An analysis of urban open spaces on social welfare and tax revenues in Rwanda: evidence from Rwandan Cities

Abstract

The debate on urban open spaces is likely to reach it’s culminate point in the high incomes countries, moreover in the middle and low income countries like Rwanda, the debate is still on going. In view of this study had objective to assess, examine and explore the effect of Urban Open Spaces on Social Welfare and Tax Revenues in Rwanda. To overcome, the study used a mixed methods research design. A random sample of 257 of Rwandan inhabitants was used but one was dropped out because his interview was incomplete and the analysis indicated that 139 (54.3 %) were the male and 117 (45.7 %) were the female. Findings on variations of citizen perceptions on urban open spaces could be explained by two variables such as tax revenues and Social welfare; however, the contribution of tax revenue was estimated to 16.4% while both tax revenues and social welfare contribute to the variations of the perceptions at 18.8%. This study suggests that a policy should be enforced for the development of master plan and better planning of urban open spaces of Rwandan cities with regard to the development of urban open spaces in the capital and other cities of Rwanda.