Rwanda not too small to provide global leadership

Two bold decisions by Rwanda, this month, namely, the declaration of a worldwide entry visa on arrival and the offer to host a large number of African migrants being held in Libyan slave markets; have both earned the country positive regional and international reviews. Rwanda’s offer to take-in tens of thousands of migrants was not a show-off act of a country with resource abundance but a demonstration of responsibility and global leadership in dealing with an international problem that no other nation appeared willing to tackle. “Given Rwanda’s political philosophy and our own history, we cannot remain silent when human beings are being auctioned off like cattle. We may not be able to welcome everyone but our door is wide open,” Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo explained. In the aftermath of Brexit, I opined here that as countries such as USA and Britain that have traditionally been expected to provide leadership on global problems increasingly become inward looking and jingoistic, there’s a void to be filled; I pointed to Rwanda as a potential candidate. Global leadership isn’t a monopoly of geographically large or economically endowed nations; it is a case of resolve and benevolence, two aspects that distinguish Rwanda from the pack. The question of resources has been justifiably raised; we should indeed expect the arrival of our migrant brothers and sisters to stretch the government’s effort in provision of essential public goods such as education, water, food, accommodation and healthcare. “It takes means to take care of people, to provide them food and shelter and give them a normal life. That is the part that we have to work on,” added Minister Mushikiwabo. However, in my view, Rwanda’s resettlement offer should be treated as physical rallying point for the migrants but the obligation to address their logistical needs remains a collective onus upon international humanitarian agencies such as the United Nations. It is going to take local, regional and international partnerships to manage the situation as the arrival of tens of thousands of our migrant brothers and sisters will require that Rwanda invests more resources in its already impressive efforts of realizing the Sustainable Development Goals. One key aspect is ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being of all at all ages which is SDG number three, as a matter of fact; it’s a goal whose realization is dependent on increasing access to qualified doctors as well as availability of medical supplies in health centers. A partnership with Silicon Valley drone startup Zipline has over the last year seen the successful and efficient delivery of medical supplies including blood into health centers located in the country’s remote and hard to reach areas. The partnership with Zipline will ultimately be expanded to cover most of the country, a great thing; however, while this addresses the issue of medical supplies in rural hospitals, the question of limited physicians still needs an equally innovative solution. And this is an African if not a global problem. Doctors are few but even for the few that there are, countries are still struggling to meet their expectations in terms of working conditions and salaries; for instance, there are ongoing strikes by Kenyan and Ugandan doctors over poor working conditions. In this, Rwanda may soon be the source of a major international headline as a result of yet another innovative approach to solving an important health challenge. On the sixth floor of Eco-Building, located in Kigali’s city centre, a process is in its final stages to digitalize a doctor’s brain; the result will be a mobile phone application called ‘chat-bot.’ In tech-language, a bot is a computer program that works automatically to respond to specifically programmed assignments. In this case, the chat-bot will be programmed to interview patients, analyze their information, determine their illness and give action options. For those with smart phones, they will simply install chatbot like any other phone application and in the comfort of your home or office, one would get quality medical consultation, a service currently charged for in hospitals. Visualize the chatbot as a normal whatsapp chat with voice and text options. The conversation ends with you knowing exactly what you’re suffering from and options of what you need to do, all based on information you personally provided. He chats will be available in three languages; Kinyarwanda, English and French. In a major partnership with government, Chat-bot will be installed in all public health centers to aid local nurses and ensure that they serve the ordinary citizens most of whom don’t own a smart phone. A trained nurse at a health facility will simply interview the patient and input their information in chat-bot to derive the patient’s situation. Given the growing number of Smartphone holders, most Rwandans will be able to afford having chat-bot on their phones saving them the time, money and distance used in accessing a hospital. Babyl-Rwanda, the company behind this groundbreaking artificial intelligence innovation, is a subsidiary of Babylon, a leading UK based digital healthcare service provider. Among the options chat-bot gives you include booking a digital appointment with a Babyl doctor at just Rwf500; they call you back, give you a prescription in form of a text code on your phone; with the code; the patient proceeds to a pharmacy where the physician inputs it to view the full description. Views, expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the New Times Publications.

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Rwanda not too small to provide global leadership