Rwanda
MOMENTUM works with the Government of Rwanda to help women access high-quality family planning services and maternity and surgical care. Together, we also strengthen the availability of health data and our partners’ ability to use it.
MOMENTUM partners with the Government of Rwanda in all five of the country’s provinces by helping women access high-quality care for voluntary family planning and maternal health.
Maintaining and Expanding Family Planning Access and Options
MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership collaborates with the Rwandan Ministry of Health, its implementing agency (the Rwanda Biomedical Center), and a local partner (the Health Development Initiative) to develop and implement a plan to broaden the choice of family planning methods available to Rwandans. In Bugesera district in the Eastern province and Gicumbi district in the Northern province, 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 in all of these health facilities.
MOMENTUM Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics collaborates with the Rwandan Ministry of Health and health facilities in 20 districts across all five provinces to help individuals and couples access the information and services they need to make voluntary and informed family planning decisions at every stage of their lives. We also collaborate with the Ministry of Health to train and mentor health care providers at public and faith-based facilities and strengthen their capacity to provide high-quality health care. Our collaboration with the Ministry of Health also includes outreach activities to increase access to long-acting reversible contraception and permanent contraceptive methods.
Providing Respectful Maternity Care for Rwandan Women
Every woman deserves care during childbirth that is respectful of and responsive to her individual preferences, needs, and values. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership is working with the Rwandan Ministry of Health to promote respectful, person-centered care as an essential aspect of high-quality maternity care. This work includes partnering with the ministry to develop a respectful maternity care policy, which will be integrated into Rwanda’s existing maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health policies by facilitating a policy dialogue process with professional associations, multilateral, civil society, and faith-based organizations working in maternal, newborn, and child health. This policy dialogue will leverage rich resources, including the State of the World Nursing Report: Policy Dialogue Facilitation Guide, and builds on evidence from a global respectful maternity care landscape analysis to create awareness of and support for respectful maternal care.
Strengthening Labor and Delivery Guidelines
Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading direct cause of maternal deaths in Rwanda.1 MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership collaborates with the Ministry of Health and the Rwanda Biomedical Center to update and implement recommendations to prevent and manage postpartum hemorrhage, based on new WHO guidance in Bugesera and Gicumbi districts, which have high rates of postpartum hemorrhage. We are also helping 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.
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 September 2022.