Dr. Rutabanzibwa-Ngaiza is a social scientist who has worked in the public health field for over 30 years.

After obtaining her Masters in Medical Demography from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), she worked as a planning officer with the Ministry of Health in Tanzania in the early 1980’s. She was one of the key figures involved in the first comprehensive evaluation of Tanzania’s health care system at the time.

Her particular focus on maternal and child health then led to her pursuit of a doctorate, from LSHTM, in Health Policy and Planning. Her thesis, based on field study in rural Swaziland, examined women’s participation in primary health care. She applied this knowledge in subsequent consultancies with UNICEF in New York and the World Bank in Washington DC where she worked on various programs and projects covering public health and gender issues in Mozambique, Uganda, South Africa, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and others.

While working in these respective countries, she realized that discussions held with the various parties would often be contentious enough to not result in the overall improvement of the health of the populations being studied. Because of this, she concluded that an added skill was required and this led to her recently re-tooling and acquiring a Master of Science in Conflict Resolution at Salisbury University in the US.