In February 2020 a stakeholder meeting was held where representatives from NVVH and RCVD identified gaps and needs regarding animal welfare in continuous professional development (CPD) training for veterinarians and VPPs and compiled animal welfare training materials accordingly. In the following years national official CPD guidelines have been elaborated and approved by RCVD in December 2023. Credits earned from CPD are the sole basis for renewal of annual licensing for vets and VPPs. NVVH has officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Rwanda Council of Veterinary Doctors (RCVD) to train veterinary practitioners. 

The VETS UNITED programme in Rwanda started in 2020. It was based on the Train-the-Trainer-Concept and focused on Animal Welfare CPD workshops for veterinarians and VPPs. During the pilot project phase veterinarians and VPPs in 5 districts were trained as trainers by the veterinarians from NVVH in the selected animal welfare topics. In total 51 sector veterinarians have been trained as trainers in 5 workshops from Oct 2020 to Sept 2021. Every workshop (3 days) consisted of a theory session (1 day) and a practical session (2 days). In 2022/2023 the trained veterinarians trained other veterinarians and VPPs in their respective district. Initially it was planned for all 51 sector veterinarians to continue as trainers and for each veterinarian to train others within his/her district, but the Rwanda Council of Veterinary Doctors has not been able to take over the workshops as hoped due to lack of funding. Also, the nationwide CPD system was not yet in place at this point. Therefore, it was decided to choose 15 out of the 51 trained vets to support NVVH in conducting accredited animal welfare CPD workshops. In addition, these 15 vets advise other vets, VPPs and community animal health workers through groups/platforms where they can ask questions or share cases. In December 2023 the national CPD guidelines were approved and NVVH accredited as official CPD provider. As official CPD provider NVVH in collaboration with the trained veterinarians offers accredited CPD courses for veterinarians and VPPs countrywide. The courses cover large animal disease diagnose medicine, small animal medicine and small animal tissue surgery. All courses include animal welfare aspects.