Rwanda
We partner with the Government of Rwanda to help women access high-quality family planning, maternal health care, and surgical care. Together with our partners, we also strengthen the availability and use of health data.
MOMENTUM is partnering with nearly 40 countries to accelerate progress and advance USAID’s work to save lives and improve health outcomes for women, children, families, and communities in all of their diversity. MOMENTUM brings together specialized technical and country expertise through six distinct yet integrated awards with the depth and breadth of experience to spur reductions in maternal, newborn, and child mortality and morbidity.
Two MOMENTUM projects—Country and Global Leadership and Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics—partner with the Government of Rwanda in all of the country’s provinces to help women access high-quality care for voluntary family planning and maternal health.
Expanding Family Planning Access and Options
MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership collaborates with the Rwandan Ministry of Health, the Rwanda Biomedical Center, and the Health Development Initiative to develop and implement a plan to broaden the choice of family planning methods available to Rwandans. In Bugesera and Gicumbi districts, we are also exploring innovative human-centered approaches to help women and families better understand their postpartum family planning options. Additionally, MOMENTUM engages health facilities, including local faith-based organizations, in enhancing equitable, high-quality access to a full range of family planning methods for women after childbirth.
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics collaborates with the Rwandan Ministry of Health and health facilities in 20 districts across the country to help individuals and couples access information and services to make voluntary and informed family planning decisions. We also collaborate with the Ministry of Health to train and mentor health providers at public and faith-based facilities and strengthen their capacity to provide high-quality care. Our collaboration with the Ministry of Health also includes outreach activities to increase access to long-acting reversible contraceptives and permanent contraceptive methods.
Providing Respectful Maternity Care for Rwandan Women
Every woman deserves care during childbirth that is respectful and responsive to her preferences, needs, and values. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership worked with the Rwandan Ministry of Health and Rwanda Biomedical Center to promote respectful, person-centered care as an essential aspect of high-quality maternity care. We partnered with the ministry to develop an evidence-based respectful maternity care component in Rwanda’s policy and strategic plan for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health through a policy dialogue with relevant professional associations and multilateral, civil society, and faith-based organizations.
Strengthening Labor and Delivery Guidelines
Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading direct cause of maternal death in Rwanda.1 MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership collaborates with the Ministry of Health and the Rwanda Biomedical Center to update and revise national guidelines on labor and delivery based on WHO’s 2018 intrapartum care recommendations and the 2021 WHO Labour Care Guide, both of which include updates on postpartum hemorrhage prevention and management.
Strengthening Surgical Obstetric Care
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics partners with Rwanda’s national and local governments, technical resource groups, professional associations, and health workers as they collaborate to strengthen their capacity to provide high-quality surgical obstetric care, especially for cesarean sections and hysterectomies performed within 24 hours of childbirth. This work includes:
- Partnering with government and academic institutions to provide general practitioners, nurses, midwives, and anesthetists with continuous professional development of safe surgery skills.
- Helping surgical teams safely provide care during the COVID-19 pandemic through training, mentorship, safe surgery supervision, and equipping fistula centers.
- Leveraging and improving referral networks for emergency obstetric care and fistula treatment.
- Bolstering the Rwandan Government’s efforts to update, adopt, disseminate, and increase the use of national guidelines for safe surgical obstetric care.
Discover the story of Mukankotanyi Yvette, a mother in Ngoma district who gave birth to a healthy baby boy with the help of a MOMENTUM-trained health worker.
Strengthening Data Availability and Use
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics works with partners to strengthen the use and availability of health data, especially for budgeting, planning, and monitoring health care quality. We are reviewing Rwanda’s standard health metrics and monitoring and evaluation frameworks to help the government improve how it collects and uses data for safe surgeries and integrated health care for mothers and babies.
MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership: Jhpiego, Rwanda Ministry of Health, Rwanda Biomedical Centre; Health Development Initiative
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics: IntraHealth, Rwanda Ministry of Health, Rwanda Biomedical Centre, Rwandan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Interested in partnering with us or learning more about our work in Rwanda? Contact us here or check out our regional reference brief.
Learn more about USAID’s programs in Rwanda.
Reference
- Sayinzoga, Felix et al. 2016. “Maternal death audit in Rwanda 2009–2013: a nationwide facility-based retrospective cohort study.” BMJ open 6 (no. 1): e009734.
Last updated December 2023.
Our Achievements in Rwanda
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27 health workers trained
From October 2021 to September 2022, MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics trained 27 health workers on how to counsel for and provide permanent methods of family planning.
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3,700 pregnant women supported
From October 2021 to September 2022, MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics supported health workers to follow up with 3,700 pregnant women with previous cesarean sections or hypertension to ensure they had safe birth plans in place.