“We can’t eat the constitution”

The document examines the gap between Burundi's political progress toward democratic elections and the lagging implementation of socio-economic reconstruction outlined in Protocol IV of the Arusha Accords. It highlights critical failures in land tenure reform, the repatriation of refugees, and the support of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The author argues that extreme poverty, unequal resource distribution, and a reliance on short-term humanitarian aid rather than long-term development create a risk of relapse into conflict. Specific challenges include a crippling external debt burden, gender-based violence, and the potential for 'disaster capitalism' to undermine local land rights during the reconstruction process.

• A narrow focus on the ethnic composition of state institutions may hide the structural causes of conflict, specifically the unequal distribution of and access to resources.
• The National Commission for the Rehabilitation of Sinistrés (CNRS) and the Ministry of Reintegration and Resettlement of Displaced and Repatriated Refugees (MRRDR) have overlapping and synonymous mandates, a result of political power-sharing compromises between the FRODEBU and G10 parties.
• International donor funding is heavily skewed toward short-term humanitarian emergency aid, which acts as a 'safety net' in the absence of a competent state rather than supporting long-term structural reconstruction.
• Land scarcity is a primary source of potential instability, exacerbated by a population growth rate of approximately three percent and the return of thousands of refugees and IDPs.
• The draft Land Code of May 2004 proposes reducing the 'prescription' period for squatters to gain legal ownership from 30 years to 15 years, which may prevent thousands of people displaced in 1988 from reclaiming their land.
• Burundi faces a crippling external debt burden, with debt service payments exceeding 157 percent of exports and total debt exceeding 180 percent of its gross domestic product as of 2002.
• Women in Burundi face severe structural inequality, with over 72 percent of females over age 15 being illiterate and widespread systemic abuse, including the use of rape as an instrument of war.
• Economic degradation is severe, with GDP falling by 25 percent over five years and urban poverty doubling to 66 percent between 1992 and 2002.
• There is a risk that neo-liberal reconstruction efforts may lead to 'disaster capitalism,' where the desperation of post-conflict environments is used to facilitate land grabs and privatizations by the powerful.

APA

Jooma, M. B. (2005). “We can’t eat the constitution”. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PAPER106.PDF

Chicago

Jooma, Mariam Bibi. “We can’t eat the constitution”. Institute for Security Studies, 2005. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PAPER106.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Jooma |first1=Mariam Bibi |title=“We can’t eat the constitution” |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=May 2005 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PAPER106.PDF |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{jooma2005cant, author = {Jooma, Mariam Bibi}, title = {{“We can’t eat the constitution”}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2005}, month = may, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PAPER106.PDF}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }