UGHE, as part of the consortium led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), has won a USAID grant of approximately 1.3 million USD over a 5-year period on Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) in Rwanda. 

The consortium, including CRS, Humanity & Inclusion (HI), Umuhuza, Three Stones International (TSI), and UGHE, has the collective expertise in nutrition, early childhood development (ECD), rehabilitation and assistive technology (AT), disability inclusion, and capacity strengthening will support the Government of Rwanda (GoR) in helping every Rwandan child realize their potential in line with GoR ECD policies, the mandates of the National Child Development Agency (NCDA), and USAID’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy.

For FY22, UGHE INECD Team successfully completed some of the research projects such as the Stunting Analysis Study, and its symposium took place this quarter to disseminate study results. Additionally, the team has conducted a training needs assessment of training materials (Village Nutrition School) which will be adopted by the Nutrition technical working group.  For FY23, 4 research projects are being implemented in parallel, and the findings will be disseminated in the annual symposium. Those research projects are taking place in 7 districts of Rwanda, and are mainly targeting young children, pregnant and lactating mothers, and persons with disabilities.

UGHE is overseeing robust learning agenda, including formative assessments and research. To ensure the project team and stakeholders are aware of the project and global learning.  UGHE and CRS are facilitating annual learning sessions. UGHE is leading evidence generation to help address knowledge gaps in the project’s ToC (Theory of Change) and enhance evidence of what works in Rwanda. In total, UGHE will conduct 20 research projects, i.e., 4 research projects per year. UGHE will host one research symposium per year to share findings.  With technical guidance from UGHE on curriculum review and revision and in close consultation with NCDA, the advisors will customize the training materials and solicit approval from relevant technical working groups to respond to the current service standards and skills required for inclusive nutrition and ECD care. 

For part two of the project, UGHE will help drive learning and adaptation by applying implementation science techniques and leveraging its network of students and faculty to test INECD’s models. UGHE will leverage its institutional influence, capability, and experience to engage relevant national entities (e.g., the University of Rwanda) to integrate best practices and evidence for nutrition, ECD, and disability inclusion models into pre-service training curricula. UGHE will lead evidence generation, including primary data collection, analysis, documentation, and dissemination.

With technical guidance from UGHE on curriculum review and revision and in close consultation with NCDA, the advisors will customize the training materials and solicit approval from relevant technical working groups to respond to the current service standards and skills required for inclusive nutrition and ECD care.  UGHE’s pedagogy expertise will help innovate quality, cost-effective, COVID-19-adapted training options (e-learning videos, certificate courses, etc.) for continued professional development and will support collaboration with the University of Rwanda through the national curriculum committee to strengthen preservice training. 

As described in more detail in the MEAL section, UGHE will conduct research to determine factors affecting the uptake and quality of disability-inclusive services. UGHE and Three Stones International (TSI) will facilitate community conversations on barriers and enablers of nurturing care.

Cross-Cutting Considerations

Evidence-based design. INECD will leverage existing evidence, contribute knowledge and apply emerging learning to adapt our work. Our design builds on global evidence and our team’s extensive Rwandan experience. UGHE will oversee a robust learning agenda, including formative assessments and research. To ensure the project team and stakeholders are aware of the project and global learning, UGHE and CRS will facilitate annual learning sessions.

UGHE will lead evidence generation to help address knowledge gaps in the project’s ToC (Theory of Change) and enhance evidence of what works in Rwanda. UGHE will conduct 10 faculty-led research projects (two per year) and 10 student-led research projects (two per year). UGHE will host one research symposium per year to share findings.