[{"bbox": [79, 104, 1151, 399], "category": "Text", "text": "to build capacity across the National Statistical System and to consolidate its efforts in building its reputation with better dissemination of its products and better communication. The lesson which may be applied for this program is that a comprehensive capacity building program should be applied both to more and less experienced institutions in Rwanda. As regards regional projects, the particular focus should be on the Regional Project on Peace and Security for Stability in the Great Lakes Region under 11 EDF. The main objective is to increase credibility of the Manual of the Regional Certification Mechanism (RCM), to reduce its implementation costs, to provide clarity on the requirements, to increase efficiency, to better align the RCM with the OECD standards, to clarify roles and responsibilities and to provide for appropriate checks and balances. The lessons learnt are of particular importance for the forthcoming support to RMB and aligning with EU and OECD standards for responsible mineral sourcing. Moreover, the action will seek complementarity with the regional project, especially in the field of mineral certification and digitalisation of licensing processes."}, {"bbox": [79, 408, 1151, 809], "category": "Text", "text": "With regards to local manufacturing of vaccines, support granted to Rwanda has been scarce up to 2021. WHO Rwanda took part in several activities to help build capacity for RFDA to become more self-sustainable and effective. The first benchmarking activity that WHO Rwanda helped conduct in 2018 assessed the maturity level of the regulatory institution. At the end of the assessment, 136 recommendations were identified in an Institutional Development Plan (IDP) to move the institution from maturity level 1 to maturity level 3. Following this, WHO facilitated the establishment and convening of several partners to work implementation of the plan, among which USAID. The latter notably provided limited training to RFDA inspectors on basic good manufacturing practices and will provide more advanced training in the future. Despite being a young organisation, RFDA has been able to license 17 pharmaceutical manufacturing companies (four big and 13 small-scale), more than 700 retail and wholesale pharmacies, and has been able to approve more than 4000 human and veterinary medicines up to February 2021. This shows absorption capacities and relevance in granting further support in the framework of local manufacturing of vaccines. The action also integrates conclusions from several analyses³ made on the potential for vaccine manufacturing in Africa, which highlighted the need to work on regulatory strengthening, talent and know how, demand certainty, access to finance and agenda setting and coordination. The proposed action will focus on the first two axis, which require more grant-based support, in a staged approach (short to mid-term support)."}, {"bbox": [71, 1637, 963, 1664], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³ In particular, 'Vaccine manufacturing in Africa – comprehensive analysis, FCDO, January, 2021.'"}, {"bbox": [1041, 1664, 1158, 1687], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 13 of 28"}]