Agnes Binagwaho

Early life and education

Professor Binagwaho was born in Nyamagabe, Southern Province, Rwanda. When she was three years old, she and her family moved to Belgium where her father was completing his medical degree.

She completed her medical degree (MD) in General Medicine at the Université libre de Bruxelles from 1976-1984 and her master's degree in Pediatrics (MA) at the Universite de Bretagne Occidentale from 1989-1993. In 2010, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (Hon. D.Sc.) from Dartmouth College in the United States. In 2014, she became the first person to be awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) from the College of Business and Economics at the University of Rwanda. Her PhD dissertation was titled, "Children's Right to Health in the Context of the HIV Epidemic: The Case of Rwanda."

To increase her skills in health service delivery, research, and program management, she completed a number of academic certificates. She earned a Certificate of Tropical Medicine from the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Anvers, Belgium, between 1984 and 1985. At the University de Bretagne Occidentale she completed three certificates: a Certificate in Axiology (General Emergencies) (1991-1992); a Certificate in Pediatric Emergencies (1992-1993); and a Certificate in HIV Patient Care and Treatment (1994-1995). From July to August 1997, she completed a training program in AIDS prevention and surveillance studies in Kigali through the World AIDS Foundation, hosted by the University of New Mexico School of Medicine's Health Sciences Center. From November 2009 to April 2010, she completed a certificate in Health and Human Rights - Dimensions and Strategies with InWEnt - Capacity Building International (Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung gGmbH) and the World Health Organization. She was also awarded a Social and Behavioral Research Investigators Certificate by the US-based organization Citi Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative.

Current activities

Since April 1, 2017, Professor Binagwaho has been the Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda.

Since 2008, Professor Binagwaho has been a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is currently also a Professor of the Practice of Global Health Delivery at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda and an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.

Boards and commissions

She is a member of several boards, foundations and journals combating AIDS and infant mortality, including the African Advisory Board of the Steven Lewis Foundation, the Advisory Board of the Friends of the Global Fund Africa, and the Advisory Committee of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

Since 2010, she has served as a member of the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries. She is also a member of the Global He@lth Innovative Task Force. She sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Health and Human Rights and on the editorial board for the Public Library of Science. She also serves on the International Strategic Advisory Board for the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London In addition, she is an Advisory Committee Member of the Disease Control Priorities 3 (DCP3).

She also serves on multiple Lancet Commissions, including the Lancet-O'Neill Institute Georgetown University Commission on Global Health and Law, the Harvard Global Equity Initiative - Lancet Commission on Global Access to Pain Control and Palliative Care, the Lancet Commission for the Future of Health in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission, and the Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission: Reframing NCDs and Injuries of the Poorest Billion .

Her former positions

In September of 2016, Professor Binagwaho was appointed as Professor of the Practice of Global Health Delivery for the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Kigali, Rwanda.

Professor Binagwaho served as the Minister of Health of Rwanda from May 2011 until July 2016. On July 12, 2016, after 5 years of dedicated service, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame relieved her of her duties as Minister of Health. Prior to this, she served as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Rwanda from October 2008 to May 2011 and as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission from 2002–2008.

From 2013 to 2015, she was a member of the International Advisory Board for Lancet Global Health Journal. From 2012 to 2014, she served as a Commission Member on the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health, co-chaired by Dean Jamison and Larry Summers. This Commission’s work is summarized in the Global Health 2035 Report, published in 2013. During this period, she also served on the Lancet Commission for Women and Health, which published the "Women and Health: The key for sustainable development" Report in June 2015.

She also served on the United Nations Tracking and Accountability Working Group, co-chairing with Margaret Biggs (CIDA) and Margaret Chan (WHO) and reporting to the Director General of the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. She was also a member of the Join Action Plan for Women’s and Children’s Health this same year as a Member of the Innovation Working Group, which also reported to United Nation’s Director General Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

She has also held multiple national and international positions supporting the management of funds from The Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. She first served as a member of The Global Fund's Rwanda Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) from 2002-2008. Then, during her time as Permanent Secretary of the Rwanda Ministry of Health from 2008 to 2011, she also served as the Chair of The Global Fund's CCM. Finally, from 2009 to 2010, she served as a Member of the Fund's Policy and Strategy Committee from 2009 to 2010.

From 2006–2009, she co-chaired the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS (JLICA), an independent alliance of researchers, implementers, policymakers, activists, and people living with HIV. JLICA has had an influence on how important global players, such as PEPFAR and the Global Fund, allocate funds for orphans and vulnerable children today. Between 2006 and 2008, she was a Member of the Rwandan High Level Implementation Committee of the Aid Policy. From 2004 until 2009, she also served as a member of the Steering Committee for the Multi-Country Support Program on SSR/HIV/AIDS and of the Advisory Body of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

During the time that she served as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission from 2002–2008, she was also the chair of the Rwandan Steering Committee for the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In addition, she was responsible for the management of the World Bank MAP Project in Rwanda.

In 2004, she also served on the Health Advisory Board for Time magazine.

From 2002 until 2011, she was a Founding Board Member of the Tropical Institute of the Community Health and Development in Africa, based in Kismu, Kenya.

From 2001 until 2005, she also held the position of Co-Chair of the United Nations Task Force of Millennium Development Goals Project for HIV/AIDS and Access to Essential Medicines, under the leadership of Jeffrey Sachs for the Secretary General of the United Nations.

Medical career

Professor Binagwaho began her clinical practice in Belgium and France, where she completed her medical education. She specialized in pediatrics, emergency medicine, and the treatment of HIV/AIDS in children and adults. She worked intensely in neonatology and, when she returned to Rwanda in 1996, she served clinically in public hospitals for four years.

Research and activism

With a focus on research in the intersection of health, social, and political sciences, her studies and publications aim to improve access to prevention, care and treatment for HIV/AIDS and other diseases. She actively fights for children's rights and equality in Rwanda and around the world. She is at the vanguard of the fight against HIV/AIDS, striving to find effective methodologies to advance interventions to diminish and eliminate the burden of the disease. Her PhD Dissertation focused on the analysis of missed opportunities for children affected by HIV to fulfill their human right to health.

Honors and awards

In 2013, Binagwaho delivered the University College London Lancet Lecture Series In 2015, she was the Honorary David E. Barmes Global Health Lecturer through the National Institute of Health and presented the lecture, "David E. Barmes Global Health Lecture: Medical Research and Capacity Building for Development: The Experience of Rwanda."

In 2015, she received two awards: the 2015 Roux Prize through the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) for her use of Global Burden of Disease Study data to reduce infant mortality in Rwanda, and the Ronald McDonald House Charities Award of Excellence for her contribution to improving the health of children.

Publications

Professor Binagwaho has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. The full list of her publications can be found on her Blog: http://dr-agnes.blogspot.com/

Twitter/SMS discussions: #MinisterMondays

In October 2011, Professor Binagwaho launched a series of online discussions through Twitter on topics related to global health policy and Rwanda's national health sector. Twitter users from around Rwanda and the world joined her in biweekly discussions on topics such as family planning policy in Africa, building a national health sector, the introduction of new vaccines, cross-sectoral policies to combat malnutrition, combatting substandard and counterfeit medicines, and the role of national and international institutions in global health using the hashtag #MinisterMondays. In December 2011, she partnered with the Rwandan-American ICT company Nyaruka to allow Rwandans who did not have access to the Internet to contribute questions and comments to #MinisterMondays discussions via SMS.