Yves Didier Umwungerimwiza

"Yves Didier Umwungerimwiza has over 17 years of experience in Food and public health nutrition related aspects. Currently he is serving as a Lecturer in the Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Public Health at the University of Rwanda. The current research interests of Mr. Umwungerimwiza include Food systems for Health and Sustainable Diets. Mr Umwungerimwiza has pioneered the conception and development of the then new program of Human Nutrition and Dietetics in 2010 at the former Kigali Health Institute (now UR-CMHS) and he became the first head of the department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics from November 2010 to December 2011 when he left for further studies. Umwungerimwiza has also served as leading member of the M&E committee of the Rwanda Nutritionists Society (2016-2019). Other Past roles of Mr. Umwungerimwiza include working with private sector organizations, NGOs as well as Donor organizations. Those roles include working with community organizations such as COCOF (Conseil Consultatif des Femmes) in developing feasibility study for soybean value chain. Umwungerimwiza has been part of leading teams in conducting different researches and surveys and these includes the STEPS Survey 2022 on non-communicable diseases risk factors in Rwanda (with partners like RBC, UR, WHO and ENABEL) and the Assessment of market-based and cross-border early childhood development (ECD) centers in Rwanda 2023 (with UR, NCDA and UNICEF). Since June 2024, Mr Umwungerimwiza is a member of the Advisory Board of the Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) Project on the Rwandan side. NICE Project is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It focuses on six initial secondary cities in Bangladesh, Kenya, and Rwanda to improve health and nutrition and contribute to reducing poverty for populations of city regions, especially women, youth and vulnerable groups. Since 2023, Mr. Umwungerimwiza is a Rwanda focal person of the Learning Network on Nutrition Surveillance (LeNNS), which is an initiative for fostering learning and exchange of information and practices on nutrition surveillance among experts from public and research institutions, as well as their partners involved in nutrition programming and surveillance. "