Dr. Christian Ntizimira, MD, MMSc-GHD has trained in the United States of America at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Palliative Care. He also trained as an African Pain Policy Expert at the University of Wisconsin. Ntizimira was named Young Cancer Leader by the Union for International Cancer Control in 2016 and Distinguished Young Leader by the Harvard Global Health Catalyst in 2017.
In 2018 he became the first advocacy/policy champion among extraordinary individuals who are making a significant contribution Dr. Christian Ntizimira is the Founder/Executive Director of the African Center for Research on End-of-Life Care (ACREOL), a non-profit organization to bring socio-cultural equality through “Ubuntu in End-of-life Care” in Africa. He is a Fulbright Alumni and graduated from Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. Dr. Ntizimira is also an alumnus from the Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership programme, which aims to bring selected Africans to strategize, manage and lead public health programs that will transform public health in Africa.
Dr. Ntizimira is the winner of the prestigious Tällberg-Stervos Niarcos Foundation-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize 2021, for his passionate advocacy for palliative care in Rwanda and elsewhere in Africa, based on his deeply held belief that dignified end-of-life care is a human right. He pioneered the integration of palliative care and end-of-life care into health services rendered to Rwandan cancer patients and in community settings. In 2011, he received a fellowship award to study palliative care education and practice in the United States to develop palliative care in low- and middle-income countries for World Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA). From 2010–13, he was the director of Kibagabaga Hospital in Kigali. He has advised several governments on national palliative care policy, including Burundi, Rwanda, and Senegal, on access to palliative care services. Ntizimira graduated in medicine from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Rwanda.