings in the context of gaps in academic research to mitigate contemporary security challenges under peace and security studies. This study is exploratory given that it is not aimed at testing a hypothesis. As far as the study approach is concerned, this thesis is mainly qualitative notably regarding the exploration of the two research questions. The quantitative aspect is only provided in identifying the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents as well as respondents‘ views on reconciliation and security. The purpose is only to explore respondents‘ opinions and experiences with regard to activities of RDF in relation to reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda. Security is understood by all levels as the very least, the survival as the most basic value to be secured or protected. However, security is not only state sovereignty privilege; it is broadened to include national security, human security and individual security that has been the center of threats to security thus developing violent conflict. Therefore, the link between the security and reconciliation is the intervention (peace enforcement), protection (peace keeping) and sustainability (peace building) activities that security organs should play vital roles among other institutions. It is in this regard that RDF is found contributing an important part within the above three categories more than warfare.

The aim of this study was to examine and demonstrate how competition law promotes economic growth in Rwanda, and the following were found to specific objectives:
to present some concerns of competition practices in Rwanda, and their legal implications and how the issues in question should be enhanced and tackled in a legal and worthy manner, to analyze the strength, weaknesses and challenges of the institutions in place, to promote competition, and to establish the linkage between the enforcement of the competition law and the economic growth. To gather information within the course of this research, the researcher used documentary review techniques including documents review, which was used to consult laws, books and other documents, reports, journals and case laws as well as interviews. By exploring the literature on the nature of competition and reason of having or initiating competition law, Rwanda like other most developing countries, is working to implement competition policy and laws like. The actions regarding the implementation of completion policy are explained by initiation of RDB where its first mission is to help in fostering Rwandan economy and this has to facilitate investors who like to do business in Rwanda. It has been hard to estimate the role of competition policies and laws but the arrival of foreign investors help in increasing the level exports in hold to equilibrate the balance of payment. Those competition policies also were found to have a great contribution on development programs like 2020 Vision, EDPRS, and MDGs where Rwandan is ranked among the countries that has achieved more about the goals of Millennium Development.

This dissertation presents a consistent problem of high volume prank calls, which constrain effective delivery of emergency services. The problem has led to the examination of the level of public awareness of emergency services, the level of preparedness of emergency services inensuring information sharing is well achieved and strategies in place to address the problem. Fundamental issues examined in the dissertation are: 1) knowledge and use of emergency and non-emergency numbers by member of the public, 2) understanding the need for assistance, 3)quality engagement between callers and operators and,4) the level ofpublic trust and confidence in emergency services. The second issue examined is on preparedness where issues like: 1) response time, 2) state of call center abuse and measures to solve the challenge, 3) sharing of electronic informationamong stakeholders, and 4) agency collaboration among others. Analysis was made from unstructured interviewsconducted with experienced persons in call center operations and others with expertise in Information and communication Technologies (ICTs).The methodology used a qualitative approach where document analysis, interviews, questionnaires and observation were used as data collection methods and a descriptive and analytic approach was used. The findings from this study shall be useful and necessary for establishing laws and regulations for emergency services, which shall serve to ensure increased responsibility and accountability by users, and help influence standards which have to be met by telecom companies to enable modernizing emergency call centers, whichinclude support for location based services, supporting multimedia and mobile applications for emergency reporting e.g., text based messages, pictures, video and audio among others. The key requirements for having effective emergency services were also highlighted. The key recommendations made include improving public awareness through public awareness campaigns, establishing a national emergency services coordination mechanism to include formally other actors like volunteers in the health domain, public safety and local leadership who at the village level make a formidable force whichcan as well support response to emergencies. An emergency services academy has also been proposed to address the challenge of lack of skills in emergency services.

The research report is about a study that aimed at establishing the way forward so as to improve the implementation of the policies of land use as a strategy to poverty reduction; Kayonza District was a case study. The study was guided by three objectives that focused on the citizens’ level of understanding about the land use, the challenges in the process of land use, and the proposed way forward to use land in order to fight against poverty. Respondents were chosen from seven sectors of Kayonza District. The data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire, an interview guide and a four group discussion (FGD) guide. A review of relevant written documents was also done to supplement the primary data. The study findings look at the general findings of the research paper by answering research questions in line with the objectives and the hypothesis of the study topic. it assessed the land use initiatives available in Kayonza district; in order to investigate the extent to which citizens understand the importance of well- used land in relation to their income and expenses, the challenges in the process of land policies implementation and how to formulate the policy proposing land use in fighting against poverty. CHF in the partnership with Rwandan government and USAID/ Higa Ubeho has carried out various initiatives in the district. The findings shown that even if the government of Rwanda implemented the policy on land exploitation by the system of “akarima k’ igikoni” in order to overcome the problem of small land .The policy, may establish mechanism to ensure effective participation of the citizens in the kitchen garden program. Those households who ignore the implementation of the kitchen garden will face consequences discussed with the local administration authority. There are still unexploited land especially in urban and semi- urban areas which increase a high food demand and decrease income of those who do not have any land, who always buy their food.