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Since 1989, we’ve been improving the quality of health care for Rwandans.

  • More than 481,000 men and boys have received voluntary medical male circumcision services, thereby benefiting from this procedure’s protective effect against HIV infection.
  • Introduction of postpartum family planning (PPFP) services in 10 districts led to the Rwandan Ministry of Health adopting and prioritizing PPFP in all districts.
  • The use of data “dashboards” at health care facilities has led to improvements in quality of care and increased access to services. At one Jhpiego-supported facility in Nyaruguru District, for example, this innovation led to a 50% increase in the number of pregnant women attending all four recommended antenatal care visits.
  • Jhpiego provided technical support to the Ministry of Health’s Malaria and Other Parasitic Diseases Division to conduct a high-level malaria program review to develop recommendations and identify priority areas for the Malaria Strategic Plan 2020–2025.

Our Technical Areas in Rwanda

Our Work in Rwanda

Tubeho – Integrated Service Delivery Activity

This five-year project, led by Jhpiego and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, aims to accelerate reductions in maternal, newborn and child morbidity and mortality. The project is partnering with the Government of Rwanda and strengthening the capacity of Rwandan institutions and organizations to improve equitable access and use of quality, evidence-based, respectful maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (MNCAH) as well as services for family planning (FP), reproductive health (RH) and malaria. In addition to Jhpiego, the consortium includes Partners in Health/Inshuti Mu Buzima, Society for Family Health, Zenysis, Rinda Ubuzima and four Rwandan Professional Associations: the Rwanda Association of Midwives, Rwanda Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Rwanda Pediatric Association and Association of Private Pharmacists. The anticipated project results are: 1) increased access to, availability and use of evidence-based, quality and respectful MNCAH, FP/RH and malaria services; 2) capacity of host-country institutions, local organizations and providers to sustainably deliver evidence-based, quality MNCAH, FP/RH and malaria services are strengthened in alignment with national priorities and global standards and respond to emerging health threats; and 3) increased use of adaptive learning and evidence in MNCAH, FP/RH and malaria programming.

Fighting COVID-19 Under the Reaching Impact, Saturation, and Epidemic Control (RISE) Project

With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), RISE is working in select countries, including Rwanda, to address the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with ministry of health priorities in each country, RISE’s COVID-19 response support may include: assisting in the planning and rollout of national vaccine plans, including ensuring health care workers are prepared to implement and monitor this plan; providing focused and clinically relevant capacity building for clinicians providing COVID-19 case management; strengthening the oxygen ecosystem; and supporting health care workers in oxygen conservation, rationalization and non-invasive respiratory care.

RISE is a five-year global project—funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and USAID—that works with countries to achieve a shared vision of attaining and maintaining epidemic control, with stronger local partners capable of managing and achieving results through sustainable, self-reliant and resilient health systems. The project is led by Jhpiego with the following partners: ICAP at Columbia University, Management Sciences for Health, Anova, BAO Systems, Johns Hopkins University Center for Public Health and Human Rights, and Mann Global Health. For the COVID-19 ventilator technical assistance effort, RISE is also collaborating with the University of California San Francisco, World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists (via the GH STAR project), FHI 360 (via the EpiC Project) and Johns Hopkins University emergency medicine and critical care staff.

Strengthening Global Event-Based Surveillance Capacity

Jhpiego is providing technical assistance to support event-based surveillance in Rwanda to carry out a range of complex epidemiologic and surveillance activities associated with event-based surveillance systems and alert and response operations at Rwanda Biomedical Center. This work is funded by the CDC Foundation.

The people we serve

Lab Technicians Learn to Identify Multiple Malaria Species with Microscopes

The World Health Organization recommends that all patients who are suspected of having malaria be promptly diagnosed by microscopy or a rapid diagnostic test before being treated. Year after year, the Tanda Health Center, nestled in the hills of Gicumbi District in the Northern Province of Rwanda, saw a rise in cases of patients suffering

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Malaria lab tech Rwanda

Striving to improve care in the community to save time and lives 

When Beatha Mukabucyana’s children fell sick with malaria, a community health worker in her village in Rwanda treated them. “The quick and efficient health services, provided to me in time of need, motivated me to become a community health worker,” she said.  Chosen to serve as a community health worker (CHW) by her village, Karambi,

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Rwanda

Families Ensure Success of Antimalarial Study in Rwanda

Participating in a study to determine the effectiveness of an antimalarial medication—a therapeutic efficacy study—was well worth the time and effort it took, says Jean Bosco Nzirorera, adding that his family has been healthy and malaria-free ever since. In 2018, Nzirorera, along with his wife Francine Uwimana and their son Ivan Ishimwe, who was just

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Rwandan Community Health Worker Is Vital Part of Health Care Delivery

Through programs supported by the Maternal and Child Survival Program, thanks to the United States Agency for International Development, the number of women receiving or maintaining a modern family planning method in Rwanda increased from 384,805 in 2015 to nearly 500,000 today.

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Mentoring Makes the Difference

The government of Rwanda has made a priority of expanding access to quality reproductive health services by increasing the competency and confidence of nurses and midwives—those providers who deliver the bulk of health care here to pregnant women, mothers and children.

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A midwife mentor uses a newborn-sized doll to demonstrate techniques to two nursing students.

Delivering Emergency Care with Confidence

Lunch would have to wait.
Midwife Pauline Mukabasinga was just about ready to enjoy her midday meal on Monday, February 6, when a nurse she worked with at Kabarore Health Center called for her assistance. It was urgent.

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A Dream Realized for Rwandan Community Health Worker

When Gafirigi described his 4-year-old daughter Antoinette as weak, feverish and vomiting, Monique Nirere knew what to do.

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Empowering Health Providers to Heal

Dozens of women arrived outside of a tent in Musanze, Rwanda, for the chance to reclaim their lives. Many of the women were suffering with obstetric fistula, a childbirth-related injury that can result in incontinence and stench. Because of this, some had been living in obscurity; some had been shunned by their families and friends; and many of them had been struggling to live quiet lives despite the pain and shame. Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 women are affected by obstetric fistula every year.

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Pre-elimination Activities Are Saving Lives in Rwanda

Three miles and two mountains away from the Mataba Health Center lives a family whose remote locale proves just how far health care workers in Rwanda will go to find a case of malaria. Sitting in his unlit house, a cow mooing in the background and rain pounding on the roof, Fabien Nsengiyumva told the

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Country Contact

Marie Rose Kayirangwa, Country Director

Tel. 250 788 381 188

Gasabo, Kacyiru, KG 563 St Road

Golf View Rise Building, 3rd Floor

Kigali, Rwanda

Current and Recent Donors

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

CDC Foundation

Clinton Health Access Initiative

Enabel

USAID

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative

Learn about a Jhpiego Women of Change: Vandana Lodhi

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