Rwanda Advocacy Agenda of People Living with NCDs

The Rwanda Advocacy Agenda of People Living with NCDs, built through a consultative process involving over 100 people living with NCDs in Rwanda, was launched in November 2021. In addition to virtual and in-person consultative activities, the Agenda draws from NCD Alliance’s Practical Guide for Building Advocacy Agendas of People Living with NCDs.

The consultative activities, which included 9 focus group discussions, took place with a broad range of people living with NCDs and their caregivers in the Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern provinces of Rwanda, including the city of Kigali, and were geared at collecting data about current challenges, priority asks and recommendations, with the hopes of enhancing meaningful involvement and the role of people living with NCDs in the Rwandan NCD response.

The project team, which consisted of a 5-person working group of people living with NCDs that was supported by three RNCDA team members, consolidated the reports from the consultative activities towards the development of the Advocacy Agenda. The key asks of people living with NCDs in Rwanda fall within the following four categories: human rights & social justice; prevention; treatment, care and support and meaningful involvement.

The launch of the Agenda was attended by Ministry of Health representative, Dr. Francois UWINKINDI, who applauded the outstanding work undertaken by people living with NCDs to bring together their lived experience and recommendations to decision-makers in his remarks. He said: “I would like to thank the network of people living with a diverse range of NCDs who contributed to the development of the Rwanda Advocacy Agenda of People Living with NCDs on behalf of the Ministry of Health. It is evident that all of the recommendations spotlighted are feasible. This advocacy tool will undoubtedly aid in the amplification of people living with NCDs and in the implementation of Rwanda's National Strategy and Costed Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases 2020-2025 by emphasising on key focus areas.”

Rwanda Advocacy Agenda of people living with NCDs will be a tool to support and guide key stakeholders' efforts to improve prevention and control of NCDs and call for decision-makers to take actions, which will positively impact the health of people living with NCDs through the amplification of their voices.