Burundi Case Study

Burundi is a landlocked country located in Eastern Africa neighboring Tanzania to the East, DR Congo to the West and Rwanda to the North. Following its independence from Belgium in 1962, Ruanda-Urundi split into two countries: Rwanda and Burundi. Presently, Burundi is going through a major political unrest that erupted in April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza intended run for a controversial third term by violating the constitution. This sparked widespread violence across the nation which included arrests, torture of rebel groups and assassinations. The unrest so far has claimed more than 500 lives, and has caused more than 230,00 people to flee the country, mostly to its neighboring countries. As a result, not only the civilians have

Subsistence agriculture dominates the economy by employing 90% of the population, despite the scarcity of cultivable farmland. Coffee and tea account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings. The country’s economic development has emphasized strongly on strengthening basic social services, modernizing public finance and diversifying economic infrastructure, mainly in the mining and energy sector, with an upgrade of the private sector. Burundi now focuses on enhancing opportunities for employment and improving overall standards of living. Between 2010 and 2014, Burundi’s average annual economic growth was 4%, however, due to sociopolitical unrest in the country since April 2015, the GDP is estimated to have plummeted by 4.1% as the growth rate dropped. To date, Burundi remains to be a low-income country with a GDP per capita of $276, as recorded in 2015 by the World Bank, making it one of the poorest countries in the world. Moreover, the current political unrest in the country has furthered the already existing economic crisis. People fled the country in abundance as the country descended into violence and consequently, the market prices of goods and services rapidly declined. This led to a downturn in overall food production and getting the produce to market, resulting in a shortage of food in the long run. When the current state of affairs in the country are taken into account, the economic prospects does not look good in the near future. Burundi experienced a negative annual GDP growth rate in 2015 of -7.2%, for the first time in 10 years, and it is set to deteriorate further with an increasingly insecure business