The Ministry has also introduced a new program entitled Human Resources for Health (HRH) which launches this July. The programme aims to bridge the skills' gap within the sector and to promote the development of a high quality and sustainable healthcare system.

According to the Ministry, the HRH program will enable to establish a critical number of highly skilled professionals to ensure access to quality health services for people at all levels of the health system, from the referral hospitals to the community level.

Through HRH the number, quality, and skill level of Rwandan clinicians and health sciences educators, including medical doctors, nurses and midwives, as well as oral health professionals will dramatically increase.

It is expected that during its seven year time frame, the HRH program will increase the number of physicians and specialists in areas such as internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, surgery, and anesthesiology.

It will also substantially advance the levels of nurses and midwives by increasing the number of nurses and midwives with recognized credentials and increase the number of trained health managers.

For this programme, the Ministry of Health sought partnership with an academic group of foreign institutions of higher learning to close this gap.

These academics will transfer the expertise necessary to create qualified health managers and medical assistants.

The foreign lecturers and mentors will work hand-in-hand with the existing institutions and faculties in the country to strengthen the programme which.

Within the seven years, the programme will produce at least 50 managers so that there can be at least one manager at each of the 44 district hospitals. It will also place one Medical Assistant at each of the 500 health centers in Rwanda.