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Rwanda

In the past decade, Rwanda has made unprecedented progress in health indicators, more than tripling the use of modern family planning, reducing maternal deaths by more than 50% and infant and child deaths by more than 40%, and increasing the overall use of health services. Despite these gains, the country faces a critical shortage of qualified health workers with fewer than five doctors or nurses to provide care for every 10,000 people—far less than the 23 doctors and nurses per 10,000 people recommended by the World Health Organization. This acute understaffing makes it more challenging for health workers and the health system to respond to HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and chronic diseases.

For over 20 years, IntraHealth International has worked in Rwanda to help the government meet the country’s need for high-quality health care services by training health workers and strengthening the systems that support them. In collaboration with partners, IntraHealth currently works to build the capacity of national and district health institutions, to bring reproductive health and HIV clinical services and community-based care to more people, and to incorporate health services for women and children into existing services. 

HIV/AIDS Clinical Services Program

Through this program, IntraHealth works in nearly 50 hospitals and health centers in four districts to train health workers to provide a package of HIV care services that includes:

• HIV counseling and testing, antiretroviral therapy, post-exposure prophylaxis,  and integrated care for HIV and tuberculosis
• Health services for women and children, including for children living with HIV
• Counseling for people living with HIV to help them make informed choices about family planning and access the information and services needed to prevent HIV transmission between partners and from mother to child
• Confidential, gender-sensitive, comprehensive care for adults and children who have experienced gender-based violence
• Palliative care to improve the quality of life of terminally ill patients and meet their physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs, and to help their families.

The program also trains volunteer health workers to provide HIV testing and counseling within communities and encourages the constructive involvement of men in health services and family health care decisions. Additionally, the program collaborates with managers at public health facilities to strengthen their leadership skills, build better working environments, offer supportive supervision in clinics and technical assistance in data management and reporting, and encourage partnerships with the private sector. This work is funded by USAID.

Expanding Rwanda’s Commitment to the Population, Family Planning, and Reproductive Health Program

IntraHealth leads this program, which collaborates with public- and private-sector organizations to advocate for informed, evidence-based decision-making around reproductive health work, to help build a policy environment that supports this work, and to encourage the government to support family planning, emergency contraception, and postabortion care services. The program supports Rwanda’s Network of Parliamentarians for Population and Development to educate parliamentarians and other government officials about family planning and reproductive health. The program also works with the Ministry of Finance to support districts to make evidence-based decisions in the health sector and to examine the connections between population and development. Finally, the program provides institutional support around family planning and adolescent reproductive health to the Imbuto Foundation, which was founded by the First Lady of Rwanda. The program is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Past Projects

• Capacity Project (funded by USAID, led by IntraHealth)
• Enhancing Client Access by Integrating Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Services in Rwanda (funded by Tides Africa Fund, led by IntraHealth)
• HIV/Performance-Based Financing Project (funded by USAID, partner to Management Sciences for Health)
• PRIME II Project (funded by USAID, led by IntraHealth)
• The Rwandan Adolescent Reproductive Health Initiative (funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, led by IntraHealth)
• Supporting and Solidifying Rwanda’s Commitment to Population and Family Planning (funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, led by IntraHealth)
• Twubakane Decentralization and Health Program (funded by USAID, led by IntraHealth)

Contact

IntraHealth International in Rwanda
(250) 252 503567/8/9

Christian Stengel
Chief of Party
cstengel@intrahealth.org

Emile Sempabwa
Director of Policy and Development
esempabwa@intrahealth.org

More information is available in the country brief.