The role of Rwandan women in population, health, nutrition, energy, water, environmental sanitation, and habitat is assessed in these excerpts from a study entitled "Socioeconomic Profile of the Rwandan Woman" which was carried but in collaboration with a Canadian organization. Rwanda's rate of population growth increased from 2.7% in 1970 to 3.7% in 1978. It is currently 3.6%. The total population increased by 57% between 1978-91. Population pressure on Rwanda's resources is reflected in soil exhaustion, fragmentation of land holdings, deforestation, erosion, and declining productivity. The total fertility rate of 8.6 has clear consequences for women's health and for their roles as educators of children and as economic producers. Women are adversely affected by migration and by polygamy. An estimated 22% of households are headed by women, whose economic disadvantages often translate into extreme poverty. The National Office of Population since its creation has attempted to increase awareness of the imbalance between population and resources and of the different contraceptive methods available. Rwanda's contraceptive prevalence rate has increased from 1.2% in 1985 to 10% in 1990. The health budget has been declining for several years. Women are the principal dispensers of health care to children and play an important role in traditional medicine and as midwives. Only 2.8% of deliveries are professionally attended, and the maternal mortality rate is high. Women's excess physical labor and lack of access to modern health care have been joined in recent years by another threat, AIDS. Although data on women's nutritional status are lacking, it is believed to be deficient. Increasing food imports since 1983 attest to the growing inability of the county to feed itself. At the national level, 27% of farm plots are of less than 1/2 hectare and 56% are under 1 hectare. Food distribution is poor between households and between regions, and seasonal shortages occur regularly. Declining average birth weight of newborns indicates that women's nutritional status is also deteriorating. A Ministry of Health Survey in 1985-86 showed the nutritional status of girls under 5 to be more deficient than that of boys the same age. Firewood fills almost 97% of Rwanda's energy needs. Rapid deforestation and consequent shortages of fuel are serious problems. Despite the important role of women as users and potential conserves of firewood, they have never been incorporated into conservation and reforestation plans as more than passive consumers. Significant investment shave been made in potable water, and a 1988 UNICEF study estimated that 70% of the population has access to clean water. Waste disposal continues to pose serious problems in urban areas especially. Housing shortages are also more serious in urban areas. Women have very limited access to housing, and their housing is usually of inferior quality.