Mission and Vision

The mission of the School of Public Health is to improve the health status of the population of Rwanda through graduate education and in-service training; research and service; and to become a Center of Excellence in the Great Lakes region for distance education and complex emergency/disaster management studies.

During this five year period, 2001-2005, the plan of action will emphasize the development of an institutional infrastructure to realize the school's mission together with a training and applied research strategy that will address the immediate needs in Rwanda to rapidly put in place an effective and efficient decentralized health system. Education/training and research programs will be practical and emphasize scale. The school will employ interdisciplinary and interdepartmental approaches and will leverage information technology to achieve national level impact on the health system.

The school will catalyze the development of a regional Center of Excellence within the University for the management of the health effects of disasters and complex emergencies. Initially, the school will serve as a focal point for "best practices" identification and dissemination and it will establish collaborative research with international universities that are funded by international research centers.