Official Handover of Equipment for the Reinforcement of Maternal & Child Health Services in Burundi
The official handover ceremony was chaired by Dr. Onesphore Nzigirabarya, Assistant to the Minister of Health, in presence of Amb. Masahiro Imai, Ambassador of Japan to Burundi, and Nathalie Meyer, the Deputy Representative of UNICEF in Burundi.
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The Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS received equipment, from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and UNICEF, as part of the project "Reinforcement of Maternal and Child Health Services in 4 Provinces of Burundi, 2018-2021". The official handover ceremony was chaired by Dr. Onesphore Nzigirabarya, Assistant to the Minister of Health, in presence of Amb. Masahiro Imai, the Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Burundi, and Nathalie Meyer, the Deputy Representative of UNICEF in Burundi.
This JICA-UNICEF project, funded by JICA funds, served to build the capacity health providers on maternal, neonatal and child health, strengthen community-based care and improve birth registrations. It also served to provide, to 55 health facilities, among others the following items: oxygen concentrators, incubators, phototherapy devices, anesthesia machine, theater operating tables, vacuum extractor, ultrasound scanner, maternity and surgical kits, etc.
The Assistant of the MSPLS, Dr. Onesphore Nzigirabarya, addressed a speech of gratitude to the audience on behalf of the Ministry: "I would like to express my real pleasure at this moment for the official reception of equipment for 12 hospitals and 33 health centers in the provinces of Kirundo, Cankuzo, Rutana and Ngozi’’, he said.
UNICEF Burundi Deputy Representative, Nathalie Meyer, noted with satisfaction that the project has achieved the results expected from the beginning, according to the results of the latest evaluation. "For three years, the project has targeted more than 200,000 pregnant women and 800,000 children under the age of five, each year’’, she explained. Nathalie Meyer was particularly pleased that the JICA-UNICEF project contributed to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and is in line with the reinforcement of the health system in Burundi through the improvement of the technical platform of health facilities and services at community level.
In his speech, the Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Burundi, Masahiro Imai, hightlighted the great importance that Japan attaches to health, especially mother and child health. ‘’This is part of the actions for the improvement of basic social services, one of the three pillars of Japan's cooperation policy whose global objective is to accompany Burundi to achieve sustainable economic growth and social development”, he said.
Ambassador Masahiro Imai announced that the year 2022 marks the 60th anniversary of friendly relations between Japan and Burundi. "This year, the 8th edition of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) will be held in August. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Japan will accelerate its commitments to Burundi, particularly in the area of health", he added.
The donation of this batch of equipment, worth USD 453,000, to the Ministry of Public Health is the second of its kind, after the one in October 2021.
