Four French lawmakers are in Rwanda since Wednesday on a four-day visit that is largely aimed at exploring ways how the two countries’ ties can be bolstered. After a closed meeting with Olivier Nduhungirehe, the State Minister for East African Community on Friday, February 7, the head of the visiting, Hugues Renson, told The New Times that they are specifically keen on the health sector. Renson who is vice-Chairperson of the French National Assembly and a member of the foreign affairs committee said they want to better understand the country’s public health policy. He said they want to understand the policy’s organisation and design, as well as the public health policy established to deal with infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. Lately, global health is considered to be one of France’s leading development priorities. Renson said: “We are working on this for two reasons; the first is that France is in the next month going to work on important development legislation and we are very interested, in France, because we need to reinforce multilateral development instruments; GAVI, for vaccination and UNITAID, a global health initiative that invests in innovations to prevent, diagnose and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.” Hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, UNITAID was established, in 2006, by the governments of Brazil, Chile, France, Norway, and the UK. It works with partners to bring about innovations to prevent, diagnose and treat major diseases in low- and middle-income countries, with an emphasis on tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS and its deadly co-infections. “We are here on the ground to see how a country like Rwanda which is exemplary in tackling these matters deployed the instruments in place.” Working hand in hand Renson said their second reason for visiting is to see how France and Rwanda can work hand in hand and look to the future together. “We are going to have good relations and we already held talks with the Minister of Health yesterday [Thursday] and now we are headed to parliament. I believe it is important we have good bilateral relations with mutual respect.” According to Nduhungirehe, the visit was organized by the Global Health Advocates, a French non-governmental organisation. The visitors on Thursday met officials at the Ministry of Health and discussed different projects – universal health coverage, financing for health, and visited the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) new campus in Burera District. Nduhungirehe said the lawmakers are also interested in the relations between the two countries which have improved significantly since the election of President Emmanuel Macron in 2017 “but which had also started to improve with President Nicolas Sarkozy.” He said: “We talked about how to continue improving those relations in various sectors. In the sector of health, there is that institute of research called ICARD that opened a center in Rwanda last year and there are other areas of cooperation.” ICARD, a renowned France based health institute specializing in minimally invasive surgery, opened its Africa center in Rwanda, in January last year. Tourism Nduhungirehe also noted that his discussions with the visitors also looked into how Rwanda can borrow a leaf from France regarding attracting tourists, considering that France “is the country which receives the most visitors, or tourists, on earth, and they have vast experience in the hotel industry and others and as such, we can work together.” “They really have experience and expertise in attracting tourists and accommodating them. So, it is also important to share with them and we started with the partnership with French Football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), one of the biggest clubs in Europe and France.” Last December, Rwanda and PSG announced a three-year sponsorship deal to promote brand Rwanda. The three-year deal will see local fashion and design, Rwandan art and culture, coffee and tea as well as tourist attractions gain visibility through the club.
