The Role of Entrepreneurship in Conflict Reduction in the Post-Genocide Rwandan Coffee Industry: Quantitative Evidence from a Field Study

Entrepreneurship is widely acknowledged as a catalyst for poverty reduction and economic development. Yet its role in conflict reduction and social development is largely understudied. This paper presents evidence from a field survey conducted during the summer of 2008 among a sample of Rwanda’s emerging specialty coffee workers and reports on significant correlations between economic satisfaction and life satisfaction, as well as meaningful work contact with members from the other group with an attitude of reconciliation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that quantitatively analyzes entrepreneurial activity and conflict reduction in one of Rwanda’s most pivotal industries, i.e. coffee, and one of the few studies addressing the link between entrepreneurship in the developing world and intergroup peace-building. Contemporary Rwanda is a country with a particularly violent recent history of group-based violence. It is also a remarkable showcase for the expansion of post-conflict enterprise—the result of a series of economic reforms in the aftermath of its 1994 genocide. One particularly important reform is the successful deregulation of a main export sector: the coffee industry. In this context, our main research question was, to what extent does commercial enterprise in the post-conflict Rwandan coffee sector contribute to conflict reduction, and how, if at all, does this effect occur? Rwandan coffee farmers are necessity-driven entrepreneurs: Coffee is one of few income-generating alternatives for rural Rwandans. As a result of liberalization, in recent years the potential for value-added income generation in this sector has improved substantially. We explore other benefits of this improving economic landscape. Officially, ethnic discrimination is banned in Rwanda. Unofficially, it may still exist. However, the economic benefits of liberalization are helping farmers of all ethnicities experience more life satisfaction. We operationalized entrepreneurial activity in this context as commercial activity by Rwandan coffee workers in recently created (i.e., post1999, hence post-liberalization) coffee enterprises and approximated conflict reduction with an attitude of reconciliation between ethnic groups in Rwanda, expressed by coffee workers during a field survey. This reconciliation attitude was composed of several variables predicting forgiveness, similar in kind to those used in the Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and Israeli-Palestinian conflict literature (e.g., Cehajic, Brown, & Castano, 2008; Hewstone, Cairns, Voci, McLernon, Niens, & Noor, 2004; Nadler & Liviatan, 2006). 239 completed surveys were obtained from a sub-section of rural Rwandan coffee workers associated with recently created coffee enterprises. Results from statistical analyses uncovered significant correlations between economic advancement among coffee entrepreneurs, as well as general perceptions of life satisfaction, with comparatively more positive attitudes to reconciliation, especially as the new economic linkages in the Rwandan coffee sector have taken root over time and have become more entrenched in workers’ rural communities. These results were observed independent of individuals’ ethnicity, or the ethnicity mix between members of different groups in Rwanda at a particular survey location. Overall, a change in identity appeared to contribute to changed and improved intergroup attitudes among the sample studied in that those participants with a significantly more positive stance towards the other ethnic group in Rwanda tended to also have a particularly low sense of ethnic distance towards members from the other main ethnic group in Rwanda. The findings are in line with recent psychological theories of reconciliation (e.g., Staub, 2006), and suggest that enhanced entrepreneurship in Rwanda’s liberalized coffee industry may provide the context for increased intergroup contact, which in turn may constitute an opportunity for conflict reduction. The paper concludes with a discussion of the limitations of this exploratory study and suggestions for further research in this domain in future, with the potential to contribute to the reduction of conflict via commercial means.