{"id":2583,"date":"2013-08-16T10:21:52","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T10:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulkagame.com\/_test_&#038;web\/?p=2583"},"modified":"2017-07-15T10:26:57","modified_gmt":"2017-07-15T10:26:57","slug":"president-kagames-remarks-at-the-clinton-health-access-initiative-chai-joint-partnership-on-nutrition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/?p=2583","title":{"rendered":"PRESIDENT KAGAME&#8217;S REMARKS AT THE CLINTON HEALTH ACCESS INITIATIVE (CHAI) JOINT PARTNERSHIP ON NUTRITION  INITIATIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>Kigali, 5 August 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>President Bill Clinton and Ms. Chelsea Clinton;<\/p>\n<p>Leaders of our Country present here;<\/p>\n<p>Representatives of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and Clinton Global Initiative;<\/p>\n<p>Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;<\/p>\n<p>It is my great pleasure to welcome you again to Rwanda, President Bill Clinton, your daughter Chelsea, and members of your delegation. I also want to assure you that here in Rwanda you are always amongst family and friends.<\/p>\n<p>The Rwandan people appreciate your support and partnership in various initiatives that have contributed to their wellbeing and the development of our country. These include care and treatment for people living with HIV\/AIDS, upgrading our laboratory systems, health financing, fighting against acute malnutrition, and most recently, the programme to improve our medical education and health management.<\/p>\n<p>Today, we are delighted to start a new partnership to combat chronic malnutrition.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">In Rwanda we have made significant progress in achieving food security; what we have to focus on is to ensure that there is also nutrition security. We are convinced that combating malnutrition effectively should be part and parcel of poverty reduction and economic development. In any case, at this point in time, malnutrition is unacceptable in Rwanda, and indeed anywhere else in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\"> This partnership, therefore, comes at an opportune moment when we are launching our second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy. The plant to manufacture fortified baby foods will ensure that infants and pregnant and lactating women in Rwanda have access to healthy, nutritious food all year round. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">Furthermore, it will serve as an engine for economic development because it will use locally produced foods such as maize, soy beans and milk, all purchased from small holder farmers, thereby increasing their incomes and improving their livelihoods.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">There is no doubt that it will also lead to improved agricultural productivity through low cost financing, the purchase of seeds and fertilisers, and through modern harvesting, sorting and storage techniques. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">Mr President;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">I am pleased to say that this initiative comes as a complement to ongoing national programmes such as Girinka, whereby Government and individual citizens have donated around 170,000 cows to poor families. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">The Government has also put in place a programme to provide free milk to 80,000 school children in the poorest areas of our country. In addition, households have been encouraged to set up kitchen gardens for vegetables with a view to improving their dietary needs. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">In all this, we are keenly aware that to achieve nutritional security requires coordinated action by different partners: Government, philanthropic organisations, multilateral agencies, the private sector and civil society. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">This particular initiative illustrates the kind of partnership that will have greater impact, and this is the way for the future. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">We should also emphasize here that the factory that will be producing the fortified nutritious food will benefit many more people in our region, leading to the elimination of hunger and malnutrition and improving livelihoods. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">The Government of Rwanda is fully committed to this project and we wish to assure you, President Clinton \u2013 and our other partner, the World Food Programme \u2013 that we will do everything possible to ensure that it is a success. Rwandans certainly stand to gain most from it and, as pioneers, the success of this initiative will spur the growth of similar ventures in other countries with the same nutritional needs. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%;\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Cambria','serif';\">I thank you all for your kind attention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kigali, 5 August 2013 President Bill Clinton and Ms. Chelsea Clinton; Leaders of our Country present here; Representatives of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and Clinton Global Initiative; Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen; It is my great pleasure to welcome you again to Rwanda, President Bill Clinton, your daughter Chelsea, and members of your delegation. I also want to assure you that here in Rwanda you are always amongst family and friends. The Rwandan people appreciate your support and partnership in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speech"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6467,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583\/revisions\/6467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}