Kigali 10th Jan – The Minister of Health has set targets for the health sector officials for the year 2012 that mainly rotate around fight against malnutrition, poor hygiene, improvements in patient/customer care and effective communication. Dr. Agnes Binagwaho outlined key priority areas in a meeting that brought together over 1000 staff of the health sector drawn mainly from Ministry of Health, Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) and District hospitals.

During the holiday season, I took time to reflect on the highs and lows of the past year. Without a doubt, one of the events that made me most proud to be a public servant for the people of Rwanda in 2011 was our National Dialogue Day, or Umushyikirano.

As written in Rwanda’s 2003 Constitution, the country hosts a two-day exchange of ideas, comments, and questions hosted by the President of the Republic at Parliament each December. On December 8 to 9, 2011, officials from the health sector joined representatives of the people as well as leaders from the central government to the village level for the Ninth National Dialogue at Parliament in Kigali.

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Kigali Dec 28^th - Close to 80.74 percent of Rwandans using Mutuelle de santé have so far made their annual contribution to this health insurance scheme largely aimed at bringing equity and accessibility to affordable health care.

Addressing a press conference to highlight key achievements and challenges in the course of 2011, the Minister of Health Dr. Agnes Binagwaho attributed this quick response to the value and contribution that Rwandans have seen in this health insurance scheme.

By Dr. Agnes Binagwaho

We have an opportunity to lay the foundation for an AIDS-free generation, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared on Nov. 8. Unfortunately, we’re trying to dig that foundation with a spoon when we have a shovel at our disposal.

We have the capacity to save nearly 4 million lives in sub-Saharan Africa, the hardest hit region in the world, by scaling up voluntary medical male circumcision — the best tool we have for HIV prevention. But the only method widely approved for funding is the surgical method, which is expensive and impractical for countries lacking physicians and surgical infrastructure.

As the world’s coordinating authority on international public health issues with the mission of, among other priorities, “articulating evidence-based policy options and monitoring and assessing health trends,” one would expect the World Health Organization to take seriously the responsibility of assuring that the evidence derived from these assessments is accurate and up-to-date. As the case of Rwanda illustrates, however, policy options articulated by the WHO can often be based on outdated and misleading evidence.