Publication: Community-Based Health Insurance in Rwanda
Date
2005-11
ISSN
Published
2005-11
Author(s)
Pathé Diop, Francois
Butera, Jean Damascene
Abstract
Rwanda has lived one of the most tragic
moments of its history with the genocide of 1994, which
resulted in nearly one million deaths, and the destruction
of the social fabric of the country. Mutual aid and
community solidarity value systems have remained resilient
traits of Rwanda's society, and continue to be
translated in coping strategies in the health care area.
After the 1994 war, however, mutual aid initiatives have
emerged in the health sector as community responses to the
reintroduction of user-fees in public, and mission health
facilities. Building on these community initiatives, health
authorities, and non-government organizations have moved
these emerging strategies to a deliberate strategy of
building community-based health insurance schemes in the
health sector. Community-based health insurance schemes
(CBHI) provided also a platform for the compilation of
information to support the assessment of CBHI schemes, and
to familiarize health sector actors, and partners with the
strategies needed to support their implementation on a large
scale. CBHI schemes in Rwanda are health insurance
organizations based on a partnership between the community
and health care providers. As consensus built-up on the
benefits of the CBHI schemes, a multi-level leadership
developed in the country to provide support to the
adaptation, and extension of the schemes. Political leaders
at the central level, starting from the Presidency, called
for the mobilization of all actors to support the
implementation of CBHI schemes throughout the country.
Citation
“Pathé Diop, Francois; Butera, Jean Damascene. 2005. Community-Based Health Insurance in Rwanda. Africa Region Findings & Good Practice Infobriefs; No. 256. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/4189bd55-5361-58fe-8909-cd77d92b7c70 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”