'You're either with us or against us?: Civil society and policy making in post-genocide Rwanda

Land reform and post-genocide justice and reconciliation are arguably the two most pressing challenges facing Rwanda. Both will only be delivered by collaboration between government, civil society, and international donors. This article explores the realignment of these actors within post-genocide and post-conflict policy-making processes. Rwanda is a hard case for NGOs and civil society, in that both the internal freedoms of democracy and the external support structures that often assist resistance to authoritarian rule are lacking. Further complicating matters, the interplay between the moral legitimacy of the Rwandan government and its material dependence on donors shapes the opportunities and constraints of all policy actors. The article proceeds by profiling the policy context and relevant policy actors; mapping the land reform and gacaca policy processes, and the contribution of two civil society actors, LANDNET and Penal Reform International (PRI), to these processes; and concludes by evaluating the determinants of civil society effectiveness. The core argument is that spaces for civil society engagement in policy processes are ad hoc and personalized, rather than based on institutional relationships between society and the state.