The Lake Kivu beach at Gisenyi.

Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, with a population of approximately 8 million. It is bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Its fertile and hilly terrain, which gives it the title "Land of a Thousand Hills" supports the densest populations in continental Africa.

The country is well known to the outside world for the infamous 1994 Rwandan genocide that resulted in the deaths of up to one million people. Dependence on subsistence agriculture is high (and increasing) population density, decreasing soil fertility and uncertain climate make Rwanda a country where chronic malnutrition is widespread and poverty endemic.