{{November 13, 2014, Kigali}} – {Over the past five years, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has worked with the Ministry of Health to invest in measures to strengthen and sustain Rwanda’s health system through its Integrated Health System Strengthening Project. The $24.8 million project – partially supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – worked to improve access for all Rwandans to quality and efficiently managed health services efficiently managed. Today, USAID, the Ministry of Health, and implementing partner Management Sciences for Health will close the project, and celebrate the major accomplishments that it has facilitated with an end of project conference at Serena Hotel in Kigali.}
Health is USAID’s largest area of investment in Rwanda, with over $94 million dedicated to health activities this year. A large focus of those investments is to introduce and build up strong systems and procedures, and to improve professional skills of personnel in all parts of the health sector so that Rwanda will be able to maintain its impressive health outcomes on its own over the long term. The Integrated Health System Strengthening Project has been a primary contributor to these efforts.
“USAID could not be more proud of the impressive things the project has been able to achieve,” said USAID Mission Director, Peter A. Malnak. “From the implementation of the national health insurance scheme, to the development of policies and strategies that will assist Rwanda to eventually finance its own healthcare, the Integrated Health System Strengthening project has helped put Rwanda’s health system on track to long term sustainability and quality.”
Since its launch, the project has worked closely with the Ministry of Health to improve the health system in five key areas: health information, health financing, human resources, service quality, and structures for decentralization. These objectives have been met in a variety of ways including:
• The nationwide implementation of a new health information system – Rwanda-HMIS – which collects data from over 700 public and private health facilities at all levels of the health system, and makes information available for more accurate decision-making
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• The roll-out of Rapid SMS (in collaboration with UNICEF), a cell phone-based information system that Rwanda’s community health workers use for reporting and for monitoring pregnant women and their babies to ensure healthy pregnancies, births, and newborns
• The development and implementation of community based health insurance, or “mutuelle de santé”, which reached nearly 91 percent of Rwandans, with a focus on the most vulnerable,. The plan makes Rwanda one of the most highly insured countries on the continent – giving Rwandans more equitable access to health care and helping finance the country’s health system
• The beginning of the accreditation process for Rwanda’s hospitals to ensure they meet international standards, with a rigorous process that looks at areas including infrastructure, protocols, and staffing. Currently, Rwanda’s five provincial hospitals are moving through the process, and nearly 40 facilitators have been trained to facilitate the process using the Rwanda Essential Hospital Accreditation Standards, also developed by the project
• USAID introduced an objective, internationally recognized method for assessing and quantifying the human resource needs in health facilities. The system calculates the workload deficit and surplus at each facility, and will guide adjustments in the deployment of health professional at health facilities and guide national workforce planning. So far, the method has been applied in 42 hospitals and 460 health centers, and the Ministry has the skills and tools to complete it in others.
In addition to these accomplishments, the project has worked with the Ministry of Health to develop sound policies, guidance, and strategies in each of its five key areas of work. These policies will help to guide the Ministry and other related government entities to continue to make positive improvements in these areas over the coming years.
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