Rwanda Has Trained 47,000 Health Workers

President Paul Kagame said on Thursday at the World Economic Forum that Rwanda’s ambitious efforts to provide health workers for the remotest villages across the country has been attained, but added that more work remains.

Speaking at the launching the ‘One Million Community Health Workers’ for Africa campaign, the President said Rwanda has “trained 47,000 health workers and today the whole country is covered”.

“We have also used information and technology infrastructure to improve efficiency of community health workers,” said Kagame, adding: “Community health workers are something we have had experience with and we have seen the very good results.”

President Kagame and Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez joined Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs in announcing the campaign, which will be overseen by a steering committee at the Earth Institute and will be run through the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network as part of its Solutions Initiative.

The campaign is also supported by the UN MDG Advocates and the UN Broadband Commission, both of which are co-chaired by President Kagame.

“We are more than happy to be part of this not only because it serves us but it serves the people of Africa,” said the President.

“As President of Rwanda and Co-chair of the Millennium Development Goals Advocates Group and the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development, I wholeheartedly endorse the ‘One Million Community Health Worker Campaign’ to scale up community health workers throughout Africa.”

Rwanda is divided into 5 Provinces, 30 Districts, 416 Sectors, 2.148 Cells and 14.837 villages. The trained health workers, who are trained to provide basic help before the patients are taken to hospitals, add up to more than three on average for every village in the country.

President Kagame said: “We have seen in Rwanda the ability of community health workers to improve public health and believe that this initiative can serve the cause of public health throughout Africa.

This campaign will support many ongoing public-private partnerships, United Nations initiatives, and African Union efforts to meet the health Millennium Development Goals.”

At the event today January 24, 2013, Novartis CEO Jimenez announced that Novartis will donate $1 million to support the training and development of the cadre of new health workers.