KDI School of Public Policy and Management, together with the KDIS Rwanda Alumni Association, hosted an online webinar titled “Strengthening Health Policy Systems in Africa: Lessons from Rwanda’s Leadership in Pandemic Preparedness.” The session drew 53 participants from Korea, Rwanda, and beyond to compare how the two countries have strengthened health security systems and to explore opportunities for future cooperation.

Moderated by Vincent Nkundimana, President of the KDIS Rwanda Alumni Association, the two-hour session brought together university leadership, diplomats, public health officials, international development practitioners, and KDI School alumni, highlighting the role of the School’s global alumni network in connecting policy practitioners across countries.

Two Paths to Preparedness

In his welcome remarks, Prof. Joon-Kyung Kim, Dean of KDI School, described Korea’s pandemic response through what he called the “3Ts”: Test, Trace, and Treatment. He traced Korea’s rapid testing capacity to institutional reforms introduced after the 2015 MERS outbreak, which strengthened coordination among regulators, laboratories, and private manufacturers. This groundwork enabled Korea to authorize its first commercial COVID-19 test on February 4, 2020, and rapidly expand testing capacity nationwide.

Dean Kim also highlighted legal reforms that enabled contact tracing using interview, credit-card, mobile-phone, and CCTV data, alongside anonymization safeguards designed to maintain public trust. He further linked Korea’s universal health insurance system, achieved in 1989, to the affordability and accessibility of treatment during the pandemic.

“Speed during a crisis comes from preparation before the crisis,” he noted, underscoring the importance of building institutional capacity well before an emergency occurs.

Delivering the keynote address, Mr. Claude Ganza, First Counselor of the Republic of Rwanda to the Republic of Korea, echoed this theme, stressing that resilient health systems must be built before crises strike. He reaffirmed Rwanda’s commitment to universal health coverage and identified medical education, digital health, and joint research as priority areas for deepening cooperation between Rwanda and Korea.

Prof. Taejong Kim of KDI School offered an analytical framework centered on technical preparedness, collective-action capacity, and careful evaluation of policy efficiency. He noted that Korea achieved low early mortality by effectively mobilizing its testing and administrative systems, while Rwanda achieved comparable early success with far fewer resources through rapid public mobilization and strong social coordination. He cautioned, however, that low mortality alone does not necessarily demonstrate the efficiency of a country’s policy response, emphasizing the need to consider both health and economic costs.

From Outbreak Response to a Regional Health Hub

Prof. Claude Muvunyi, Director General of the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, presented Rwanda’s Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Plan (REPP) and explained how surveillance systems developed during the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo were later adapted for COVID-19 and again for the 2024 Marburg virus and Mpox responses.

During Rwanda’s 2024 Marburg outbreak, diagnostic turnaround time was reduced to 12 hours following laboratory decentralization. More than 6,300 people were tested, over 1,700 were vaccinated, and community health workers reached approximately 4.8 million people nationwide. Looking ahead, Prof. Muvunyi described REPP as a long-term strategy running through 2040, with the ambition of positioning Rwanda as a regional pandemic innovation hub serving more than 300 million people.

Dr. Hyejin Jung, Director General of the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH), introduced a cooperation model built around four interconnected elements: people, systems, technology, and partnerships. She emphasized that sustainable results require all four elements to work together and that KOFIH’s comparative advantage lies in strengthening implementation capacity that remains after individual projects conclude.

As an example, she highlighted the Lee Jong-wook Fellowship, which has trained 1,864 participants from 36 countries, illustrating how investment in people can translate into lasting institutional capacity.

Dr. In-Kyu Yoon, Deputy Director General at the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), introduced the “Achieve Africa” initiative, which seeks to strengthen African-led vaccine research, development, and manufacturing capacity. The initiative supports the broader goal of achieving 60 percent regional vaccine self-sufficiency by 2040 through areas including technology transfer, workforce development, clinical research, and regulatory capacity building.

Toward Sustained Partnership

Following a panel discussion and audience Q&A, Dr. Emmanuel Munyemana, a KDI School alumnus and Social and Development Policy Specialist at UNICEF Rwanda, synthesized the discussion into five key takeaways: invest in health-sector governance, strengthen partnerships, mobilize diverse resources, leverage data and emerging technologies, and sustain long-term investment in people and institutions.

Closing remarks were delivered by Mr. Ganza, who emphasized the shared responsibility of turning dialogue into lasting cooperation.

The webinar demonstrated how KDI School’s global alumni network can serve as a platform for connecting Korean and African policy practitioners around shared development challenges. By bringing together alumni, policymakers, diplomats, and health experts, the event laid groundwork for continued cooperation between Korea and Rwanda on health systems strengthening while reinforcing KDI School’s role as a hub for policy dialogue and international knowledge exchange.