Health & Nutrition

IMPROVING MATERNAL, NEWBORN AND CHILD HEALTH

Rwanda has made remarkable progress in improving its health indicators in the last decade, including, but not limited to, increased access to healthcare, a reduction in infant mortality from 86 to 50 per 1000, and improved immunization coverage. Despite these achievements, the quality of the healthcare remains generally low, and infant, under-five, and maternal mortality still remain high.

Save the Children is a partner of USAID's Maternal and Child Survival Programme, to support the Ministry of Health in reducing child and maternal mortality through increased coverage and utilization of high-impact low cost reproductive maternal, newborn and child health interventions.

We are contributing to the reduction in preventable maternal and new-born deaths in 10 districts of Rwanda. Even since, Neonatal Mortality rate reduced from 50 to 20 per 1000 live births between 2010 and 2017 translating to a reduced mortality rate from 1.1% to 0.8% (MCSP Report, 2017). The MCSP program is also contributing to the provision of capac­ity building and Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) to district health providers.

The programme targets community health workers and communities through SBCC, training, and mentorship. At central level, MCSP is supporting the Ministry of Health to update strategic documents, protocols, and guidelines on new-borns.