Join FP2020 by Making a Commitment

During the London Summit on Family Planning, the government of Rwanda committed to ensuring the availability of family planning services in each of the 14,841 Rwandan administrative villages (Imidugudu) through delivery by the 45,000 community health workers already in service. In 2014, the government reported that family planning services had been scaled across the country through community health workers.

In 2015-2016, the government of Rwanda reported that family planning services were provided countrywide at community level by Community Health Workers (CHWs) and the following activities were undertaken in support of this commitment:

• Updating and procuring FP tools used at community level, related to the register, supply chain management, reporting, and referral forms for CHWs
• Training new CHWs to overcome the dropout among CHWs and additional CHWs (ASM)
• Refresher training of already trained CHWs
• Training and monitoring of the Supply Chain Management and Waste Management system.

The government of Rwanda engaged in the following activities to expand existing family planning communications programs to raise awareness of family planning choices:

• A communications campaign was organized countrywide to raise awareness of FP choices and provide clear messages on contraceptives, benefits of FP use, and management of side effects. All four provinces and Kigali City were reached and 10 districts out of 30 conducted a special mobilization through community events, dramas, and meetings with community leaders.
• Mass mobilization activities were planned and organized by the Rwanda Health Communication Center (RHCC) with regular talk shows on national and local radios and TVs
• Training of journalists and the creation of a network of journalists on reproductive health and maternal and child health (including family planning)

The Government of Rwanda engaged in the following activities to introduce LAPMS and high-quality integrated family planning services in hospital and health centers:

• Health care providers from hospitals and health centers were trained on the clinical FP focusing on long-acting Methods (Implants and IUDs) for two weeks per session, with one week for theory and exercises on anatomic models and one week for practice on clients
• Physicians and counselors were trained on FP permanent methods: In total 22 district hospitals were trained on Tubal Ligation on local anesthesia (MINILAP) and 10 district hospitals trained on No Scalpel Vasectomy (NSV). The validation of trained staff and the post training follow will continue across the 2016-2017 year.