{{November 13, 2014, Kigali}} \u2013 {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\u2019s health system through its Integrated Health System Strengthening Project. The $24.8 million project \u2013 partially supported by the U.S. President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief \u2013 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.}<\/p>\n
Health is USAID\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cUSAID could not be more proud of the impressive things the project has been able to achieve,\u201d said USAID Mission Director, Peter A. Malnak. \u201cFrom 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\u2019s health system on track to long term sustainability and quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
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:<\/p>\n
\u2022\tThe nationwide implementation of a new health information system \u2013 Rwanda-HMIS \u2013 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
\n\u2022\t<\/p>\n
\u2022\tThe roll-out of Rapid SMS (in collaboration with UNICEF), a cell phone-based information system that Rwanda\u2019s community health workers use for reporting and for monitoring pregnant women and their babies to ensure healthy pregnancies, births, and newborns<\/p>\n
\u2022\tThe development and implementation of community based health insurance, or \u201cmutuelle de sant\u00e9\u201d, 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 \u2013 giving Rwandans more equitable access to health care and helping finance the country\u2019s health system<\/p>\n
\u2022\tThe beginning of the accreditation process for Rwanda\u2019s hospitals to ensure they meet international standards, with a rigorous process that looks at areas including infrastructure, protocols, and staffing. Currently, Rwanda\u2019s 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<\/p>\n
\u2022\tUSAID 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{November 13, 2014, Kigali}} \u2013 {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\u2019s health system through its Integrated Health System Strengthening Project. The $24.8 million project \u2013 partially supported by the U.S. President\u2019s Emergency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000054971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[2277],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-17350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-ange-de-la-victoire-d"],"bylines":[{"id":2277,"name":"Ange de la Victoire D.","slug":"ange-de-la-victoire-d","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2277,"name":"Ange de la Victoire D.","slug":"ange-de-la-victoire-d","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000054971,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17350.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17350.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17350.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17350.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17350.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17350.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000054971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17350"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=17350"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=17350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}