Overview & History

CHAI began work in Rwanda in 2002, initially focused on reducing the burden of HIV. Over time, its scope has expanded to cover a broad range of health priorities, including diagnostics, universal health coverage, nutrition, cancer care, and strengthening health systems.

Key Areas of Work

Infectious Diseases & Diagnostics

Early work scaling up HIV/AIDS treatment and care.

Supporting elimination of hepatitis B and C, particularly preventing mother-to-child transmission.

Improving access to timely and affordable diagnostics.

Cancer & Women’s Health

Expanding access to cervical and breast cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment.

Reducing costs and introducing new technologies to strengthen women’s health services.

Health Workforce and Education

Partnered with government to create education systems for training doctors, nurses, and health managers.

Nutrition & Food Fortification

Addressing child malnutrition through locally produced fortified foods.

Targeting pregnant and nursing women, as well as young children, with fortified nutrition.

Health Financing & Universal Health Coverage

Strengthening and expanding Rwanda’s Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) scheme.

Helping expand benefit packages to include more diagnostic and treatment services.

Assistive Technology & Vision Care

Supporting partnerships to improve access to eyeglasses and refractive error care.

Digital Health and Data Systems

Assisting government in developing digital tools to track health commodities and monitor progress.

Recent Achievements

Expansion of CBHI to cover about 91% of Rwanda’s population, including free cancer diagnosis and treatment services.

Large-scale rollout of fortified blended foods reaching pregnant women and children under two.

Training over 1,000 health workers in hepatitis B and C care, with major progress toward elimination goals.

Current Priorities (2024–2028)

Expanding access to affordable medicines, diagnostics, and health products.

Strengthening national ownership of programs to ensure sustainability.

Achieving “triple elimination” of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, hepatitis B, and syphilis.

Further expanding CBHI benefits to improve financial protection and health outcomes.

Key Partners

Rwanda’s Ministry of Health and government agencies.

International donors, private sector organizations, and NGOs providing technical and financial support.

Challenges

Limited funding for high-cost services such as cancer care and diagnostics.

Maintaining reliable supply chains across the country.

Ensuring enough trained health professionals are available, particularly in rural areas.

Bridging equity gaps to ensure all communities benefit from expanded services.

Building robust digital and monitoring systems to track outcomes.

Transitioning new programs to long-term government management.