The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Zachee Iyakaremye, has underscored that the world faces a bigger threat, cancer, which seeks to undo all the progress made in the global health space.

He made those remarks at a side event hosted by the Rwanda Biomedical Centre and City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) which was held along the lines of the Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) that is underway in Kigali from 5^th to 8^th March 2023.

The event presented the major outcomes of C/Can Kigali initiative and launched a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to deliver joint capacity development programmes to build up the country’s cancer care workforce.

PS Zachee stressed the vital role that healthcare workers play in strengthening the Rwandan communities and health systems, citing some of the remarkable milestones that Rwanda was able to register.

These include the significant improvement of the population’s health to achieve dramatic declines in premature mortality, increase the life expectancy so that Rwandans are able to live longer, healthier lives.

Moving, on he said, “We face a threat that seeks to undo the progress we have made in the health sector if we fail to act”.

Over 7,000 lives are lost to cancer every year in our country. Over 10,000 Rwandans receive a cancer diagnosis each year. Cancer costs lives and livelihoods. What’s more, it places a heavy strain on our communities, health systems, and economy, Zachee emphasised.

The two-year MoU signed between the Ministry of Health and C/Can Kigali initiative entails a capacity building programme in areas that are vital to improving quality cancer treatment, notably in pathology, breast and cervical cancer surgery, gynecologic oncology, uro-oncology, radiology, radiotherapy, and oncology nursing.

Commenting on the signed MoU, Dr. Patrick Ndimubanzi, the Executive Secretary of MoH’s Human Resource for Health Secretariat, projected the partnership to produce a fit-for-purpose health workforce that will see our organisations work together to coordinate efforts in strengthening cancer treatment.

“These capacity building activities will support, develop and empower the health care workers of today and future generations so that they have the competence, skills and resources to deliver safe, quality, and humanised cancer care, ”he noted.

In her opening remarks, Isabel Mestres, Chief Executive Officer of C/Can, welcomed the joint commitment and praised the country’s leadership in supporting the country’s health workforce.  

“The MoU between the MoH’s Human Resource for Health Secretariat and C/Can serves as a powerful example of how collective, coordinated action can lead to sustainable, scalable change that delivers real impact for healthcare professionals, cancer patients and their families.” 

Rwanda has nearly 2,000 physicians and over 11,000 nurses delivering care across the country.

Apart from the MoU, the country has also invested efforts in cancer care and treatments, having been the first African country to implement a comprehensive HPV prevention program whose vaccination achieved more than 90 percent coverage.

In 2020, President Kagame also inaugurated the country’s first dedicated cancer center that features two linear accelerators which has the capacity to treat 150 patients a day and over 1,000 patients are receiving coordinated cancer care through a patient navigation programme in five of the main cancer centers.