Health sector draws donor confidence

Rwanda and the United States are now working toward a new kind of partnership that will see former taking the lead in planning its health care needs with Washington’s funding.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the partnership this week during the 2012 Annual Meeting of Clinton Global Initiative which was attended by President Paul Kagame in New York. Several other world leaders attended the high profile meeting.In reference to Rwanda, Clinton said, “the United States will continue to provide support for our health programmes, including PEPFAR, as well as programmes on maternal and child health, family planning, and TB.”The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been supporting Rwanda since 2006 in the medical sector.“But the Rwandan Government will do the managing, monitoring, and evaluating of these programs, and most will be run through Rwanda’s own public system,” said the former American First Lady.“Rwanda’s increased ownership and capacity frees our resources so that we can focus more on a priority that they’ve identified, namely, training local healthcare workers”.She added: “We’ve already transferred patients receiving care through PEPFAR to clinics run by Rwandans,” said the Secretary of State on day two of the three-day conference.The Ministry of Health welcomed the new partnership, saying it contributes much to Rwanda’s continues strive to better health of its citizens.“We highly value our partnership with the US which adds value to the existing initiatives in the sector as well as contributes to our targets of meeting the MDGs and our Vision 2020,” said the Head of Communication at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, Arthur Asiimwe. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is the brain child of former US President Bill Clinton, Hilary’s husband.Established in 2005, CGI convenes a community of global leaders to forge solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 Heads of State, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media.To date, CGI members have made more than 2,100 Commitments to Action, which are already improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at US$69.2 billion.CGI partly contributed to the setting up of Butaro Cancer Centre of Excellence in conjunction with Paul Farmer and Jeff Gordon.

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Health sector draws donor confidence