The Military citizen outreach program on Health Security in Rwanda: a case of Rwanda Military Hospital in Bugesera District 2009-2018

Abstract

Traditionally, the role of military was limited to activities related to protection of national boundaries and territorial integrity in order to prevent nations from foreign aggression. However, this concept has recently changed and the term security has broadened to encompass issues of human security to encompass health security. For decades there has been considerable participation of military in different activities directly contributing to national development in addition to their primary role of preserving national boundaries. Available study shows that the involvement of the military role in health security has a long and dynamic history. Moreover, the military effort to preserve health of population can also be viewed in its emergency activities towards disaster management. In addition to humanitarian assistance activities conducted, military medical personnel also have demonstrated an irresistible effort in fighting against diseases. The concept of health security was given more importance from 1990s to a new mindset concerning a tremendous rising and intensification in contagious diseases. However the relationship between health security and national security is not commonly understood. In Rwanda, the contribution of the military in health security programs and other social economic development activities can be viewed through “RDF Citizen Outreach Program,” previously executed as “Army Week” established in 2009 a government initiative to reinforce health measures that was in place since the devastation of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. The aim of this research is to assess the RDF outreach program on health security in Rwanda a study of Rwanda Military Hospital (RMH) in Bugesera District towards sustainable human security and development. The research will make key findings with a view to providing reasoned answers to research questions and make recommendations to improve the RDF citizens outreach program. The research will show that although RDF outreached has made impressive achievements, there are underlying challenges that leadership must address as requisite to make RDF Citizens‟ Outreach Program more effective. The research will recommend some possible strategies to the stakeholders as the surer courses of action towards making RDF Citizen Outreach‟s program more plausible for sustainable health security.