Project profile — Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Rwanda

• Rwanda (100.00%)

• Basic health care:
Basic health care (12220) (50.00%)
Health personnel development (12281) (50.00%)

• Gender equality (not targeted)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (significant objective)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project aims to enhance the quality of maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) care in Rwandan health facilities. The project focuses on strengthening midwifery and paediatric nursing programs, developing educational capacity to deliver professional development and providing an enabling environment for policy development. Project activities include: designing and launching advanced courses in neonatology and paediatrics, including a Bachelor of Science Degree (BSc) Midwifery Program; strengthening medical faculty competencies in MNCH; and contributing to national health policy and planning. Ten midwifery faculty members per year participate in the proposed faculty development activities, followed by 30 students enrolled the year the Midwifery BSc is offered. The Western University is working in partnership with the Kigali Health Institute and the National University of Rwanda on this project. This project is part of Canada's Maternal, Newborn and Child Health commitment. The maximum CIDA contribution to this project includes $10,000 for monitoring purposes.

N/A

Results achieved as of June 2013 include: (i) validating the midwifery program and completing the curriculum of the pediatric nursing program; (ii) providing training to expert trainers in the Continuing Professional Development program in obstetrics, pediatrics, obstetrical anesthesia, maternal mental health, and essential interventions and services; (iii) completing faculty workshops in Rwanda and in Canada to help midwifery and pediatric nursing educators in Rwanda to deliver competency-based curricula; (iv) developing a curriculum for an advanced postgraduate diploma in specialty advanced pediatrics and neonatology and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Midwifery; (v) completing needs assessment workshops in order to develop a curriculum to train mental health workers; and (vi) enrolling several Kigali Health Institute (KHI teachers in Master’s programs at Western University in Canada in areas such as maternal mental health, pediatric nursing, midwifery, and nursing education leadership, and enrolling one teacher in a PhD program in maternal mental health in nursing. These results are contributing to improving the delivery of health services at local levels (including by training more health workers, equipping health care facilities, and expanding access for mothers and children to needed health care services).

• Proactive disclosure