Located in East Africa, Rwanda is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley with an estimated population of nearly 13 million. Since Rwanda adopted a universal healthcare coverage model, it has made huge strides in providing care through its community-based health insurance scheme, Mutuelles de Sante.  

The community-based health insurance scheme was established to reduce cost barriers to accessing treatment, with members only paying 10% of the total bill for treatment at local medical facilities. Over the first decade of Mutuelles de Sante, findings showed that coverage reached more than 90% of the population, out-of-pocket payments for health were reduced from 28% to 12% of the total health expenditure, and service use was increased to 1-8 contacts per year.

In 2022, there were an estimated 7,000 new cancer cases in Rwanda, and nearly 5,000 deaths from cancer. Breast cancer was the second most frequent cancer among women in 2022, making up 20% of new cancer cases, and is the second leading cause of women’s deaths related to cancer.

In 2012, the Ministry of Health in collaboration with Partners In Health established the first comprehensive cancer centre in East Africa, the Butaro Cancer Centre of Excellence (BCCOE).

With the establishment of BCCOE and the release of the National Cancer Control Plan in 2020, Rwanda is well-situated for this collaborative effort to enhance breast cancer surgical care using a value-based healthcare model.