President Kagame (4th left) and the foundation’s delegation at Village Urugwiro
President Paul Kagame received a delegation from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation to discuss ways of strengthening health systems in Africa.
The meeting was held at Village Urugwiro this December 12, 2024 with the foundation delegation led by Professor Dr. Senait Fisseha, the Director of Global programs at the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation.
“They discussed the foundation’s work to strengthen health systems in Africa,” the President’s Office said on X.
In 2019, Fisseha jointly met with President Kagame and the First Lady Jeannette Kagame, where the latter shared Rwanda’s vision and actions to ensure Health For All as a backbone of economic development and prosperity through community engagement.
Some of these include Rwanda’s push for Universal Health Care (UHC) and bringing healthcare initiatives to the lowest level of the community such as primary health care (PHC) and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) among others.
Rwanda has previously (in August 2020) signed a host country agreement with the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation paving the way for establishing an Africa office in Rwanda.
In 2023, the First Lady, Jeannette Kagame received Professor Fisseha, who doubles as the Chief Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), to discuss matters related to sustainable development of communities especially best practices to contribute to the sustainable development of our communities, for healthy living.
The Foundation Health Agenda:
President Kagame chairing the meeting with the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation delegation.
The foundation has also had several engagements in health on the continent.
For instance, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation have previously announced a partnership to strengthen sexual and reproductive health epidemiology in Africa
This initiative is aimed at building the next generation of global south champions for the health of women and girls.
The planned Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation- Africa office is expected to support governments in their efforts to build health systems by aligning funding with the priorities of the governments of the countries in which the foundation has operations.
Part of the delegation from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation
