SNV has partnered with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to implement the USAID Integrated Nutrition and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Activity (INWA) programme in Rwanda, also known as the Gikuriro programme.

The primary purpose of the five year INWA program, starting in 2016, is to improve the nutritional status of women of reproductive age and children under five years, with emphasis on the 1,000 day window of opportunity from pregnancy until a child’s second birthday. The program is designed to support the government’s efforts to combat malnutrition in Rwanda. INWA will focus on community-level service delivery interventions and on district level capacity development.

The role of CRS will be the core nutrition activities, whereas SNV is responsible for the WASH activities linked to nutrition in the program. "This partnership is a meeting of minds - nobody knows nutrition better than CRS, and nobody knows WASH like we (SNV) do - and we are confident that the program will yield tremendous results,” Monique Zwiers, former WASH sector leader, told SNV staff gathered to celebrate the new program.

The strategy behind INWA is to reinforce the Rwandan government's nutrition and WASH efforts, to mobilize civil society and the private sector to accelerate progress toward the national goal of eliminating malnutrition. Malnutrition is a key priority in Rwanda where an estimated 22% of child deaths between 2008 and 2012 were directly associated with under-nutrition. This due to inter-related factors including insufficient knowledge and practice of key nutrition and WASH principles, small parcels of farmland and low household income.

Rwanda’s Ministry of Health (MoH) is currently running two community-based programs, the Community Based Food and Nutrition program (CBF&NP) and the Community Based Environmental Health Program (CBEHPP), both aimed at eliminating malnutrition. INWA will integrate both programs and build capacity from national to village level.

The INWA program comes right after the newly launched Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and addresses goals number 2 and 6 at once. Goal number 2 forecasts zero hunger while number 6 advocates for clean water and sanitation for all by the year 2030.