Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to the United States Mathilde Mukantabana speaks at the School of Media and Public Affairs on Wednesday. Logan Rotunno | Staff Photographer

In 1994, Rwanda experienced a 100-day genocide in which extremist members of the ethnic Hutu majority targeted and killed more than one million people, primarily of the Tutsi ethnic group, along with moderate Hutus who opposed the violence. Armed militias and government forces carried out mass killings across the country, displacing roughly two million people and devastating Rwanda’s political and social institutions.

Mukantabana said the violence left the country with a lack of infrastructure, fractured communities and a “broken spirit,” forcing leaders to rebuild from the ground up.

“There was a time we were hopeless and helpless and when we were starting this journey of development, of transformation, especially coming out of the genocide, number one, there is no road map to recover from a genocide,” Mukantabana said.

Mukantabana said Rwanda sees itself as a nation shaped by diaspora because many of its citizens lived, or are living, abroad as refugees following the 1994 genocide. She said diaspora engagement is a “foundational philosophy” that informs Rwanda’s immigration and development policies, allowing citizens abroad to contribute investment, education and professional networks back to the country.

She said the U.S. Rwanda embassy organizes Rwanda Day, an annual event that in 2024 brought together over 6,000 members of the diaspora living in the United States, to mobilize and engage them around Rwandan development priorities. She said rather than viewing diaspora communities as separate from the country, Rwanda treats members of the diaspora as partners in economic growth and political transformation.

“We can’t talk in earnest about the development of Rwanda without thinking about the transforming influence of our diaspora,” Mukantabana said.

Mukantabana said reconciliation between groups like the Hutus and Tutsis was a key aspect of Rwanda’s recovery and a requirement for its development. In the immediate aftermath of the genocide, she said, the country could have descended into cycles of revenge and instability, but leaders instead focused on rebuilding trust and establishing long-term unity.

“The cornerstone was reconciliation, because we needed to see you are not going to develop, divide the good among the bad,” she said.

She said reconciliation required participation from every Rwandan, not just government officials or business leaders. As part of that process, Mukantabana said Rwanda removed ethnic identifiers from national identity cards to create a unified national identity and eliminate divisions that had fueled violence.

“Many young people really don’t know who they are because they grew up knowing I’m Rwandan, I’m not Hutu, I’m not poor,” Mukantabana said.

Mukantabana said Rwanda institutionalized national dialogue through an annual forum called the Umushyikirano, or National Dialogue Council, where citizens, political leaders and members of the diaspora engage in direct, open debate at a conference to evaluate progress and collaboratively set the country’s development agenda.

“All Rwandans have to get together, the leaders, the people in the villages, and we talk about our stuff, what is not going well in terms of reconciliation, some of the stuff that are not really going well in our communities,” Mukantabana said. “That has allowed the people to be able to be active and to talk.”

She said the country’s 2003 constitution guaranteed women at least 30-percent representation in decision-making bodies, removing barriers that had previously limited women’s access to leadership.

“Discrimination is not tolerated because of who you are, because you are a woman, because you are a foreigner,” Mukantabana said. “Everyone is protected because of the people who have always come to the center.”

Mukantabana said, over time, women exceeded that threshold, and in 2008, Rwanda became the first country in the world where women hold more than half the seats in parliament.

“It was not just wishful thinking,” Mukantabana said. “It was through the constitution.”

Mukantabana said Rwanda’s broader development strategy is “bold” because the country chose to “leapfrog” traditional development models out of necessity after its infrastructure was destroyed by the genocide. She said rather than waiting for gradual industrialization, Rwanda pursued technology partnerships with other countries, like the United States, and attempted to accelerate its transition to digital systems and the internet to further accelerate growth.

Mukantabana said the Rwandan government has partnered with Zipline, an American robotics company that developed the first logistics system to deliver medical supplies to rural regions by drone, which “completely revolutionized” the country’s health industry.

“After five years, they found it has saved 200,000 lives of women who were giving birth in rural areas,” Mukantabana said. “Now it’s expanding throughout Africa.”

Mukantabana said Rwanda’s willingness to experiment with new systems stemmed from a recognition that traditional development models would not suffice. She said the country had to “go beyond the confines” of its circumstances and turn post-conflict challenges into opportunities for innovation.

“What happened was an experience,” Mukantabana said. “It built very strong resilience.”